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Physical Product Design: is there guidance/books on how to focus on only the most essential features that deliver the most value? (80/20...)

Looking for fundamental best practices. How to design, how to get useful customer feedback, how to be responsive and quickly iterate. I know it's a huge topic. Looking for great starting points. I'm a veteran and MBA teaming up with another vet/MBA to make breathing masks (health care, shooting ranges, motorcycle riders). Validating cost structure now and then first target market. Considering form factor, fashion, design.

Mechanical Product Design

Customer Experience

Caneel Joyce answered

Great question! Here are the basics:

The Lean Startup by Eric Reis
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous/dp/0307887898

Running Lean by Ash Maurya
http://www.amazon.com/Running-Lean-Iterate-Works-Series/dp/1449305172/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=03VER05GWM6QV80D49ZH
*excellent, concrete, super actionable

The Startup Owner's Manual by Steve Blank
http://www.amazon.com/The-Startup-Owners-Manual-Step-By-Step/dp/0984999302/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JNJVNK8B46D6M98W1A5
*the bible!

Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez
http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Customer-Development-Building-Customers/dp/1449356354/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429290160&sr=1-1&keywords=customer+discovery+validation
*focused on methods you'll need to use to validate feature and value prop ideas

When in doubt, **stop debating**. You are not your customer. Get out of the building. Don't build unless you're testing what you build, and ready to throw away what you build when you get answers.

Good luck! Books are helpful as background, but for specific advice on where you and your company specifically should invest time, set up a call with me.
https://clarity.fm/caneel

Four Hewes answered

You're question is thoughtfully phrased. You asked it here 8 months ago. Are you still looking for help with this? If so, let me know and we'll take it from there.

Russell Ong answered

First. Frame the problem. Tip: absence of a product or solution is not a problem.

Second. Paint and experiential solution. You know, describe a picture of the future where this problem isn't around. This is the WHY your product must exist.

Third. Figure out HOW you're going to do it. Demand meaning from every feature, technology and attribute. If it doesn't get you to point #2 above? it's fluff, get rid of it.

Fourth. Consolidate and Shape ideas from #3 into concepts. Now bounce it against #1 with some really good criteria. Some of this will have come from #2.

Tip: There should only be several things your product MUST do really well. Everything else is secondary. Focus.