The Light You Need In Your Life
Lumos is a bike helmet that was created around 2018 and was even discovered by Oprah. This helmet here lights up so bikers are more visible at night. It also has turn and brake lights implemented so everyone knows where you are going. It is on the more expensive side ($180), but at the end of the day this product could save someone’s life.
This product was created by Eu-wen Ding who was a student living in Boston. He had several close calls with cars where they would’t see him at night and almost hit him. So he wanted to create a product that would help him get from point A to B without him getting involved in an accident. When it comes to the light signals you can easily trigger this with a small remote or syncing it with one’s apple watch and then making the signal with your hand. This makes this product easy and convenient while being worth the price.
This product was deemed such a good idea that apple ended up taking on the product and it went on to being the first helmet sold in an Apple Store.
When it comes to the steps that were taken to create Lumos, there were most likely multiple steps that were involved in our text book.
Product Life Cycle
The Product Life Cycle has four major stages that are introduction, growth, market maturity and sales decline. Market introduction would be were sales are low because a product like Lumos, has just been introduced into the market. The growth stage would be where the helmet sales rise but industry profits are rising and then start falling. Then there is market maturity where Lumos is at for the most part right now where it is leveling off with sales after joining with Apple and probably having to fight off competitors with similar night light products. Finally is sales decline where newer versions of the helmet that are auto-censored or have personal data tracking will come out and replace the old helmet.
Pioneer or Follower?
This refers to the technique of either going off on your own or making adjustments to an already made product. With Lumos they took the risk of becoming a pioneer, but ended up with all of the rewards. They received millions for the patent and even got to partner with Apple. It was a risk, but clearly the right one.
Managing Maturing Products
Lumos starting off as a light up helmet that would make you more visible in the dark. It ended up becoming a slightly better product after partnering with Apple and being managed as it became more popular. After maturing with Apple it was now able to be paired with an Apple watch that monitored signals for indication of stopping and turning.
New-Product Planning
A new product is one that is new in any way for the company concerned. There’s three different kinds of new product innovations and the one that Lumos is associated with would be dynamically continuous innovation which require minor changes in customer behavior. This would be the customer getting used to the bright lights and being able to pair the Apple watch with their hand motions for being able to turn. Not major adjustments, but it is a different product in comparison to most helmets.
Patent and Copyright Laws
Lumos probably went through with filing the government for a patent to exclude others from making, using, offering for sales, or selling innovation of their light up helmet. They probably also focused on Copyright laws by making sure no one tries to do an off brand product of the helmet and make a cheaper version that the public might like more.
New-Product Developmental Process
This process contains five steps which are idea generation, screening, idea evaluation development and commercialization. When creating and marketing Lumos the company most likely followed these steps and took a few specific ones associated with the process in order to make their product as successful as possible.
- When it comes to idea generation Lumos probably tried to get ideas from their customers and with feedback from data based off prior research or surveys.
- With screening they probably wanted to make sure that safety was considered with the product. With the Consumer Product Safety Act it’s important that Lumos made sure it met the standards so they wouldn’t be fined or possibly thrown in jail. Examples of safety precautions they took would be faulty wiring and making sure that the helmet is water proof, so it won’t short out in the rain.
- Another specific step that Lumos used would be creating prototypes and getting customer reactions. They built a cheaper model of the helmet and paid customers to test out the product while they were able to record their reactions in a controlled environment. Lumos most likely had the customers out biking and seeing how easy it was for them to use the light up helmet and if they would actually buy this product.
As you can see a lot of thought goes into product development and it’s not just an easy step process. If you take on this challenge just remember that trial and error will happen, but it’s important to keep moving forward. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments!
