WOLNA WiFi radio. Conclusions for the six months of existence
In April, my previous publication, I wrote about how the idea was born to make a WiFi radio for people, and how it eventually turned out. It was possible to think for a long time how best to implement this project, but does it make sense to think without experience? And I decided to act on the break. Not without errors, they will be discussed below. Who cares, velkam!
By the way, at the end of the article there is a video with a prototype of a new version of the receiver.
The previous article contained technical details. The same article describes the process of bringing a device to people, and covers such aspects of the product life cycle as:
1. Conducting crowdfunding campaign.
2. Production of small series.
3. Issues of reliability.
4. User comments and customer reviews.
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1. crowdfunding
If suddenly someone does not know what it is, google kickstarter or boomstarter. I used the Russian site boomstarter.ru.
Despite the hundred articles read about crowdfunding, I, like all newbies in this business, made typical mistakes:
1. I thought I didn't have to promote or advertise anything. Crowdfunding in itself does not give anything. Remember this as Our Father. Do not expect that the fundraising campaign itself will become a source of orders, and will replace your advertising. It seemed to me that the product itself would be viral. I expected to launch a campaign, as purchases sprinkled on their own, simply because my receiver is so wonderful. Of course this did not happen. On the other hand, if I did not believe in this, would I even reach the end of this story?
As a result, only after I posted publications about the receiver on different sites did people start visiting the campaign page more often, and sometimes ordering a receiver. What is very clearly seen from the image below (two humps are the publication of two articles):
Figure 1. A fundraising schedule for a crowdfunding campaign.
2. I have not described in detail all the functions and features of the application. It seemed to me that everything is clear from a short video I shot. But it turned out that this is far from the case. Wi-Fi radio is a new product for our people, questions rained down in a flurry. As a result, I had to urgently shoot a 15-minute video with a detailed review of the receiver, and answer questions. The main conclusion - the first thing was to chew information about your product and bring it to people on a platter, and then ask them for money.
3. I really did not understand the nuances of my crowdfunding platform. Here is what I would advise you to do BEFORE launching a fundraising campaign:
1. Find out in advance how much time is spent on moderation and PRE-moderation of the project. For example, after I created a project, added a photo, text and video, and sent it for moderation, nothing happened. Then I wrote to the manager of my project, a letter asking when my project would be published. To which the answer was received: “Please let me know when you are ready to publish.” I replied that I’m probably already ready, just please publish :) After that, my project was moderated for another week. As a result, it was published very late and on a random day of the week.
2. Find out how long after the end of the campaign the payment of funds takes place. It turns out that the money will not fall into your account the next day after the end of the fundraising. And it will happen on time, in accordance with the contract. I waited for about a month. I had to look for my own funds in order to fulfill the obligations to the sponsors on time.
3. Decide in advance to issue a project to a natural or legal person. When collecting money through crowdfunding, you have to pay income tax. If you draw it up on yourself as a physical person, then the tax will be 13%, if on a legal entity, then in accordance with the selected tax system. In this case, if you register for an individual, then the company that owns the crowdfunding platform will retain 13% from you. I made out on the IP, as a result, the tax was 6%, and it was necessary to pay it myself. That is, I received the collected money in my current account in full, minus a withdrawal fee (1%).
2. Production of the first batch and small series.
Since the number of receivers ordered was not large, and by the way remains so still, I decided not to order sealing in production, but to solder the boards on my own. And it was probably the most correct of all decisions that I took in this project. After all, only when you do everything yourself, you can feel the technological jambs laid by the designer.
I will not repeat what exactly the technological process of the receiver was assembled, you can see it in the previous article, I just note the bottlenecks that made it difficult to release:
1. A large number of components nomenclature. Unreasoned logistics. About 30 items that needed to be taken in 7 places. Just to go around all these places you could spend 2 days. But everything still needs to be agreed, to agree on drawings, terms, prices. If we’ve let the display glass run out, then all the production got up. And so with everything. Conclusion: you need to minimize the nomenclature, or at least the number of suppliers.
2. A large number of technological operations. Sealing, washing, checking boards. Body painting. Grout paint in the inscriptions of the front panels. Mechanical assembly of the entire product. At first, one receiver took about 8 hours of work. Now it is half as long, but it is still very much.
3. Reduced reliability with increasing number of components. It's simple. The more components, the greater the chance that they will refuse. Especially if they are Chinese. Especially if it is a display from Nokia :)
3. Reliability
Continuing the theme of Chinese displays from Nokia, I will talk about reliability and failure statistics. Of all the receivers, had to be replaced due to the inoperability of 10%. The main causes of failures:
- display failure.
- failure of an external power supply.
- cold soldering board.
- micro usb connector breakage. Although it is debatable, you can pull anything.
In general, the conclusion is only one: it is necessary to reduce the amount of manual soldering, and install higher-quality displays.
Regarding the replacement - thank God, I have a contract with the transport company, and the return and delivery of the replacement receivers do not cost me a pretty penny.
4. Reviews and user comments.
The most interesting, and perhaps the most controversial, with which I encountered, deciding to bring my device to the public. It is no joke, in total, posts about the receiver collected about 700 comments on several resources. In general, thesrach turned out to be noble, even experienced guys told me that the comments are quite impressive. Comments were divided mainly into several categories:
1. Who needs it if there is a cheap smartphone?
2. Design - bullshit!
3. Design - zashib!
4. Why is there an STM32F4?
5. Very expensive.
6. Comments with tips on how to improve and simplify the design.
In general, then filtering information is probably a great art, and I hope that I managed to make the right conclusions from the comments:
1. The receiver should be cheaper.
2. Design should be modern.
3. Need the ability to add stations manually.
4. Required: battery, stereo, bluetooth, fm.
As for the reviews of people after the purchase, they are much more positive and much more pleasant to read them. People thank for the fact that their life has become better, and in these moments you realize that it was not for nothing that you worked. And all of the above listed are forgotten. As proof, a link to a review of one of the buyers. I will not screen personal messages for reasons of ethics.
The result of all these conclusions was the creation of a completely new receiver, devoid of all the listed disadvantages. Its output is scheduled for early December. I will write a separate article about it a bit later, but for now I’ll show only a small teaser of what it will be.
PS And by the way, explain to me somebody in the comments, is it possible to post a link to your site in the article?
By the way, at the end of the article there is a video with a prototype of a new version of the receiver.
The previous article contained technical details. The same article describes the process of bringing a device to people, and covers such aspects of the product life cycle as:
1. Conducting crowdfunding campaign.
2. Production of small series.
3. Issues of reliability.
4. User comments and customer reviews.
')
1. crowdfunding
If suddenly someone does not know what it is, google kickstarter or boomstarter. I used the Russian site boomstarter.ru.
Despite the hundred articles read about crowdfunding, I, like all newbies in this business, made typical mistakes:
1. I thought I didn't have to promote or advertise anything. Crowdfunding in itself does not give anything. Remember this as Our Father. Do not expect that the fundraising campaign itself will become a source of orders, and will replace your advertising. It seemed to me that the product itself would be viral. I expected to launch a campaign, as purchases sprinkled on their own, simply because my receiver is so wonderful. Of course this did not happen. On the other hand, if I did not believe in this, would I even reach the end of this story?
As a result, only after I posted publications about the receiver on different sites did people start visiting the campaign page more often, and sometimes ordering a receiver. What is very clearly seen from the image below (two humps are the publication of two articles):
Figure 1. A fundraising schedule for a crowdfunding campaign.
2. I have not described in detail all the functions and features of the application. It seemed to me that everything is clear from a short video I shot. But it turned out that this is far from the case. Wi-Fi radio is a new product for our people, questions rained down in a flurry. As a result, I had to urgently shoot a 15-minute video with a detailed review of the receiver, and answer questions. The main conclusion - the first thing was to chew information about your product and bring it to people on a platter, and then ask them for money.
3. I really did not understand the nuances of my crowdfunding platform. Here is what I would advise you to do BEFORE launching a fundraising campaign:
1. Find out in advance how much time is spent on moderation and PRE-moderation of the project. For example, after I created a project, added a photo, text and video, and sent it for moderation, nothing happened. Then I wrote to the manager of my project, a letter asking when my project would be published. To which the answer was received: “Please let me know when you are ready to publish.” I replied that I’m probably already ready, just please publish :) After that, my project was moderated for another week. As a result, it was published very late and on a random day of the week.
2. Find out how long after the end of the campaign the payment of funds takes place. It turns out that the money will not fall into your account the next day after the end of the fundraising. And it will happen on time, in accordance with the contract. I waited for about a month. I had to look for my own funds in order to fulfill the obligations to the sponsors on time.
3. Decide in advance to issue a project to a natural or legal person. When collecting money through crowdfunding, you have to pay income tax. If you draw it up on yourself as a physical person, then the tax will be 13%, if on a legal entity, then in accordance with the selected tax system. In this case, if you register for an individual, then the company that owns the crowdfunding platform will retain 13% from you. I made out on the IP, as a result, the tax was 6%, and it was necessary to pay it myself. That is, I received the collected money in my current account in full, minus a withdrawal fee (1%).
2. Production of the first batch and small series.
Since the number of receivers ordered was not large, and by the way remains so still, I decided not to order sealing in production, but to solder the boards on my own. And it was probably the most correct of all decisions that I took in this project. After all, only when you do everything yourself, you can feel the technological jambs laid by the designer.
I will not repeat what exactly the technological process of the receiver was assembled, you can see it in the previous article, I just note the bottlenecks that made it difficult to release:
1. A large number of components nomenclature. Unreasoned logistics. About 30 items that needed to be taken in 7 places. Just to go around all these places you could spend 2 days. But everything still needs to be agreed, to agree on drawings, terms, prices. If we’ve let the display glass run out, then all the production got up. And so with everything. Conclusion: you need to minimize the nomenclature, or at least the number of suppliers.
2. A large number of technological operations. Sealing, washing, checking boards. Body painting. Grout paint in the inscriptions of the front panels. Mechanical assembly of the entire product. At first, one receiver took about 8 hours of work. Now it is half as long, but it is still very much.
3. Reduced reliability with increasing number of components. It's simple. The more components, the greater the chance that they will refuse. Especially if they are Chinese. Especially if it is a display from Nokia :)
3. Reliability
Continuing the theme of Chinese displays from Nokia, I will talk about reliability and failure statistics. Of all the receivers, had to be replaced due to the inoperability of 10%. The main causes of failures:
- display failure.
- failure of an external power supply.
- cold soldering board.
- micro usb connector breakage. Although it is debatable, you can pull anything.
In general, the conclusion is only one: it is necessary to reduce the amount of manual soldering, and install higher-quality displays.
Regarding the replacement - thank God, I have a contract with the transport company, and the return and delivery of the replacement receivers do not cost me a pretty penny.
4. Reviews and user comments.
The most interesting, and perhaps the most controversial, with which I encountered, deciding to bring my device to the public. It is no joke, in total, posts about the receiver collected about 700 comments on several resources. In general, the
1. Who needs it if there is a cheap smartphone?
2. Design - bullshit!
3. Design - zashib!
4. Why is there an STM32F4?
5. Very expensive.
6. Comments with tips on how to improve and simplify the design.
In general, then filtering information is probably a great art, and I hope that I managed to make the right conclusions from the comments:
1. The receiver should be cheaper.
2. Design should be modern.
3. Need the ability to add stations manually.
4. Required: battery, stereo, bluetooth, fm.
As for the reviews of people after the purchase, they are much more positive and much more pleasant to read them. People thank for the fact that their life has become better, and in these moments you realize that it was not for nothing that you worked. And all of the above listed are forgotten. As proof, a link to a review of one of the buyers. I will not screen personal messages for reasons of ethics.
The result of all these conclusions was the creation of a completely new receiver, devoid of all the listed disadvantages. Its output is scheduled for early December. I will write a separate article about it a bit later, but for now I’ll show only a small teaser of what it will be.
PS And by the way, explain to me somebody in the comments, is it possible to post a link to your site in the article?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/370887/
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