How to Get Near-Instant Market Research for your Next Product Design

You know how people are always telling you about how the Internet speeds up so many elements of product design? I just found a perfect capsulization of how the right application of the Internet can almost instantly give you some very handy ideas and feedback on your product design delivered by exactly the people you want to hear from.

Let me set the stage for you. David L Jones, who developed the EE Video Blog I wrote about a few days ago and who seems to have been granted 72 hours in a day (unlike the rest of us humans), is also the creator of a calculator/watch called the uWatch (Micro Watch) that’s so large and looks so, um, unique that only geeks can love it. Where might you find such geeks to help you with the design of uWatch 2? Why, on a calculator forum of course. One of the most vibrant of such forums is the one at the online Museum of HP Calculators, run by Dave Hicks.

Jones asked for help defining the front panel of uWatch 2 on April 19 with a simple proposed drawing on gridded paper. (It says April 20 on Jones’ drawing because he’s in Australia). Here’s the drawing:

Within a day, Jones got enough feedback from the calculator hounds enthusiasts to create this 3D rendering (remember what I said about Jones apparently having 72 hours in each day):

Another day later, and the uWatch 2’s front panel is even further refined:

And the discussion continues.

This one thread on the Museum of HP Calculators forum proves the power of this type of intimate market research more concisely than anything I’ve ever seen. Imagine what you could do with this kind of close feedback from your customers. (Imagine what you could do with a lab full of David L Jones clones.)