Regenerative Design and Concept

Every regenerative product or service is born from a process of analysis and identification of the type of solution that we intend to offer. Many times, we have stalled along the way, have it not happened to you? What do we do at that time? To help you, I have made a compilation of 10 key aspects to take in consideration, when developing a product or service under a regenerative concept.

1. What’s the problem? What issue have you identified? For example: Excessive consumption of plastics, loss of marine biodiversity, pollution of rivers, etc.

2. What solution can you offer? What kind of solution will you offer with your product or service? What type of regenerative impact are you delivering (social, cultural, environmental, or economic)? Who are the main stakeholders?, being our Planet and Society, the main participants.

3. Who are your clients? Who will be your clients? Here, you must describe in detail the characteristics of your Buyer Persona (Profile of your Target Customer). What are their interests, their concerns? What places do they frequent? What kind of digital tools do they use to choose a product or service, which influencers or references in Regenerative Fashion do they admire?

4. Who are your competitors? With the current globalization, we currently compete with global brands, therefore, the competitive advantage must be closely connected to the regenerative value proposal that you offer. In this link, you can find some key tools to be able to carry out the evaluation of your competition. Take in consideration that a good start will be looking for market research reports like Statista, OMS, World Economic Forum among others related to our now days digital ecosystems.

Remember that in addition to evaluating what fraction of the market they lead, you must analyze how they are managing their strategic, operational and support processes.

5. Strategy of the Regenerative Product or Service: Here it is important to carry out an evaluation of the environment with a SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal environment, Porter Force Analysis, analysis of organizational capabilities the 7s and define if we choose to compete in an environment of high competition (RED) or BLUE ocean scenarios (minimal or no competition).

6. Define Key Processes: in the fashion sector are Research and Development, Concept and Storytelling of the product or service, but very essential is prototyping where we can quickly design, manufacture, and test the level of success of the new product or service and in addition to its final cost. One quote that resumes this part is: “Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.” — Robert L. Peters, designer and author.

7. Design and Concept: At this stage of the development of the concept and idea, agile and systematic ideation tools such as Brainstorming and Mind Maps come into play, as for the product development phase, tools such as Design Thinking, Design Tools such as Rhinoceros, Adobe XD, Sketch, Fusion 360 and others. Also type of digital technology that will be used for its fabrication such as laser cutting and engraving, 3D printing, milling, embroidery and digital fabric are used for prototyping and final manufacturing.

Finally, once the prototype has been validated, the production and marketing of the product proceeds. It should be noted that in this last part the marketing channels are today online, and marketing goes hand in hand with the development of a Digital Marketing strategy.

8. Selection of Technologies and Materials: This process is key because it will define the level of quality and alignment of the final product or service with the needs of the consumer. On the other hand, it will define the level of environmental, social, and cultural impact of the same. In this process, we will ask ourselves the following questions: Is the final product compostable? Is it biodegradable? What is the average lifetime of the product? What is the carbon footprint of your production? Estimated production time? Machine Hours, Man Hours; etc.

9. Costing, Financing and Production: After carrying out a detailed costing of the materials, labor, marketing and distribution expenses, production and administration, the correct thing to do is to carry out an economic and financial analysis of the product or service generated under 3 scenarios: the optimist, conservative and pessimist. Very important, define the percentage that can be financed with own resources and the percentage that will have to be financed by incubators, financial entities or subsidized by the State, if applicable.

10. Control and Monitoring: Here we analyze the results through an analysis of financial indicators, sales, production, quality, sustainability, social responsibility and very important the results of the surveys of our clients, because in the end it is about to determine whether our value proposition is meaningful to our customers and why.

It should be noted that aspects 1 to 6 generally correspond to the strategic processes during the generation of products and services, and that processes 6 to 10 correspond to the operational and support ones.

Conclusion, if you are in the process of developing a new product or service, the starting point is the problem or “pain point” identified (the need) and once the proposed solution has been validated through the prototyping process, you will be able to make your proposal of value is scalable through the development of steps 7 to 10. Another aspect to consider is that not all tools work for all projects, so the journey consists of identifying which ones really complement and will accompany you on your journey as a creator, researcher, bio manufacturer or/and entrepreneur.

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