Have you ever imagined what kind of product you would develop if money was no obstacle? Maybe that product is not as far out of reach as you might think. Sometimes when I ask our customers this question, the answer I hear is some kind of internet connect, color touch screen, portable wiz bang calculating… Read More

What’s the most common complaint managers of small businesses have about product development projects: it always costs too much and takes too long. Albert Einstein once said: “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them”. If you want to reduce product development time and money, then you are almost… Read More

Does it ever seem like the last 10% of the project takes 90% of the time? If you have had this experience, you are not alone. It happens all too frequently when trying to develop technology products in a small company. Managing a project with several different engineers, all with their unique areas of expertise… Read More

Few would disagree that the iPod saved Apple from bankruptcy, but it was not just about the idea of a digital music player. There were at least 20 other digital music players on the market long before Apple started the project. Apple understood at a very deep level that the requirement of “easy-loading songs” was… Read More

“If you do not know where you’re going, any direction will do” Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland We are often brought in to help with troubled product development projects that do not seem to be progressing as expected. You might expect that the reason for the lack of success would be poor technical skills in… Read More

We have a lot of interactions with CMs (Contract Manufacturers). These companies are amazing—they can do ten thousand things and not make a single mistake. Their business must work this way to stay competitive. Product development, on the other hand, is different. In product development, you are lucky if you do 10 things and get… Read More

To outsource or not to outsource? It’s a question that arises again and again in small companies. Why? Because technology is evolving rapidly, and many small companies are struggling to fund the fixed cost of a full-time team with the necessary diversity of skills needed to stay competitive. For years, small companies have been developing… Read More

If I had to pick the biggest mistake small companies make when it comes to product development, it would be that they make the mistake of treating product development as if it was just like any other business activity—sales, accounting, customer service, manufacturing, etc. Product development is a process of discovery, creativity and problem solving,… Read More

The prototype is all done and it seems to work well. Now, how do you get the prototype manufactured reliably and at a reasonable cost? If you’re like a lot of small companies, this is not something you do all the time. Finish Line has done more than one thousand projects for more than 300… Read More

A long time ago, after a disappointing personal failure, someone told me: “Steve, there are no failures, there are only results. Sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes you get what you need—specifically, information about how to get what you want. Both results are helpful.” This changed my whole attitude on life. Instead of… Read More