Inspiration for New Pet Products Often Come from Pet Owners

If you’ve got a furry friend, he’s no doubt a part of your family. The best ideas for a new product come from people like you that are inspired to improve your life, the lives of others and that includes your pets. Think about how you can take better care of your pet by inventing a better mouse trap to what may already exist or to invent a completely new device to hel feed, bath, walk or care for your pet’s well-being. You may have already been inspired by an idea but thought, “That’s impossible to create”. With the help of a product development company, your new pet product ideas can come to life. Not sure how to arrange your thoughts? The following are some ideas to get you started on the right track.

Go On a Walk to Get Inspired

Take your pet on a walk and pay attention to everything your pal does. Does he want to stop at every puddle for a drink? From that simple act, you may be inspired to consider ways your pooch can get a cleaner source of water. Does your pet get anxious from loud noises or other barking animals you encounter? Perhaps some noise cancelling device would be a clever invention you could devise with the help of a new product engineer and some funding.

Playing With Your Pet Can Inspire You

Play with your dog, cat or other animal to see what really gets them excited. If you have a dog that likes to play fetch with a stick, you might consider a new style of launcher for a person that that lacks the strength to throw a stick or ball very far. The best ideas are those that can benefit a large group of pet owners, so we encourage you to consider the marketability of a product. Not every bright idea will be appealing to other pet owners. Cats for example get a thrill from chasing strings. My guess is that inventing a robotic string puller when you’re too tired to play may be a costly investment for the development stages, but the vast majority of cat owners may not find that idea too exciting and invest $20+ to buy one for their cat.

Pet Product Manufacturers are Cleaning Up

The American Pet Products Association estimates that pet owners will spend over $72 billion on products for their pets this year and that number continues to grow every year. Most of that is on pet food and the AAFCO regulates grocery products. But what about devices to help in the feeding and even evacuation of waste products? There has got to be a better way to handle cat litter…or do away with cat litter all together…right? Do you know how many pooper scoopers were sold in the US last year? Does Brooke Miller get a piece of all that action? Pet Life Today lists the top 50 Pet Clean up devices on the market in this article. If Ms. Miller had the right product development company helping her with trademarks, physical design engineering help and manufacturing, chances are she is sitting pretty on a pile of cash for her invention.

The Importance of Having Professionals on Your Side


I didn’t find any company headed up by Brooke Miller for this article, so I am assuming she did not clean up on her pet poop invention. Don’t let that happen to your idea for a new pet product. Not all new product development companies are considered equal and it is important you are guided down the right path by professionals that not only offer you the engineering design services you seek but can help you with the legal aspects of registering trademarks, conducting the market research required and believe in your product design ideas as much as you do. We offer product engineering help to inventors as well as the ins and outs of getting your product manufactured cost effectively. We can guide you on the right people to speak with concerning trademarks and sign a non-disclosure agreement, so your ideas are safe until your product ideas are protected.

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The Secret to Innovative Product Design

If you want your company to be a leader in your industry, it’s essential to have a constant flow of creative ideas that lead to innovative products. Some companies may struggle to come up with new ideas that lead to successful products. There are some ways you can help promote creative thought in your staff and encourage the development of unique product designs. Check out these tips to help you get more from your staff in product development.

Focus on Solutions

One effective way you can generate more ideas for product design is to focus on solutions instead of the final product. Generally, all companies are in the business of providing solutions to various problems for their customers. It’s up to your product design staff members to develop items that solve problems in the form of products or services.

Follow Product Category Trends

Next, it’s important to have a strong understanding of your current industry’s product category trends. Pay attention to what your competitors are doing and perhaps develop more thoughtful solutions. Attend as many industry conferences as you can, and network with other leaders in your field to have a better understanding of the current trends and atmosphere in your line of business.

Try Small Improvements

Another way to generate new ideas is to look for improvements in your current product line. It’s not always necessary to create an entirely new design that is vastly different from your current inventory. Sometimes, the best innovations take what is already in existence and improve it. Use customer feedback and staff suggestions to make something you already have much better.

Study Examples of Product Design

Creativity can also be developed by looking at other innovative product design ideas for inspiration. If you and your team are having trouble brainstorming new product ideas, looking at some of the coolest design examples from the past that can provide you ideas about new ways of thinking. Studying these examples may help inspire your team to create something entirely new and unique.

Partner With Design Firms

In some cases, it may make the most sense to get some outside ideas from product design engineering partners. In this situation, you can outsource your product design ideas and get results for your toughest customer problems with a fresh perspective. Partnering with a firm that specializes in engineering design services in your industry to help you jumpstart your own new idea-gathering process as well. With a specialized product design firm, you can focus your creative energy on making decisions about designs instead of getting frustrated with the lack of ideas.

Encourage Creative Thinking

The final tip to help your company be more creative is to encourage more creative thinking. Take more time to brainstorm and encourage any suggestions about new products from your entire staff instead of just a select few. Do more product design team building exercises and non-traditional work to access new ideas from each team member’s creative side. Think outside of the box instead of doing the same thing you’ve always done to get a different result. Creativity is difficult to produce on demand, especially with new product design ideas. Chances are you probably have some staff members who are creative thinkers but just need a push. Your task is to find these diamonds in the rough. Our medical device design division spends 2 hours every Friday morning to brainstorm new ideas. This time is always scheduled, and all employees are welcome. This is generally the best two ours of the week.

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Visionaries Need Help To See Products Come To Life

Most inventors are visionaries that have been inspired to create something they believe to be useful. Often the idea stems from a specific encounter where they saw or used a device that did not perform as effectively as the inventor thought it should. Sometimes the inspiration comes to this visionary through a colleague that describes a procedure, information system or tool that failed them.

The world needs great visionaries to help improve our lives but too often the idea stalls when tasked with bringing this vision to life. The field of medicine is filled with great thinkers and visionaries, but these same people tend to be very busy and find it difficult to move an inspiration for the next great wearable medical device along the path of product development.

Medical Device Development Requires More Than Inspiration

Most of the wearable medical devices that entered the marketplace in 2017 have spent several months to several years in the development pipeline. The question is where does the inventor begin? Our recommendation is to seek out the product development firms that have a proven track record of bringing other wearable technologies to market. There are skill sets that will be required along the way that the inventor or visionary just won’t have themselves.

More importantly is the new product development process needed for your device to succeed. For example, it does not make sense to meet with a mobile app development company before you have a physical design in place. Always start with a summary of the functionality you want for your device and share your ideas with a trusted product designer after there is a formal agreement that will protect your rights and ideas.

Mechanical, Electrical & Software Engineers Should Work in Synergy

The physical design and appearance of your device is very important to the end users and the marketability of your product. If a patient must wear the device, it needs to look and feel right. If a clinician will be using the device as a handheld unit, the design must be easy to use and conform to the environment it will be used in.

Once you have nailed down the mechanical design, an electrical engineer can work within the physical limitations of the device to layout how the electrical design. Often there will be sensor technology deployed in wearable medical devices. So the mechanical and electrical designers may need to make some adjustments to structure & materials for the components to function flawlessly together. Both disciplines can be very complex and it is rare that one individual shares these design skills.

Therefore the stakeholders should foster a collaboration and a project management team may be assigned to track progress, keep the client informed and oversee all parts of the medical device development process. Once the physical and electrical design phases are near complete, then we can start working with the software and app development teams.

Prototyping and Testing Helps Dictate Manufacturing Needs

If an entrepreneur was to hire individuals to tackle the above tasks, chances are you may invest months to identify the right players and several more months to get them to a point where they are producing. Outsourcing your engineering design services has become the norm for most visionaries seeking how to get your invention started. For the prototyping and testing phases alone, it makes sense to choose a partner that has access to 3D printing and additive manufacturing technologies. This world of making functional prototypes has moved very fast and is allowing startups get to market much faster although the equipment and materials can be very costly. Testing will allow you to adjust your design and materials as you discover bugs you never anticipated.

Since actual manufacturing is often the most expensive piece of the puzzle, this engineering for manufacturing stage considers material costs, production methods, anticipated run sizes and delivery schedules. A fully functional prototype will also allow you to present your design to venture capitalists and investors. A manufacturer will need you to show them the money before they invest in materials.

As a medical product design firm in Pennsylvania, Definitive Design has seen the shift towards wearable technologies several years ago. We have partnered with Connected Device Group to bring together the skills you will need to all under one roof. A visionary simply can not do all that is required without the help of a solid team of design professionals.

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