I Got It!

A few months ago I shared my story about lessons learned when I participated in a Kickstarter project supporting a thermal mug made with revolutionary new technology. Well the mug technology is definitely cutting edge, but the manufacturing process…not so much. More than 2 years after I made my initial investment I still had not received my mug, and thought I might not EVER get it. As I watched this debacle play out with delay, after delay, and more delays, it became clear that this entrepreneur’s decision to manufacture overseas was a “shortcut that becomes the long way around.”

Eureka!

You can imagine my surprise when, a couple of weeks ago, I received my mug! That’s it in the photo above (I paid a little extra for the pink color). It arrived almost 3 years after I ordered it. This product caught my interest because I’m one of those people who can’t stand drinking a beverage super hot. This means if I make myself a cup of coffee for my drive to work, and put it in a nice thermal mug, I can’t really drink it for an hour because it’s too hot. So I tried the cheaper plastic thermal cups and those cool down quicker, but my coffee then got cold really fast. I know, how picky can I be?

And…It’s Working

Apparently I’m not the only one with this problem because this inventor devised mug technology that reduces the temperature of the beverage in just three minutes – and then holds it there longer, in what they call the “Ahhhh zone.” They even go a step further because when I ordered it they gave me two choices for my preferred temperature, and I chose the lower one. And I think it’s working.

Lessons Learned

If I hadn’t received the mug, I’d probably never have anything to do with Kickstarter again. But now I look back at this as an interesting experience with some lessons along the way. Perhaps these hold true for any manufacturer or business owner:

• Communication is Key: The inventor sent monthly emails with very detailed updates and photos. If they hadn’t sent these I’d have walked away in disgust, but seeing the emails showed they were still working on it and there was hope.
• But Don’t Over-Communicate: The monthly emails included tons of detail about the problems that kept cropping up and how they were troubleshooting. This got to the point of sounding like a long string of excuses for their late deliveries. But the real problem with all the detail was, it drew my attention to all the things that could go wrong with the product. I recommend cutting down on all the details, just let folks know you’re working on it.
• Time Is Money: I guess the biggest lesson here is, when you lose so much time by going overseas for manufacturing, you’re exposing your company to huge risks, even failure. For any new product, time-to-market is just as important a consideration as manufacturing cost.

Today they’re still selling mugs and you can check them out here. I really hope they can be successful and profitable with this product. But one thing’s for sure, a great idea can turn out to be nothing without a great manufacturing process.

Mindy Mikami is Web Manager, Okuma America Corporation.