Many hardware teams don’t fail because their engineering is weak. They fail because they misread the market.
It’s easy to fall in love with a clever solution, a beautiful prototype, or a smart technical idea. The hard part is proving that real customers actually care enough to pay for it.
Adrian speaks with Renaud Anjoran about how product teams can answer three critical questions before investing heavily in tooling, molds, and production:
1. Is there real demand?
2. Who is the target customer?
3. What features do customers truly want?
Here’s what teams need to get right.
Listen here
Listen to the episode or watch on YouTube
Episode Sections:
- 00:00 – Intro: The big question — are you building what people will actually buy?
- 01:04 – Is there real demand? (customer discovery first)
- 09:40 – Who is the target customer? (segmentation beats ‘everyone’)
- 15:35 – What features do customers actually want? (listen for patterns)
- 24:30 – Three lessons before you spend on tooling.
- 25:25 – Close & resources.
Further reading
- Agilian Technology — “The 3 Major Hardware Startup Killers: Part 1 – The Market.”
- Agilian Technology — “How to do Qualitative Market Research for a New Product.”
- Sofeast — “3 New Product Launch Tips for E-commerce Sellers.”
- QualityInspection.org — “9 Key Questions When Developing A New Product (Part 1).”
- QualityInspection.org — “The 8-Step Customer Journey Manufacturers Need To Consider.”
- The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Robert Fitzpatrick
- The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed
by Alberto Savoia - The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win
by Steve Blank
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