Buyers don’t automatically trust what a product does. They need to know HOW it does it. A 2025 MIT/Wharton experiment found that when companies reveal how an output is generated (even if the explanation is pretty complex) trust and adoption go up. It’s the same principle behind a Minimum Wow Product: don’t be shipping a bare-bones MVP. Ship one that earns belief. And belief comes from transparency. For physical products, that means: Show the invisible.Reveal the mechanism.Expose the process...
2 days ago • 1 min read
If you manufacture in China but don’t sell there, you may think you’re safe. You’re not. A surprising number of product makers assume their trademark protects them globally. But it doesn’t. One of my clients learned this the hard way years ago. They switched manufacturers after serious recurring quality problems. The old manufacturer, unhappy about being fired, went out the same week and registered my client’s unclaimed trademarks in China. It was a strategic play. When the next production...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Last year’s Black Friday broke records. But for most makers, it’s not make-or-break. Here’s what happened in 2024: U.S. online sales that day hit $10.8 billion, a 10.2% increase over the previous year. Yet in-store sales rose just 0.7%, and foot traffic actually dipped in lots of regions. So sure, today is still big. But the subtext is important: Big numbers don’t automatically translate into breakthrough results for every brand. Here’s the subtle truth for product makers: If your brand is...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Gratitude is the antidote to almost everything negative … and the fuel behind everything constructive. Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers! It’s a day when brands blast out thank-you messages, coupon codes, and “we appreciate you” banners. Most of it feels obligatory. Polite. Empty. But folks notice when gratitude is real. Not the mass email, but the human gestures that say: you matter beyond the transaction. Replying personally to a long-time buyer. (Or a new one.) Fixing a small...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Authenticity just became an even bigger selling feature. A 2025 arXiv study found that people (and even AI tools) can only tell fake product reviews from real ones about half the time. That’s no better than a coin toss. And it means the entire review economy is breaking. For product makers, this changes how trust is built. Buyers are looking less at stars and more at signals of real humanity. So design for proof, not perfection. Show verified-user badges prominently. Offer quick video...
6 days ago • 1 min read
The most persuasive thing a brand can say is the truth that stands to hurt its pitch. I was surprised to read this in an email from Backblaze, the cloud backup company we use for offsite data protection: “Drives are failing less, and lasting longer. The classic bathtub curve no longer fits.” That’s not the message you’d expect from a company whose business was built on the FEAR of lost data. Know what? It made me trust them MORE. Because hard drives still eventually fail, and just as...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Haptics just jumped from niche tech to Costco shelves, and that changes everything. I recently wrote about the haptic F1 movie trailer you could feel through your phone. And then Costco handed me the sequel. I was walking past the electronics aisle and there it was: a full haptic vest. Not tucked in a boutique VR shop. Not showcased in a gaming expo. Front and center at Costco, between air fryers and family packs of granola bars. That’s when it was official for me. Haptics aren’t emerging...
8 days ago • 1 min read
The moment you touch a new product, the story you’ve built in your head gets rewritten. I’ve been eagerly waiting for the prototype of a product I’m helping launch. Even after photos, drawings, and deep discussions, I know my whole understanding will shift the moment I use it in real life. That’s psychological distance at play. Until something is in your hands for real, your brain can only imagine so much, all based on what you’ve experienced with status quo products. A recent ScienceDirect...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Big innovation rarely comes from big teams. Every startup founder dreams of becoming HUGE. But a recent Forbes article found that the most successful consumer brands are scaling innovation through micro-teams. Those are small, cross-functional groups that move fast, prototype quickly, and own outcomes. Four to six people.Tight mandate.Direct access to users. That’s it. The formula that’s been working in real life. For product makers, it’s a model worth copying. Small teams launch sooner,...
10 days ago • 1 min read
