market research
The best product design is driven by
data that is current, applicable, and focused.
The Role of Market Research in Industrial Design
In the realm of industrial design, informed decision-making is paramount to creating products that resonate with consumers and stand out in the marketplace. At DesignStein Studios, we prioritize comprehensive market research to ensure our designs are both innovative and aligned with current market demands.
market research methods
Consumer Insight Strategies
Analyzing the Competitive Landscape
By understanding where your competitors excel and where they fall short, we can refine your product’s design and strategy to give it a true competitive edge.
Whether it’s identifying a gap in features, finding ways to improve usability, or exploring cost-effective material choices without compromising quality, this research allows us to make informed decisions that enhance both the product and its market positioning.
The goal isn’t just to keep up with the competition—it’s to carve out a distinct space for your product that resonates with your target audience and reinforces long-term success.
Leveraging Surveys and User Feedback
Knowing what your customers want—and what they don’t—is key to designing a product that truly works for them.
That might mean organizing focus groups to get direct, in-depth feedback from potential users, analyzing customer reviews to spot recurring praises or pain points, sending out targeted surveys to gather specific insights on preferences and expectations, or studying user behavior through data analytics to see how people interact with similar products.
Each of these methods gives us a clearer picture of what your customers value most, what frustrates them, and what features would make your product stand out.
By combining these insights, we can refine the design to ensure it truly aligns with user needs and expectations.
Using Market Data to Drive Industrial Design Decisions
Market research is a key part of our design process, helping us make informed decisions from the initial concept to final production. By looking at market trends, pricing, competition, and consumer behavior, we get a clear picture of where your product fits in and how it can stand out. This research helps us spot gaps in the market, stay ahead of industry shifts, and shape a design strategy that makes sense for both the present and the future. The goal is to create a product that not only meets current needs but also remains relevant as the market evolves.
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DesignStein FAQs
The Industrial Designers Society of America defines industrial design as “…the professional practice of designing products, devices, objects, and services used by millions of people around the world every day.” This definition goes on to say that “industrial designers typically focus on the physical appearance, functionality and manufacturability of a product, though they are often involved in far more during a development cycle.” (you can see their full definition here).
While this is an accurate description of what industrial design is, for obvious reasons it does not address the deeper element of successful industrial design: The Industrial Design Process. This is what DesignStein excels at. We adhere to what we consider the Three Pillars for successful product design: Communication, Constructive Feedback, and Industry Expertise. We have nearly two decades of experience designing products across multiple industries. Our multi-industry experience gives us broader design perspectives, allowing us to think outside the box and apply creative solutions that ‘specialty’ design companies may not consider for your product. We execute an established methodology that ensures your product design goals are achieved, and combine it with a collaborative approach that ensures we are in lockstep with our clients from beginning to end.
To reference the definition from our friends at The Industrial Designers Society of America, who classify the industrial design process as follows: “Every object that you interact with on a daily basis in your home, office, school, or public setting is the result of a design process. During this process, myriad decisions are made by an industrial designer (and their team) that are aimed at improving your life through well-executed design.” The difference in design companies lie with the decisions that are made during the process of industrial design, from how sketches are created to thinking through the engineering and manufacturing considerations during CAD design, considering whether the product will stand up to the real world during the 3D modeling process, looking beyond aesthetics during prototyping, and even how to scale for lean, repeatable manufacturing and distribution.
This is where DesignStein provides the best value for our clients. We follow to our Three Pillars for successful product design: Communication, Constructive Feedback, and Industry Expertise. Our established industrial product design process is summarized as a combination of research, sketches, 3D CAD, 3D Renderings, prototyping, specifications, IP strategy, manufacturing and quality control, which you can learn more about in detail on our Services page. Want more? Check out our YouTube channel for videos that highlight our processes using specific case studies!
DesignStein Studios assists companies with applying, filing, and ultimately obtaining patents for your product design through consultation or recommending attorneys who we trust that specialize in Intellectual Property (we’re really good at this). To mitigate the risk of product counterfeits or stolen IP, we can help you execute a supplier diversification strategy that separates various manufacturing and distribution responsibilities across multiple production groups. This is a difficult strategy to execute, but we are experts at it, and it is worth the effort if you want to mitigate the risk of someone counterfeiting your product design.
The short answer is yes, we do. We don’t simply make your product look pretty, we get inside of it and thoughtfully position internal components, mechanical systems, or whatever else make up the ‘guts’ of your product to ensure reliability and manufacturability. When we combine your industry expertise with our vast expertise in product design across virtually every industry from mechanical devices to electronics to soft goods, the result is not simply a beautiful product that improves lives, but one that is also easily manufacturable at the best possible cost.
DesignStein has helped many of its clients’ secure reliable manufacturers who have integrity and keep your IP private to prevent counterfeiting. We do much more than simply provide a manufacturing resource, though.
To ensure your products are made right and work as intended, DesignStein creates your product specifications for dimensions, material types, best practices for manufacturing, and components specs before any manufacturing commitments are made. This process ensures that manufacturers have everything they need to provide accurate tooling estimates. We are prepared to go where you need us to go, anywhere in the world, to make sure the standards that we set to manufacture your product are met. We perform live inspections, ensure pre-established quality control processes are executed, and review the process of shipping to your distribution channels, all of which validate that your products are produced properly, and get where they need to go on time and on budget.
We further protect your IP through a sophisticated process of supplier diversification. Our approach to selecting a manufacturer and suppliers for our clients creates peace of mind on two fronts; It protects the intellectual property inside your product, and delivers confidence that your product will be manufactured on time to an exacting standard.
DesignStein can help you source component suppliers. We have an established process for helping our clients’ secure component suppliers that promises long term component availability, and protects the intellectual property behind your product to prevent counterfeiting. We diversify our clients’ supply chain and create distinct component supply channels so that your IP remains discrete. This complex process of eliminating component supplier amalgamation is proven to safeguard your products from copycats.
DesignStein uses SOLIDWORKS to create 3D CAD (Computer-Aided Design) models of your product. We have decades of experience with CAD, which when combined with our background designing products in multiple industries, allows us to consider your product’s design beyond the aesthetic. We factor in all the things that will improve the lives of your customers, and all the elements that are required to make the product manufacturable at scale.
DesignStein has deep experience in consumer electronics, mechanical products, military and self defense products, personal products, healthcare products, cut-and-sew soft goods, children’s toys, and pet products. We have experience designing products for multiple industries, which sets our product design firm apart from other industrial design companies. Our expertise designing products across multiple industries allows us to think outside of the box, enabling us to provide product design concepts that exceed many of our clients’ expectations.