Product Development has a Steep Learning Curve and Using Trial & Error is Painful, Slow, and Expensive
Regardless if your intent to produce, license, or sell your new product idea outright... the journey from start to finish will be full of significant learnings that must be experienced to be mastered. Acumen CPG's unique breath of expertise holistic knowledge can save you substantial time, money, and greatly increase your chances of reaching your goals.
needless rework drains time, money, and enthusiasm
achieving good manufacturing costs is illusive
well-intended but misguided designs hurts consumer delight
overspending is common and piles up quickly
getting tasks in the correct order is non-obvious and expensive
lack of clarity damages confidence and saps enjoyment
The Fatal Project Mistake that
Nearly all New Product Inventors will Make
Upon committing to move forward with a new product idea, the new founder often feels compelled to generate something that looks like tangible forward progress. The excitement is real, so this is a natural and understandable desire. What this most often includes are expensive patents, 3D engineering designs, or perhaps a prototype.
And while each of these sound logical, are well-intended, and may actually be necessary activities for the nature of your project... they are almost always executed far too early, with not enough information, and in the wrong sequence. When better project information reveals itself (and it always does!) these expensive items will need to be scrapped and later repeated.
Acumen CPG's work with startups has shown this to be a near universal occurrence that costs founders $10,000 to $40,000 and 6 to 12-months of unrecoverable lost time. For those with deep pockets this serves as just a painful lesson from which they'll soldier forward. But for most, it marks the death of a once exciting and promising dream.
How Acumen CPG Helps
Unlike a marketing agency, design studio, or engineering firm with specialist singular focus, Acumen CPG sees the larger interconnected picture. This ability is unique amongst service providers in this space and allows us to help you build an effective strategy, comprehensive roadmap of the journey from idea to store shelf, and provide function-specific guidance & solutions along the way.
Rather than acting as a project manager, our 2-part service model is designed to keep you in the driver's seat. This allows you to develop your own style and move forward based on your personal sense of urgency and access to resources.
1
Building a Solid Foundation
Through one-on-one working sessions and a structured framework, we'll first seek to understand the nature of your idea or active project. We'll work to understand your objectives and construct an assessment that highlighting your inherent strengths (and how to amplify them) and risk areas (and how to mitigate them).
We'll then construct an end-to-end detailed roadmap of the journey ahead that you can use to sequence tasks and start building meaningful results while avoiding the pitfalls.
2
Provide Ongoing Support & Guidance
Equipped with clarity of how to win, visibility to the things that can hold you back, and an understanding of what to do when... you can confidently progress your project forward in a style and pace that that feels natural to you.
When you encounter an issue needing resolution, want to improve work output from contracted specialty resources, or simply could benefit from an objective experienced voice during key decision points we'll be ready and available to help. You'll find it very empowering to know you have an ally in your corner who understand your project, your goals, and has the answers you need to keep things moving forward.