Ombraz makes sunglasses with a flexible cord instead of arms. And they’re going to crush it. They have all the ingredients for building a successful business. Here’s why:

Product innovation:

• A simple solution to a simple problem: my glasses fall off my face.

• Probably low R&D budget. Great for bootstrapping.

• Aspirational branding–using lifestyle imagery to show all the wild activities you can do with these shades

On the business side:

• High AOV (over $100 for a pair)

• It’s common to own multiple pairs of sunglasses (potential for repeat purchase)

• Niche core market (outdoors/adventure) but huge TAM

• Eyewear has low price elasticity, like other fashion goods. They could’ve charged $50 or $200. I imagine they tested this.

• DTC ecommerce sales, but could expand to retail

And to top it all off…

• They’re bootstrapped (I think)

• Climate neutral

• Plant 20 trees for every pair they sell

In product development, we say “make the right product, then make it right.” In other words—the first step is to develop the right product in the first place. The same goes for business. Some businesses are harder to start (and grow) than others. Selling hardware, or any physical goods, is on the more difficult end of the spectrum, especially compared to software. And then within hardware, there’s a wide range, too. Ombraz hit the sweet spot: relatively low budget to launch, but with high margins and high growth potential.

Some thoughts on how to balance the two. Emphasis on the word balance. You never go full-vision or full-discovery. You need both.

Even Henry Ford understood the underlying human motivations when he commented “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” He knew people wanted to get from A to B faster, but they couldn’t have envisioned the automobile as the solution.

Likewise, it’s impractical to validate every single design decision by talking to your users. If you take a discovery-centered approach—which I usually prefer—you still need to anticipate their future needs, not just their current ones.

—Anonymous

This enlightening “fireside chat” featured Jeff Cantalupo, founder of Listen Ventures, and Charles Adler, founder of Lost Arts. Cantalupo formerly worked at Leo Burnett, keeping established brands relevant, whereas now he invests in new brands and builds them from the ground up. Sounds like a great business model to me. Adler was a Kickstarter co-founder who more recently started makerspace/incubator Lost Arts here in Chicago. Some notes from their discussion:

• Internal behavior at a company affects and creates the external brand image. This is why it’s so important to hire the right people when building a team.

• The brand’s mission is the lens through which all decisions are made.

• Starting around 2007-2009, with Twitter and other social media platforms, there was a shift in control of brands from companies to people. The customers began to take control, instead of the company being able to define the brand for themselves. Companies needed to become more human, while people were starting to act like brands.

• Managing quarter-to-quarter is bad. You need to plan for sustained, long-term success in order to keep customers loyal.

• Blockchain technology could be the future of customer loyalty. It is the platform through which brands could establish currency with individuals.

• Differentiation is harder than it used to be. “Your only competitive advantage is your relationship with your customer. You want your customers to forgive you when you make a mistake.”

• Bigger brands can create the future. Smaller brands give people the agency to choose the future.

• New players who are doing it right: Allbirds, Yeti, Away, Glossier. As an activity-driven brand, people are already passionate, which set up a perfect opportunity for Yeti. Same with Patagonia.

• A good brand will listen to the people who buy into them. You are solving a need for people through human-centered design, therefore you are authentic. This last point was an eye-opener for me. HCD isn’t just about creating a good product, it’s how you build a brand that is truly authentic. People connect emotionally with brands that positively impact their lives.

Some notes and quotes from this excellent panel discussion at IIT’s Institute of Design: 

• “The design thinking bubble has burst. Everyone needs to be a design thinker. Designers are unique in their ability to actually do the design.”

• “The next person downstream is also your client.”

• Two ways to reframe a problem: 1.) Expand the problem. Ask yourself, How Can We maximize impact here? 2.) Find the smallest problem with the biggest impact. This works well when you’re on a budget.

• “When you lead with strategy, projects tend to be bigger.” That means there’s a quantifiable benefit to starting with strategy.

• Q: How do you edjucate people on the value of design without being condescending? A: Build relationships based on mutual respect. Lead by example. Manage up and down. Critique with the correct language: you are supporting the person’s goal. Be inclusive in design activities, especially research. That way, everyone is on the same page from the beginning.

 - Stephen Melamed, FIDSA, UIC Industrial Design Department Founding Chair. These were his closing words from this year’s IDSA Midwest District Design Conference.

Awareness. Appreciation. Ambassador.

This was a great episode of Clever, featuring Eric Quint, Chief Design Officer of 3M. His "three A's" are a great way to look at a common problem in the design industry: how to get others excited about your ideas. You could have an amazing idea, but if people don't understand your approach, they can't possibly champion your idea. How could they tell your human-centered story to others if they have limited exposure to this way of thinking? Quint is talking about this in a corporate environment, but it absolutely applies to consulting as well. We need to help our clients be ambassadors for our ideas, so they can get people excited in their organization. Here's the quote:

“I see a lot of challenges with other leaders in putting design on the agenda in an appropriate way. I use what I refer to as the Three A’s: Awareness, Appreciation, and Ambassador. You can have an expectation that you want to create excitement with your colleagues across the organization, but you cannot expect them to be an Ambassador if they do not Appreciate what you do. And they can’t Appreciate what you do if they don’t have any Awareness of what you do. Where I see a lot of designers go wrong is they have high expectations on the Ambassadorship, but they totally forget about explaining what design is about, what it’s doing, how it creates value, and how we can collaborate.”

— Eric Quint