Brian Donlin

Industrial Designer, previously @ridgewallet and others. Founder of Grasshopper Gear. Live music fanatic.

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@willnitze The sweet spot is to build for a niche in a way that is scalable to mass market. Solving "Niche needs" = pains that are ONLY experienced by the niche. Avoid this. "Scalable needs" = pains that are still felt by mass market. IQBAR is doing this. I screwed it up with my biz!

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@chuckiegregory Would love to know about the failures--how did you know it was time to move on?

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@jacob_posel MUCH easier said than done, but identify problems that are really hard to solve such as the ones here
https://t.co/XBtdtwYicH

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@chuckiegregory UndrDog looks cool, I have a hemp tee from a different brand that I like. Are you not concerned about knockoffs though? "whats ur moat" is an annoying question but I do think it's important for long term success

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@michaelmiraflor This goes for pretty much any visual creative work I see these days, it's really unfortunate

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@oliviaakory This goes for most services honestly. Plumbers, contractors, engineers...

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@MehtabKarta So along with MOQ and launch costs, are you thinking about it as % of the next X years of revenue from that particular product? This is the side of product dev that is largely a mystery to me. Would love to learn more but not sure where to look

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@emmachristine15 @oaknd1 As an ND alum and designer--good work. Can't imagine a more difficult graphic design project.

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@elanmiller I'm an industrial designer, not a branding person, but this type of conversation is literally the hardest part of the job. I struggle with it, especially the bottom-up approach. Great article, would love to hear/read more about this

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@natelagos Those types of insights are absolutely valuable to product people (like myself). It's just important to recognize when it's a genuine insight and when it's just your own personal opinion/preference

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@living_energy Thanks!

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@SolomonHanes Anyone involved in the business of manufactured goods (all of DTC and product dev) was impacted severely by the tar!ffs. The good news is, it's not you, it's macro. The bad news is, that means there's not much we can do about it.

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@michaelmiraflor Interesting, my theory is kind of the opposite--the product needs to be appealing on its own merits, regardless of the brand. But you've studied this more than me!

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@TaylorHoliday @jacob_posel The best solutions I'm aware of are royalty/profit share situations. I'd love to hear other ideas though!
Jacob, to be more specific, I think it's product innovation, not just design. Design-as-beautification is already being automated/disrupted

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@TaylorHoliday @jacob_posel As a designer, it's on my mind a lot 😂 I/we create new products that can be the foundation for massive biz growth, but we capture relatively little compensation compared to marketing folks. Not many good solutions, either.

[Brian Donlin @DonlinDesign]

@moizali The spirit of this is solid, but the "gut" part rubs me the wrong way. Feels like this leads to "my gut instinct is better than your gut instinct" type of debates