We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.”

-Richard Feynman

With every inventor comes failed product experiments. For our Harvestcare hand balm as an example, I made over 30 iterations before I found the right ingredient mix.

It takes a lot of time and sometimes supplies to get something right. And some of my friends and current customers have suffered through the trials. I think this is why I procrastinate so much on this important activity.

It also cost money to add products to the line from a packaging point of view. So, I try to limit the downside by only purchasing a small quantity of labels for every new product. This brings up my unit cost of course, but reduces cash stuck in unusable inventory.

Our body lotion product as an example still needs work though I’m pretty close to the end of that development process.

A number of my experiments haven’t worked at all. For example, I tried to see if I could create some sort of “mochi” single-use soap pods. The idea was that it would melt in your hands before use to eliminate the need for packaging for our hotel clients. So far, that hasn’t worked. Instead, the soap melts at room temperature with no ability to contain it… yet!

I say “yet” because every inventor/designer/developer will tell you that it takes a lot of experiments to find the right solution for hard problems. So, I suppose my failed product experiments are really just lessons learned in disguise with more work to do.