- Before diving further into the why and when
of Venture Design, let's look at an example
of it being put to use by FROG
in collaboration with an early-stage startup.
In early 2014, we were approached
by a seed-stage startup named IdeaShaper.
There were three founders,
a powerful vision, and an early engineering prototype.
What you're looking at here is an innovative solution
to moving the base plate beneath the print head
in a 3D printer.
Now, what you may not realize unless you've recently
disassembled a 3D printer, is that this motion
is being accomplished with about one third
of the parts typically required.
This decrease in complexity greatly increases
the accuracy and reliability of the machine,
while also dramatically reducing its cost.
The founders' vision was to create the first,
truly accessible consumer 3D printer,
and to empower a new level of creativity
and making in our homes and schools.
They knew that the affordability they could achieve
with their engineering innovations
was only one component of the accessibility
they needed to be truly differentiated.
They needed the product to be easy enough to use,
that anyone could pull it out of the box
and just start making, then build
on their skills from there.
With this in mind, their vision included
launching a full marketplace of designs
that were tested and optimized to print effortlessly
on their printer.
Much as Apple launched iTunes as a music library
to accompany the iPod, it created a no-fuss,
hardware and software content ecosystem.
The consumer 3D printing market was beginning
to heat up, and the team needed to get to market fast.
We began by building out the underlying business model
and go-to market strategy to drive the insights
and requirements that would inform our later design-work.
With this in hand, we kicked off
three tracks of work in parallel:
We renamed and rebranded the company,
from IdeaShaper to New Matter.
We developed the industrial design of the flagship printer,
and we did the initial design of the digital ecosystem,
including the content marketplace and printing app.
A very short six weeks after we started our collaboration,
we shot a video to capture the new matter story.
We then built and co-launched the company's
crowd-funding campaign with a video as its centerpiece.
(cheerful music)
- [Speaker] We all like to express ourselves
by customizing the world around us.
A 3D printer allows you to do that.
- The accelerated time to market for the new venture,
the broad scope of work spanning from foundational strategy
through the design of multiple touchpoints
across a product ecosystem, the choice to launch fast
and then learn in the wild and iterate forward from there
are all hallmarks of Venture Design.