MDP Deep Dive

Project: Charging Desk

1. existing/like commercially available projects similar to this idea

Key Features

  • not a full desk
  • concealable and rearrangeable
  • can place multiple
  • Price: $89 per charger

Key Features

  • not hidden
  • not a full desk
  • clamps on to the desk
  • great durability
  • mass produced
  • must be placed on edge
  • only one device, slow charge speed
  • Price: $23

c. Ikea Wireless charging Desks

Key Features

  • full desk
  • customizable charger installation
  • Ikea will assemble the desk in your home
  • relatively low cost
  • low craftsmanship, mass produced
  • cost: $110 for the desk, $150 for installation, $5 per charging port

2. Production Strategy

Key Parts

  • Craft production
  • fully customizable
  • create after every order
  • prioritize quality over quantity

Explanation

  • desks are large, expensive items, and they require a lot of resources to make. One style of desk doesn't fit all; they need to be made in different shapes, sizes, and styles. Thus, mass production isn't possible to do with limited resources. Instead, these will be treated as a niche, speciality item, tailored to the consumer and built with quality to last. All of the other products are mass produced, and are smaller, less complex tech items. We beat our competitors with better quality, tailored to a more high-end market.

Position:

1. Higher Quality

  • Our products are made with better materials than Ikea, with thicker wood
  • Our products are handmade, which conveys a more serious appeal to wealthier customers
  • Our products are sturdier, and will last far longer than any Ikea product

2. Better charging

  • Ikea products use low-end wireless chargers
  • Our chargers can be built in to pullout sections of the furniture, allowing for easy storage
  • Because of customization, we can include multiple chargers in one desk, allowing multiple devices to be charged at once, to Ikea's one

3. Safer

  • Our product will use a unique wiring system without the need for exposed chords
  • the quality of our materials means the likely hood of breaks occurring and hurting the user are lower
  • The emphasis on human oversight makes it a more personal product, people would rather put their safety in another person's hands, not some empathy-less machine

3. Major Technical Hurdles

1. The wireless chargers are difficult to make in and of themselves

  • the current technology is nascent
  • hasn't been reproduced on a large scale
  • would require investment in connecting wireless ports

2. The technology is incredibly expensive to produce, especially over the size of a full desk

  • current wireless charges can go for more than $100 dollars
  • we would need to learn to produce them at a fraction of the cost
  • this new tech can't avoid any safety precautions, which can be pricey

3. Safety precautions and failsafes are necessary to ensure no electricity is conducted through not desired people/items. Thus, the desk would likely need designated "ports."

  • these are luxury items, technical failures could cause serious damage and ruin the brand
  • we have a basic obligation to ensure the safety of our consumers
  • A failure could cause an electrical fire, destroying devices, the desk, and the home around it

4. The desks would have to be extensively tested to ensure that the electrical load doesn't blow a circuit. This might require complex circuitry to lessen the load.

  • one failure in the system could cause a chain reaction, ruining the product, and making our investments worthless
  • there is no existing technology creating circuits of wireless charging
  • good circuitry is a must to to lessen the energy load, and prevent excessive electrical use, which could be costly

WHM Comment - 80/90 - revise and resubmit the product positioning for full credit

Competitors - 30/30

Product Positioning - 20/30 - you discussed production strategy and implied a product positioning - (craft as opposed to IKEA mass produced); I want you to revise this and give me three distinct elements of your product positioning relative to IKEA which makes an or-equal product, and explain each distinct element with either a paragraph or 3 IB style evidence-based bullets

Major Technical Hurdles - 30/30