Hi, I'm Phnam.
Hi, I'm Mardis.
And we're the hosts of Future Future, where two designers talk about the future of everything.
We're in the business of turning science fiction into reality for a better future.
And today, we're going to talk about fast, cheap, and high quality.
So Mardis, why are we talking about fast, cheap, and high quality during this episode?
Well, I think it's funny.
We get hit up all the time by people who want products developed, designed very quickly.
And of course, everybody's concerned about money. So this is kind of a big issue.
But you know, if you throw in high quality into the mix: fast, cheap, and high quality...
you can kind of have two out of the three, but getting all three is a really really big challenge.
Absolutely.
What you need is really a team with high experience, and everything aligned.
And most startup founders don't have that.
Or don't have the experience of putting hardware products on the market.
So, you know, our recommendation is to believe that it's very, very unlikely.
So let's go with two out of the three. And let's start with fast and cheap.
Mardis, tell us about fast and cheap.
We can do things fast and cheap.
But sometimes you're going to sacrifice something.
Is it going to be the high quality that you want or need?
You know, possibly not. Probably not.
And the reason being is: when you're moving very quickly, you don't really get that eye on the detail.
You really don't get as much attention to detail because you're moving so fast.
And then you're trying to cut costs.
That's the other big thing, is you really want to cut costs.
And you know, quality costs!
It takes time and energy and attention to detail to really drive home all these little factors
that make a product elevate from quality to really high quality.
So one of the rookie mistakes that we've seen again and again is when people skip milestones.
Right? For example, "oh, we don't need to spend the time and the money on this prototype."
Well, if you don't do that prototype, you will not learn from that prototype.
And you will take those small mistakes today and turn them into very large mistakes tomorrow
that will cost you a lot more time, a lot more effort, a lot more heartache to solve them before you launch the product.
So Phnam, when we talk about fast and high quality - how does that work?
So, if you go with fast and high quality products, it's most likely going to be expensive.
Because to do something fast and end up with something high quality,
you have to work with highly experienced people and teams that work well together.
You have to make decisions very quickly.
Now, an advantage of working fast is that you don't pause all the time.
So one thing with startup founders is that sometimes they have to pause a process in order to raise money.
And then kickstart the process again and then raise money again.
And that's the surest way to actually lose people's interest and their focus.
And so one thing about working fast is that you have everybody's attention.
And then you get to solve problems very quickly, and perhaps the quality will be elevated from there.
But the problem with that is that people are expensive.
And if you do something fast as well, you might have to add more skilled people at the time.
Instead of having one designer, you might need three of them that do the same amount of work in a third of the time.
Lastly, we talk about cheap and high quality.
Now, this one is a really, really hard one to hit. It really, really is.
Yeah, I think it has to do with the way we define, "high quality."
So you know, a regular consumer might think that something that belongs to a certain brand or looks a certain way is high quality.
Well, to designers and engineers, it's a different level.
We think about usability the first time, the second time, the hundredth time.
We think about the end of life.
We think about the tolerances of parts that you don't even look at ever.
We think about the weight.
We think about the force it takes to separate two magnetic pieces.
All of these details are what makes a product high quality, or exceptional down to the last detail.
So when you do that, you have to take the time. So the process is going to be slower.
So, I mean, a lot of people would argue this, though.
They'd say, "well, I can do cheap and high quality as well."
Well, you know. I mean...one, as I said, it's really difficult to do.
But if you're working for free: you're a startup founder. You're putting in your own elbow grease. You're not paying yourself.
You're just trying to go for the end game...then yeah, you might be able to cut some costs.
But when you're actually hiring people, whether employees or contractors or anyone else,
the money has got to come in there somewhere.
So it kind of blows your whole cheap story.
And even if it is your own elbow grease, we're talking about a lot of time. So you blow that factor, too.
So, getting two out of the three: doable. Getting three out of three: very difficult.
Cheap and high quality: extremely difficult.
Yes. So which path should you take?
If you're developing a gadget, for example.
You know, something that will be exciting for people for two or three weeks, going fast and cheap might be the way to go.
If you're going with a medical product, you definitely want the quality.
You want to pass FDA requirements.
And you have to go through a lot of very extensive testing on humans to make sure that your product is reliable.
If you're running a startup and your goal is to create an MVP: a minimum viable product,
you don't need the highest quality of everything. You just need something that tells the story
and has a quality that is high enough to be believable to your investors. And then from there,
once you get more funding, you can bring up the quality of the execution all the way to launch.
So, why are we talking about this? For Nonfiction, high quality is primordial.
It doesn't matter if we work with a small budget startup or a very, very large corporation.
The quality of the output of the products and the experiences that we put out
is a representation of who we are as creatives and as technical people.
And we want to elevate the quality of everything by leading by example.
I think with our experience, what we do is we look at these three different factors
and we decide which ones we need to really focus on and balance
per the product that we're developing and the market we're going for.
What's really important: surrounding yourself with very great strategic partners.
People who can design. People who can develop. People who can manufacture very well.
But most importantly, people who can work together.
Right?
You can work with superstar designers or architects.
But if they cannot listen to what is necessary for keeping the right timeline
or the right cost, under budget, that's not going to work out.
So always be at the forefront and transparent about what's going on, how it's going, and if it's on target.
And what's really funny about this whole concept that we're talking about today
is that it's not just limited to hardware products or even software.
It could be applied to so many things in your life. Building a house. Moving some place. Even relationships, honestly.
That guy - he's fast and cheap - but is he high quality?
So the takeaway of this episode is that yes, we all want fast, cheap, and high quality.
But the reality is that it's going to be two out of the three.
And you need to make this decision of which of the two you want, and what makes sense for your company.
Another thing is it's very important to us to support you in turning your idea into a profitable company.
Because anybody can come up with an idea or put out a piece of hardware.
But if it doesn't turn into money for you to develop the next generation of products, what is the point?
What is your bigger vision? How can we support you in doing this?
And we can do that by injecting as much high quality as possible, and be very conscientious about how fast and how cheap.
So we'd love to leave you with a quote from Ralf Speth, the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover,
"if you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design."