What Every Product Developer Overlooks

I invented the selfie stick and made massive products. Here's my 4-step success system.

- by WAYNE FROMM

Product developers often have a critical blind spot. It’s something I still suffer from myself—and I invented the smartphone selfie stick, as well as more than 50 products for brands including Disney and Nestlé. Here’s an example of a blind spot that set me back recently. In 2023, I created a kid-friendly, hands-free drink blender called the Snoopy Magic Mixer. When it debuted at the New York Toy Fair, people loved it. But then I shipped early samples to content creators, and feedback was puzzling. They kept saying the same thing: “The batteries don’t work.” At first, I was baffled. Then they showed me the problem, and it all made sense. The Snoopy is manufactured with a little silicone ring, which disables the motor and keeps it from accidentally turning on. The ring had instructions printed on it telling people to remove before use—but the text was too subtle to notice. People thought the Snoopy didn’t work, when in fact, they just hadn’t removed the ring yet.