{"id":22088,"date":"2020-12-22T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=22088"},"modified":"2021-01-03T19:13:28","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T23:13:28","slug":"good-product-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you think you have good product ideas? Do you want to know how to evaluate a product?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people think they have good product ideas. But you have to honestly evaluate your product before taking the next steps to bring it to market and try to make a business out of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about good product ideas and how to evaluate a product for its potential success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Are All Good Product Ideas Going to Be Successful? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The short answer is no. Now matter how good your product ideas are, you&#8217;re going to need to evaluate them to see how they will do in the marketplace. Your product must meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>You must be able to explain the point of your product in a single sentence.<\/strong><ul><li>For example, Apple didn\u2019t describe the iPod with a list of specs; instead, they said you could have \u201c1,000 songs in your pocket.\u201d This helps good product ideas make sense to customers, too. <\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>You must be able to answer all potential questions about the product with an online FAQ.<\/strong> This cuts down or even eliminates customer questions.&nbsp;<ul><li>For example, the author doesn\u2019t recommend ingestibles as a product even though he was successful with them because there are too many unique questions associated with them.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>The retail price should be between $50-200.<\/strong> This has many benefits:<ul><li>Most companies set their prices at the midrange, and remember that midrange is where you\u2019ll find the most competition.&nbsp;<\/li><li>If you price low, someone else will be willing to price lower.<\/li><li>A higher price will make people think the product is more valuable.<\/li><li>A higher price means you don\u2019t have to sell as many units to make money. The fewer units you sell, the fewer customers you have, and then you don\u2019t have a huge group of people you\u2019re spending time on.<\/li><li>Customers that buy more expensive products tend to be lower-maintenance\u2014you won\u2019t have to deal with problems like declined credit cards or returns. Good product ideas can include perks like this. <\/li><li>When your product is more expensive, your profit margin is higher. <strong>The author recommends an 8-10 times markup <\/strong>instead of the conventional 5 times. A higher markup helps ensure you\u2019ll still have a good margin once you get distributors and resellers involved, because you\u2019ll have to give them a discount. If you don\u2019t plan for this, you\u2019ll have to later make a new or better version of the product to justify raising the price.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Downside: if you price too high, people will need to talk to you before deciding that they want to buy the product<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>It must take less than a month to manufacture the product, and one to two weeks is ideal.<\/strong> Good product ideas keep costs low and lets you quickly adjust to demand. To figure out how long something takes to make, get in touch with contract manufacturers and ask for a rate card for unit costs of a variety of order sizes. If you have trouble finding contract manufacturers:<ul><li>Get in touch with a related manufacturer and ask if they can refer you. For example, if you want a sink cleaner manufacturer, you could ask a sink manufacturer if they know anyone.<\/li><li>Search for associations and organizations related to your product and ask them for referrals.<\/li><li>Check advertising in trade magazines\u2014you\u2019ll not only potentially find contract manufacturers, you might also find other services you\u2019ll need later.<\/li><li>Make sure your manufacturers can meet deadlines. This is more important than getting a product perfect.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shortform Examples of Good Product Ideas<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortform Extended Example\u2014Edgar: Edgar is the architect who wants to resell hats made in Amsterdam. He prices the hats at $50 each. His start-up costs are buying the hats wholesale and shipping, which is about $15 a hat. This isn\u2019t the ideal markup, but he decides to go ahead with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortform Extended Example\u2014Devi: Devi is the fitness instructor who wants to sell a dragon boating workout. She chooses to format her product as two DVDs and a manual. She prices the package at $100. Her start-up costs will include making the DVD and getting it duplicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you think you have good product ideas? Do you want to know how to evaluate a product? Many people think they have good product ideas. But you have to honestly evaluate your product before taking the next steps to bring it to market and try to make a business out of it. Read more about good product ideas and how to evaluate a product for its potential success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,79,160],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-22088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-entrepreneurship","category-science","tag-the-4-hour-workweek","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Good product ideas aren&#039;t all that common. So how do you evaluate your product to see if its good? These questions and strategies can help.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Good product ideas aren&#039;t all that common. So how do you evaluate your product to see if its good? These questions and strategies can help.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-22T13:00:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-03T23:13:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1701\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-22T13:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-03T23:13:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/\"},\"wordCount\":709,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The 4-Hour Workweek\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Entrepreneurship\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/\",\"name\":\"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-22T13:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-03T23:13:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"Good product ideas aren't all that common. So how do you evaluate your product to see if its good? These questions and strategies can help.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1701},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\",\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carrie Cabral\"},\"description\":\"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product - Shortform Books","description":"Good product ideas aren't all that common. So how do you evaluate your product to see if its good? These questions and strategies can help.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product","og_description":"Good product ideas aren't all that common. So how do you evaluate your product to see if its good? These questions and strategies can help.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2020-12-22T13:00:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-03T23:13:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1701,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carrie Cabral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carrie Cabral","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Cabral","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56"},"headline":"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product","datePublished":"2020-12-22T13:00:58+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-03T23:13:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/"},"wordCount":709,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg","keywords":["The 4-Hour Workweek"],"articleSection":["Business","Entrepreneurship","Science"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/","name":"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-12-22T13:00:58+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-03T23:13:28+00:00","description":"Good product ideas aren't all that common. So how do you evaluate your product to see if its good? These questions and strategies can help.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1701},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-product-ideas\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Good Product Ideas: Evaluating Your Product"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56","name":"Carrie Cabral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carrie Cabral"},"description":"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/memory-cues-moonwalking-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22088"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22663,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088\/revisions\/22663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}