From Concept to Consumer: How to Turn Ideas Into Money by Baker, Phil 1st edition (2008) Hardcover

by Phil Baker

Baker’s product successes range from Apple’s PowerBook to the Stowaway portable keyboard, the most successful PDA accessory ever created. Here, he walks you through the entire development process, showing how to develop products holistically, reflecting the crucial linkages between product design, engineering, testing, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. You’ll discover what makes a winning product, and why great ideas are just 5% of the process...the easiest 5%! You’ll find practical guidance for planning, establishing teams, creating marketing requirements, avoiding “feature creep,” prototyping, protecting intellectual property, market testing and positioning, preparing for customer service, implementing the optimal distribution strategy, and much more. After you’ve delivered your first breakthrough product, Baker shows how to follow up with another winner!

Genres: Business

Unknown Binding

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Rafi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always wondered how consumer electronic products are developed. This book gives a good overview of that.

IMO building a software product is comparatively easier, because you have a good control over the development process (developing something that users want and selling it is a different story, but that's difficult for all kinds of products). On the other hand, manufacturing a hardware product and distributing it takes a lot of effort, and generally you depend on third parties for doing these. Phil explained these processes from his own personal experience and gave lots of good advice for beginner entrepreneurs.

[Kyle Handfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the perspective of a new player entering the product design industry and building my own company (www.Ventrify.ca) I read Phil's book to get a overview of the industry and to find a starting point.

Getting into the product development industry can be a daunting prospect with most people having experience in one link of the chain but having little knowledge of the whole process. Phil does a fantastic job discussing each aspect of product development in the modern day to give the reader a fair understanding of what to expect. Drawing on years of experience with several companies, Phil has both wise and interesting stories of his ventures.

It is easy to over-estimate the importance of our role in the overall development process. This book serves up a dose of perspective and details how issues in any department can be catastrophic to the whole process. At Ventrify, we recognize Phil’s, From Idea to Consumer, as a great base of information with which to enter the industry.

Thanks for Reading, and if you are interested in conencting or learning more about our company visit our website at www.Ventrify.ca

[Ethan J · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very practical book on building hardware products from someone who has built hardware companies;
building hardware companies is so damn hard;
a few inspirations from this book:
* so much of hardware building relies on 3rd party firms (industrial design firms, manufacturing firms, OEMs), which all make building hardware so much harder than software
* it's also so much easier for competitors to copy, or sue you with patents if you build hardware companies, because they can tear your products apart; while it's so much harder to copy software products.

[Khalid S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It gives you a practical perspective about how product development should be! Here are some takeaways:
Take-Aways

A great idea is only about 5% of what you need to make a winning product.
Listen to your customers, use what they tell you in your marketing and build what they want without cumbersome extras.
Each of the five phases of product development is fundamental to the success of the next phase.
The five phases are: concept design, design development, detailed development, preproduction and production.
Great industrial design tells customers about your product, brand and company.
Keep only those parts of product development you do best and outsource the rest. Look for a partner in Asia to get your product to market faster and less expensively.
Don’t waste too much time pursuing patents; the best protection against being copied is getting your next innovation to market quickly.
Sell through your own Internet store, but also expand by using other Web stores.
Take responsibility for knowing when to listen to your lawyer and when not to.
Success is only a stop within the larger journey, so keep working on the next idea.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

What to do with your great product idea

Phil Baker has helped many great companies bring cool products to market. He draws on his experiences with Polaroid, Apple, Stowaway, Fuego and numerous others to show you what you must do with your great product idea to make it a success. Baker takes you behind the scenes and tracks how product development has evolved. His most valuable insights include an explanation of why you need partners in Asia, where to look for them, how to select them and how to manage such far-flung relationships. His appendices are excellent, including the “Top 10 Rules for Taking Your Product from Concept to Customer,” an evaluation of products in relation to the environment, a list of helpful resources, and a look at China’s positive and negative impact. Whether you are an inventor, a product engineer, an entrepreneur or a business reader interested in the topic, getAbstract recommends this clear, informative, engaging read.

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good explanation of how consumer electronics products come to be, written by a guy who has been doing it for about 50 years. The depth varies and some of the examples' math is a little off, but the insights and reminders are really great. Good, solid, practical advice for the startup making a physical product.

[Alya N · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way Phil Baker writes is full of joy! You will find no dull moment as long as you read it. :)

This book has a focus on how to make money in gadget's area. As author's occupation.

Yeah, i can take the quintessence all in all.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great title on product development - mostly discussing businesses in the electronics field, but could apply to others. Discusses design, idea concepts and sourcing production throughout Asia.

[Chad Roghair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on product development and manufacturing. It's mostly relevant to entrepreneurs and people working in the high-tech industry.

[Kelsey Breseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Practical and short, a good read for anyone going through this process

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phil's insight about manufacturing in China is priceless. Hey, I just learned it's now available as an audio book!