Manufacturing Design for Locally Sold Products

What can the people in this community make that he can sell?

Who makes the products sold in your local shop?  If you made something that people liked, would they buy it?  Teaming up with a local vendor is a great way to test your idea.  If you think you have a saleable product, talk with the people running the local shop.  Make a version of the product, figure out how much it would take to manufacture, then see if people are interested in buying it.  If you find that they sell, find out what the buyers like and don’t like about your product.  Change the design to address their needs.  Make some more, adjust the price if you need to, and get more feedback from the buyers and the vendor.

At some point, you should find some product that really works well.  Then you might have a different project:  How to make lots of them so that they will stay in stock in the shop.

Check out this article in the August 17 Boston Globe: Link

Product Engineering Process class at MIT Link