For Venture Labs' Technology Entrepreneurship course, fall 2012. This demo deck discusses our team's market opportunity, introduces the market domain, comments on a marked-up prototype, shares the results of our customer testing, and directs where to go to learn more.
2. What is 3D Printing?
Turns digital files into physical objects
Builds objects up layer-by-layer
Why 3D print?
Create your own jewelry or gadgets
Rapid prototyping
Develop your own replacement parts
Print a kidney?
3. Jewelry
Ornaments
iPhone cases, iPad stands
Custom chess pieces
Games for children and adults
Gun parts
Replacement parts for broken items
Parts to build new 3D printers
4. Acquire a design
Create new model in Google Sketchup, AutoDesk,
etc.
Download someone else’s and customize
Upload to 3D printing site like shapeways.com
Choose a material
Plastic, metal, glass, ceramic, and more
Place order
Receive in mail
5. Each 3D printing web site has their own
warehouse of models
Takes time to find what you need
Makes it hard to comparison shop
Thingiverse has free models but no ordering
Interest will grow as printers become:
Cheap
Locally ubiquitous
Easy to use
6. Provide a vendor-neutral marketplace for
models
Make it dead simple for users to:
Buy and print an existing model
Buy and download an existing model (so they can
customize it)
Find a pro to help design something
Buy printers, accessories, and materials
Incorporate gamification & reputation
8. Interviewed potential users and designers:
Do you know what 3D printing is?
Are you aware 3D printing technology exists?
Do you know difference between 2D & 3D printing?
Where to buy 3D models or goods online?
Would you buy a 3D printed product if a service
made it seamless to do so?
What factors are important to you in purchasing a
3D good? Price? Material quality? Warranty?
9. Prospective user interviews uncovered key
points
Unfamiliar with 3D printing in general
Thought it was future tech
Unclear on process for finding models
Unclear on how to turn models into physical
objects
Thought the technology was “cool” and exciting
10. Simplify sales funnel into basics
Don’t make assumptions about pre-existing
knowledge – we need to help educate!
Over-deliver on promise of simple & seamless
user experience
Website should be very visually driven
Make sure the customer understands exactly
what they’re buying (download vs real object)
11. Prospective designer interview uncovered key
points
Make the seller tools easy to use
Analytics helpful for tuning sales
How many people viewed
How many bought
What options they chose
Referring site, search keywords
Highlight popular and top-rated designs
Avoid printing errors early in the process
12. Provide rendering defaults that users can
override
Streamline upload process
Accept multiple formats
Timely error-checking
Allow designers some flexibility in customizing
their sales pages
Provide solid analytics