An important message, some Coast Guard changes of note, and in the “not surprising but still” department…
Let’s say I have an idea or innovation for a sailing related product. We’ll use a self-steering gear as an example. Windvane self-steering is an interesting design problem because there are really only a couple of design envelopes and most all of the existing designs are modified copies of designs from the 1960s.
As there are only self-steering gears based on auxiliary rudders or servo-pendulum systems, there are only a few ways to make that better mousetrap.
- Improve performance
- Refine design
- Lower costs
Improving performance is obvious since making things work better is something of a no brainer. As it happens, most performance improvements are from user feedback rather than the original designer. Feedback is a needful part of the evolution process.
Refining a design, in my experience, has to do with being able to replace “seemed like a good idea at the time” to what you really wanted to do in the first place but could not afford to do before. In short, mostly just making it pretty.
Lastly, lowering costs is a vital part of the design process. Mostly done by existing competitors or someone who sees market potential in a lower priced product. Cutting costs is the most important part of the design process. Lower prices fuels innovation, incorporates improvements, while expanding the market. All goodly things.
I mention this because the other day someone mentioned that…
“no one buys self-steering gears anymore”.
And, you know, that person was right.
Seriously, when was the last time you heard of an improvement in self-steering? Rightly perceived as dinosaur tech, gears quit evolving ages ago. They’re way overpriced. It’s a great example of a dead man walking business model.
Bummer that.