April 27, 2024 • 19 mins
Ever wondered about the secret sauce that turns a spark of an idea into a tangible, market-winning product? Wayne from E-Stim Systems is here to lift the veil on the alchemy of product development. From a simple scribble in his little black book to the thrill of seeing the final product on the shelves, Wayne walks us through the meticulous yet playful journey of innovation. He unveils how customer feedback, including those painful-to-hear critiques, serves as a cornerstone for the continual improvement of E-Stim gadgets. Tune in to learn how the voice of the consumer becomes the catalyst for our evolution, and how our three golden rules of development—enhance, serve, and profit—inform every decision, be it upgrading our Series 2b or choosing the next game-changer to launch.
You'll hear firsthand the trials and triumphs faced when bringing original designs to life, as we recounts the odyssey from brainstorming to 3D modeling, and from prototyping to the final reveal. Discover the sting of imitation and the passion that drives us to outpace copycats, ensuring that quality and originality remain the hallmarks of what we do. We share tales of learning from failure, the necessity of thorough testing, and the unexpected influence of product reviewers, proving that the path to perfection is paved with perseverance.
Finally, we pull back the curtain on a strategic approach to product launches and unwavering customer support. We're all about timing our releases with precision, guaranteeing we're fully stocked and ready to wow at just the right moment.
We talk about emphasizes the importance of supporting and enhancing our existing lineup to keep even our oldest products from becoming yesterday's news, as well as providing insight into our decision to focus on in-house expertise over outsourcing design and highlights how every strategy we implement is designed to fortify company integrity and fortify the trust our customers have in us.
Join us for an episode charged with tales of ingenuity, strategy, and a relentless pursuit of excellence in the electrifying world of product creation.
Drop us a message, we cannot reply directly but it would be great to here from you
"I make sex toys" is a the personal podcast of Wayne Allen, the Director of E-Stim Systems. The content of these podcasts are not designed to be Explicit or Erotic but we may discuss adult topics and therefore these podcasts are not suitable for children or those of a nervous disposition. You have been warned.
If you are interested in E-Stim Systems the company, or any of our products, have a look at https://www.e-stim.me/buy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Wayne (00:00):
Hello, it's Wayne here from E-Stim Systems, and today's
topic on the podcast is how dowe develop new products?
So, developing new products,it's something that all
companies do well, at least it'ssomething that all companies
should be doing.
And the question I've alwaysbeen asked is how do we come up
(00:21):
with new products?
And the simple answer is wethink about them.
The key for us is we play withour own products.
We actually play with what wemake, and one of the benefits of
playing with what we make is wesoon realize what works and
what doesn't work.
So we might have come up withthe world's greatest electrode
design and when we actually cometo use it, it's not quite what
(00:41):
we expected it to be, justdoesn't work the way that we
think it should work.
So what do we do?
And the answer is we modify it,we come up with a different
design or we tweak the design tobring it more into our
expectations.
So the first thing is we playwith our products.
The second thing is we talk toour customers and we listen to
our customers.
Now a lot of people go no, youdon't.
I say these things and you justdon't listen to us.
(01:03):
And the reason for that a lotof the time is people don't
realize how long it actuallytakes to do anything in business
.
Because we're running abusiness, we have to do the
day-to-day production, we haveto fulfill those orders, and it
doesn't leave vast amounts oftime to allow us to develop new
products.
Whenever a customer saysanything, we think about it.
Sometimes we write it down.
I do actually have my infamouslittle black book and if anyone
(01:27):
who knows me will see me walkingaround a lot of the time with a
black book, it's a notepad andthe reason I carry a black book
it allows me to write ideas down, to scribble designs, to just
generally just have a memoir, togive me some ability to
remember ideas that might cropup at any point, and not just
whilst I'm running a business orwhilst I'm talking to a
(01:48):
customer.
It might be we're in arestaurant and suddenly, ah,
I've just had a thought.
Or I go shopping and look atutensils and Tescos and suddenly
go, oh, actually that could beutilised, or that idea or that
design could be utilised insomething that we make.
So it goes into my little Macbook and it's probably the most
valuable thing I actually ownbecause it's got half my brain
inside there.
But the thing is we do listento customers and we listen to
(02:13):
customers in many ways.
We listen to what people poston social media.
We listen to what people poston forums.
We listen to what people aretelling us when we're having
conversations on the phone.
Sometimes it's a case of we'redealing with someone who's
complaining about something.
Now, complaints is a whole newarea to play with and at some
point in time I will do apodcast about dealing with
complaints.
But if you're in business, ifyou're creating anything whether
(02:34):
it's a YouTube video or anelectrode or anything people are
going to complain.
It's a fact of life.
The only time people aren'tgoing to complain is if only one
person's ever bought it or oneperson's ever seen it, and then
generally they're not going tocomplain because there's only
one person there.
But people will complain.
Now I look at complaints inseveral ways.
The thing is, if someone'staking the time to complain,
(02:55):
there is something wrong.
It doesn't necessarily meanthere is something wrong with
the product or the service ordepending on what they're
complaining about, but it mightbe perception.
So the fault, actually, if itis perception, the fault is down
to you, because you haven'texplained it enough to a
customer to allow a customer todeal with their own expectations
(03:16):
.
So if they think it's going todo something and you haven't
made it clear it doesn't do thatand they then complain it
doesn't do that something, thenthere's where the complaint is
and there's where the reason forthe complaint.
So it's a case of we alwayslisten to customers' complaints
because after a while you startto get a feel for things, and
when I say after a while we'vebeen doing this for 20 years
it's quite a lot of time to geta feel for things.
(03:37):
Fundamentally, if people arecomplaining about something,
potentially there is somethingwrong or there is something that
can be changed to improve aproduct.
We actually have three rules.
When it comes to designing anddeveloping any product or making
any changes within business, wehave three rules.
The first rule is does itimprove the product?
(03:58):
Is it going to make the productbetter in some way?
Second rule is does it improvethe service?
Is it going to make the servicebetter for a customer?
And the third rule is does itimprove the service?
Is it going to make the servicebetter for a customer?
And the third rule is will itimprove the bottom line?
After all, we are a business.
I employ 12 people.
Now I have to ensure that Ihave a business that makes a
profit, which allows us to paythe staff reasonably and also
(04:18):
allows us to develop new ideasand invest in the business.
I don't drive a Porsche.
I drive a Peugeot.
All the money that we have inthe business is used to develop
new ideas, new processes withinthe business.
It's called investing in thebusiness.
So the key here is we listen towhat customers tell us and then
we utilize that to come up withnew ideas or make changes to
existing products.
(04:39):
We change existing productsfrom time to time and we don't
broadcast it.
The series 2B, or the 2B forshort, has had around about
between 10 and 14 changes overits life, and most of these
changes are internal.
You can't really see themunless you really really want to
look.
There have been sockets thatchanged.
We've changed the sockets toimprove them, because the
initial sockets they were great,but then we had issues with
(05:01):
people breaking them more easily.
So it was like we we need tofix this.
We don't want people breakingsockets.
We offer a lifetime guarantee.
If you're breaking a socket,we've got to repair it.
So if we put better sockets in.
Oh guess what?
We won't have to repair it.
There are changes to PCBsbecause it allows us to improve
the build process and thereforeimprove the build quality.
When we first started out, thefirst 2Bs were all through-hole.
(05:24):
Now we're surface mount and Ithink we're on a 14D because we
name our board revisions.
That, at the moment, is thecurrent version and I'm not
actually expecting any majorchanges on the 2B hardware at
the moment.
Who knows what will happen inthe future, but we might.
We'll come on to future designsin a moment.
The key here is we talk topeople and we listen.
(05:44):
Those ideas that people arecoming up with, those comments,
are going into a big pot whichis mainly my brain and other
people within the team's brainsand thought processes.
That's where new ideas comefrom.
We also look to see what otherpeople are doing.
Let's face it, we're in anindustry where we do have
competition.
It's always interesting to seewhat the competition are doing.
That's always going to give usan opportunity to look at what
they're doing and go.
(06:05):
Can we improve on that?
We try not to copy people.
It's pointless copying people.
We know there are people outthere who copy us.
Yes, I'm looking at you whomanaged to copy one of our
electrodes and go, oh, it cameout in the 1980s.
No, it didn't.
You copied our electrode design.
It's really simple.
You copied it.
Please stop.
It's really frustrating when wedo all the work, we bring
(06:26):
something to market and thensomeone comes along and goes, oh
, copy it, and you do it badlyas well.
So please stop copying ourproducts.
We'll always look at what otherpeople are doing and going.
Could we create something thatis better than what is currently
on the market?
Because, at the end of the day,I want to be the best.
I want our company to producethe best products, the most
liked products, the most usefulproducts and have the best
(06:48):
service as well, because that'show companies succeed and
generally, I think we're doingreasonably well.
The feedback we get from newproducts in fact, the feedback
we get from all of our productsis great.
I love it and thank you.
Please keep giving us thatfeedback.
The next stage is we come upwith an idea and that idea will
be discussed within a team, itwill be discussed with our
friends, it will be discussedwith people outside who we trust
(07:08):
, and we get feedback, and thatthen goes back into the design
process and we then potentiallyat some point in time come up
with something physical.
Our design process because werun a manufacturing company and
we have the manufacturingcapacity in the workshops our
design process is basically foran electrode, for instance,
we'll go into Fusion, we'll do a3D design, we'll do all the
(07:30):
modelling.
Potentially we'll 3D print itto get an idea of sizing.
That's what we did with therings most recently.
Then we'll look at production.
Production design is differentto straight design, because one
of the problems with 3D printing, for example, is you can 3D
print most things.
When you come to machine themin metal because that's what we
do things get a little bitdifferent.
You can't produce everything inmetal that you could using 3D.
(07:54):
Completely different processesOne's additive, one's
subtractive.
3d printing you add material.
Generally Machining you'retaking material away, so you
have to work in a differentprocess and there's all
limitations to what the machinescan do, both in capacity and
tooling and all sorts of things.
But anyway, basically what wemean is we use 3D print to come
up with basic concepts in termsof sizing and shape and then
(08:15):
we'll look at going to themanufacturing process One of the
massive points about havingmanufacturing in-house is I can
literally go from my office andI can walk downstairs, load the
code up on a machine, press thebutton and break the machine,
and I've done that.
The first CNC lathe that we hadwas delivered in November one
year, and this is a few yearsago now because I think we've
had about three since then.
(08:36):
I was working on it over theChristmas break it was nearly
New Year and I was hand codingsome stuff because I do actually
go down on the machines and Ican operate the machines and I
managed to run some two inchaluminium that's about 3000 RPM
and I put a tool on a rapidstraight through the middle of
it.
Now, those of you who areengineers will know what that
(08:57):
means Basically.
Basically, it means I took aspinny piece of metal and hit it
with a large tool which damagedvirtually everything.
It tore the jaws out of themachine.
The machine itself weighs twotons.
It lifted up and went crashingto the ground because the torque
of this rotational spindlebeing hit by another tool was
massive and I actually knockedeverything out of alignment.
(09:18):
Apart from the tail stock andthe reason I didn't lock the
tail stock out of alignment.
I wasn't using it at the time.
It got rather expensive and wehad an engineer in after new
year and I think it took themabout three days to reset all
the alignments.
It was quite a big job.
Nobody got fired because guesswhat?
It was me.
I'm going to be honest if anengineer did that, they wouldn't
be fired.
If they did it two or threetimes, I'd be, yeah, seriously
(09:41):
hacked off and be worried abouttheir jobs.
There's two types of engineers.
There's those that have crasheda machine and those that are
lying.
But anyway, different storythere.
So we go downstairs and we'llactually put the metal on the
machine and cut the machine.
That will generate someprototypes.
Normally we make more than one.
(10:03):
Because these are CNC, these arecomputer controlled machines,
it's easier to make more thanone.
So we'll make a handful mighteven make 10, and we'll generate
some prototypes and theprototypes then go for testing
and we'll check those out andwe'll talk to people and say
what do you think and we'll getfeedback back and the feedback
might be positive and equally,the feedback might be negative.
Point is, the feedback gives usan element of does this work?
Doesn't it work?
Okay, if it doesn't work, thenwe have to make changes and that
then goes back into thatprocess.
(10:24):
We change the model.
We might not 3D print at thatpoint, depends what the changes
are.
But then it goes back into themachines.
We produce more prototypes,they go out for testing and
round and round and round incircles Prototyping and testing.
That process normally takesbetween three and six months.
Sometimes it takes longer.
Sometimes we just don't get tothe stage where we're completely
happy with the product beforewe release it, and we do not
release a product unless we arehappy with it.
(10:45):
I don't know why people thinkthat we're going to release a
product that just isn't ready.
Other manufacturers might dothat, we don't.
So three to six months oftesting, then it will get to the
stage where we're reasonablyhappy with this.
That's when we start to spreadthings out a little bit more.
That's when we might starttalking to reviewers and start
putting devices out to them,when we have people reviewing
(11:05):
our products.
First thing is we do not payanyone to review our products.
There are a few people who wewill supply products to because
they have written open andhonest reviews.
We do not control any reviews.
We do ask if people are doingreviews.
We'd love to see the reviewbefore you actually publish it.
We're not going to sit theregoing.
(11:26):
You cannot publish that.
Sometimes and it has happenedin the past, so I wouldn't say
sometimes it's quite unusual,but it has happened in the past
where people have published areview and they've missed
something or something has beensaid which we're looking at and
go I'm not quite sure that'sright.
And we've gone back to them andsaid can you just clarify what
you've written there?
Reviewers write their ownreviews.
(11:54):
Now, if we're passing productsout for people to review as part
of our testing process, thengenerally they're not going to
publish their feedback at thatpoint because it's feedback
about a new product, it's underan NDA generally and it's there
to give us third-party ideas asto what is working, what isn't
working.
So that's the next process.
Any feedback from that is thenincorporated into the project.
We make more changes.
Hopefully you're seeing thisprocess that just goes round and
round and round, which isbasically we make something, we
(12:15):
test it, we listen for feedback,we change it, we make something
, we test it, we listen forfeedback, and we just keep going
on and on and on.
Eventually, at some point intime, we reach the point where
we're like, yeah, we are happywith this product, we are now
going to release this product.
Then we go into the process ofwe now have to make the product,
because we have to make enoughto be able to sell it at the
point which we release it.
I really hate it when companiesrelease new products and then
(12:38):
you have to wait three monthsbefore you can get it.
So we invest in our product andwe produce the products and we
put them on our shelf in thestock room.
That's the point.
We're actually launching theproduct for you to purchase, and
then it's fingers crossedbecause hopefully we've got a
product that people really like.
And that's one thing you cannever really control.
You spend all that timedeveloping a new product and
(12:59):
it's like I really hope this isgonna go well.
Touch wood.
Every time we've released a newproduct, it's gone well.
We released the rings and itwent ballistic.
I really really mean ballistic.
We misanticipated the number ofring sets that people were
buying by a large factor.
We were running shifts, we wererunning overtime.
(13:19):
It was manic.
So the next time we produce newproducts, we're already going
to take that into considerationand we're already going to start
producing them way before weactually release them.
It's a good position to be in,but it was a bit manic for quite
a while.
Now, something we don't do inrelation to releasing new
products is we will never tellyou about new products until
(13:41):
they're ready to release, andthis is something that one, it
seems to get other companiesreally confused, because I know
a Eastim company, who happens tobe based in China, who is about
to release a new product andpeople are still waiting for it.
In fact, there's anothercompany in the US who have been
waiting to release a product for, I think, about three years now
(14:02):
, and I believe people haveactually paid for these products
, but they still haven't gotthem.
How can you run a businessreleasing a product, expecting
people to pay for a product andthen not coming up with the
goods?
It's just bad business.
Shouldn't be doing it, guys.
And anyone who's paying moneyto a company that doesn't
actually have the product on theshelf, why All you're going to
(14:23):
do is pay their financing todevelop the product and then you
might not get anything.
I mean, this is crowdfundinggone wrong, so it's something we
don't do.
We do not discuss new productsuntil we're ready to launch them
.
This sometimes causes a bit ofangst in our customers because
they start sitting there goingwell, I didn't know the new box
(14:44):
was coming out, and the answerto that is not until the point
we actually release it.
But we do not generally createthings that are suddenly going
to be superseded by somethingelse.
If we're going to produce a newbox, it tends to have a
crossover point.
Say, for instance, we're goingto come up with a new product,
the new 2B, as an example.
I'm not saying whether we aredoing a new 2B or not doing a
new 2B.
What's going to happen to theold one?
The answer is it's still goingto be around for quite a while
(15:06):
and we're still going to supportit, and not only support it.
We will still continue toimprove it, because that's what
we do.
We're not suddenly going toturn around and go oh, the new
one's out, forget it, you're notgoing to get any support for
the old one.
No, we don't work that way.
It's just wrong.
It's bad business.
Any new product that's going tocome out, there's going to be a
crossover.
Yes, there is going to be apoint where a new product comes
(15:28):
out and you've just bought thecurrent one.
Unfortunately, there's not alot I can do about that.
It's just the way things work.
When you're developing anything, at some point in time, the day
before you've released it,somebody's bought something and
the day after you released itthey're like oh, I could have
bought the new one, you didn'ttell me.
And the answer is no.
We do not tell people aboutthings in advance.
When I say tell people aboutproducts in advance, clearly we
already are, because we'retelling reviewers, we're telling
(15:50):
testing, but for the generalpopulation, we're not going to
launch a product until it isready for you to buy.
When you see the fact thatwe're bringing out a new X, you
might get a couple of daysnotice because we're going to
start putting about it on socialmedia.
And there are certain times ofthe year where we tend to launch
products, like shows, becauseshows are always an opportunity
to showcase new things.
(16:11):
That's the whole point of doingshows.
So if we launch a new product,it is going to be available for
you to buy, subject to the usualstock things like that.
One of the problems we havewhen we launch new products,
despite the fact we still pushto get the manufacturing up
before we launch it.
Every single time we'velaunched a new product, we've
run out of stock because thenumber of people who want the
new product has gone nuts.
(16:31):
The Ring's classic case for usit was manic, I already
mentioned that but we don'tlaunch products until they're
ready and we don't launchproducts until we can actually
supply them.
When do we launch new products?
Well, shows are quite a goodtime to launch new products.
That's all I'm going to say onthat one.
Something that's interrelated tothis is do we do custom designs
?
And the answer is no, we don'tdo custom designs anymore.
(16:54):
I know there have been cases inthe past where we have done
specialist one-offs, butgenerally we don't because we
just don't have the time.
This whole process of designingsomething, developing, testing,
developing, testing it justtakes too long to do it for a
one-off, so we don't do one-offs.
The other thing we don't do iswe don't use design companies to
(17:15):
design our products.
Now there is another well-knowncompany who, if they're
listening to this podcast, youreally need to stop using that
company for your designs.
Why do you need to stop usingthat company for your designs?
Well, because at least one ofyour designs they published
before you did.
They put it on their website,which was a really great idea.
So, if you're going to use adesign company to design your
(17:36):
products, what did the designcompany know about Eastin?
What did the design companyknow about how to use your
products?
They're just a design company.
They make things look pretty.
What do they do?
What do they know?
They're a design company.
They design lots of things.
So how does a hairbrush equateto an e-stim electrode?
Who knows?
Ask?
The design company Doesn't workfor us.
I'm sorry.
I can't understand why youwould use a design company for
(17:58):
that sort of thing.
It's just me, I suppose.
Anyway, I think that's probablyme rabbiting on enough about
how we design things.
There's probably going to belots and lots of questions about
how we design stuff.
I mean, the obvious question isis something new coming out?
My answer to that is listen tothe podcast.
(18:21):
I'm not saying anything yet.
Thanks for listening.
Hopefully you find thisinteresting and informative.
It's certainly useful for us todo these podcasts because, again
, we get feedback from customersand it allows us to listen to
what people are thinking aboutwhat we're doing.
They're thinking about ourproducts and we feed that back
into the matrix of how do weimprove our products?
And we try to improve ourproducts all of the time.
We don't just stop and go.
It works.
It's selling lots.
(18:42):
There's always this questioncan we improve it?
Can we make it better?
The three roles I mentioned.
We do genuinely use those inthe business for virtually
everything we do, whether it'sbuying a new machine, creating
new products, changing stockistsfor toilet rolls Actually, no,
we don't do it for toilet rolls,but you get the idea.
Does it improve the product?
Does it improve the service?
Does it improve the bottom line?
(19:03):
If you get two out of thosethree, we're probably going to
do it.
If you get three out of three.
My question then is why aren'twe doing it already?
That's the way of doingbusiness.
So that's about it.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Wayne, I'm the MD of E-StimSystems and, yes, I make sex
toys.
If you're listening us onSpotify or Apple, please give us
a review.
Click the old star buttons.
(19:24):
You know how these things work.
I'm still learning about how todo podcasts and hopefully this
has been informative andinteresting and fun.
But whatever you do, please besafe and have fun.
Bye.
Hello, it's Wayne here from E-Stim Systems, and today's
topic on the podcast is how dowe develop new products?
So, developing new products,it's something that all
companies do well, at least it'ssomething that all companies
should be doing.
And the question I've alwaysbeen asked is how do we come up
(00:21):
with new products?
And the simple answer is wethink about them.
The key for us is we play withour own products.
We actually play with what wemake, and one of the benefits of
playing with what we make is wesoon realize what works and
what doesn't work.
So we might have come up withthe world's greatest electrode
design and when we actually cometo use it, it's not quite what
(00:41):
we expected it to be, justdoesn't work the way that we
think it should work.
So what do we do?
And the answer is we modify it,we come up with a different
design or we tweak the design tobring it more into our
expectations.
So the first thing is we playwith our products.
The second thing is we talk toour customers and we listen to
our customers.
Now a lot of people go no, youdon't.
I say these things and you justdon't listen to us.
(01:03):
And the reason for that a lotof the time is people don't
realize how long it actuallytakes to do anything in business
.
Because we're running abusiness, we have to do the
day-to-day production, we haveto fulfill those orders, and it
doesn't leave vast amounts oftime to allow us to develop new
products.
Whenever a customer saysanything, we think about it.
Sometimes we write it down.
I do actually have my infamouslittle black book and if anyone
(01:27):
who knows me will see me walkingaround a lot of the time with a
black book, it's a notepad andthe reason I carry a black book
it allows me to write ideas down, to scribble designs, to just
generally just have a memoir, togive me some ability to
remember ideas that might cropup at any point, and not just
whilst I'm running a business orwhilst I'm talking to a
(01:48):
customer.
It might be we're in arestaurant and suddenly, ah,
I've just had a thought.
Or I go shopping and look atutensils and Tescos and suddenly
go, oh, actually that could beutilised, or that idea or that
design could be utilised insomething that we make.
So it goes into my little Macbook and it's probably the most
valuable thing I actually ownbecause it's got half my brain
inside there.
But the thing is we do listento customers and we listen to
(02:13):
customers in many ways.
We listen to what people poston social media.
We listen to what people poston forums.
We listen to what people aretelling us when we're having
conversations on the phone.
Sometimes it's a case of we'redealing with someone who's
complaining about something.
Now, complaints is a whole newarea to play with and at some
point in time I will do apodcast about dealing with
complaints.
But if you're in business, ifyou're creating anything whether
(02:34):
it's a YouTube video or anelectrode or anything people are
going to complain.
It's a fact of life.
The only time people aren'tgoing to complain is if only one
person's ever bought it or oneperson's ever seen it, and then
generally they're not going tocomplain because there's only
one person there.
But people will complain.
Now I look at complaints inseveral ways.
The thing is, if someone'staking the time to complain,
(02:55):
there is something wrong.
It doesn't necessarily meanthere is something wrong with
the product or the service ordepending on what they're
complaining about, but it mightbe perception.
So the fault, actually, if itis perception, the fault is down
to you, because you haven'texplained it enough to a
customer to allow a customer todeal with their own expectations
(03:16):
.
So if they think it's going todo something and you haven't
made it clear it doesn't do thatand they then complain it
doesn't do that something, thenthere's where the complaint is
and there's where the reason forthe complaint.
So it's a case of we alwayslisten to customers' complaints
because after a while you startto get a feel for things, and
when I say after a while we'vebeen doing this for 20 years
it's quite a lot of time to geta feel for things.
(03:37):
Fundamentally, if people arecomplaining about something,
potentially there is somethingwrong or there is something that
can be changed to improve aproduct.
We actually have three rules.
When it comes to designing anddeveloping any product or making
any changes within business, wehave three rules.
The first rule is does itimprove the product?
(03:58):
Is it going to make the productbetter in some way?
Second rule is does it improvethe service?
Is it going to make the servicebetter for a customer?
And the third rule is does itimprove the service?
Is it going to make the servicebetter for a customer?
And the third rule is will itimprove the bottom line?
After all, we are a business.
I employ 12 people.
Now I have to ensure that Ihave a business that makes a
profit, which allows us to paythe staff reasonably and also
(04:18):
allows us to develop new ideasand invest in the business.
I don't drive a Porsche.
I drive a Peugeot.
All the money that we have inthe business is used to develop
new ideas, new processes withinthe business.
It's called investing in thebusiness.
So the key here is we listen towhat customers tell us and then
we utilize that to come up withnew ideas or make changes to
existing products.
(04:39):
We change existing productsfrom time to time and we don't
broadcast it.
The series 2B, or the 2B forshort, has had around about
between 10 and 14 changes overits life, and most of these
changes are internal.
You can't really see themunless you really really want to
look.
There have been sockets thatchanged.
We've changed the sockets toimprove them, because the
initial sockets they were great,but then we had issues with
(05:01):
people breaking them more easily.
So it was like we we need tofix this.
We don't want people breakingsockets.
We offer a lifetime guarantee.
If you're breaking a socket,we've got to repair it.
So if we put better sockets in.
Oh guess what?
We won't have to repair it.
There are changes to PCBsbecause it allows us to improve
the build process and thereforeimprove the build quality.
When we first started out, thefirst 2Bs were all through-hole.
(05:24):
Now we're surface mount and Ithink we're on a 14D because we
name our board revisions.
That, at the moment, is thecurrent version and I'm not
actually expecting any majorchanges on the 2B hardware at
the moment.
Who knows what will happen inthe future, but we might.
We'll come on to future designsin a moment.
The key here is we talk topeople and we listen.
(05:44):
Those ideas that people arecoming up with, those comments,
are going into a big pot whichis mainly my brain and other
people within the team's brainsand thought processes.
That's where new ideas comefrom.
We also look to see what otherpeople are doing.
Let's face it, we're in anindustry where we do have
competition.
It's always interesting to seewhat the competition are doing.
That's always going to give usan opportunity to look at what
they're doing and go.
(06:05):
Can we improve on that?
We try not to copy people.
It's pointless copying people.
We know there are people outthere who copy us.
Yes, I'm looking at you whomanaged to copy one of our
electrodes and go, oh, it cameout in the 1980s.
No, it didn't.
You copied our electrode design.
It's really simple.
You copied it.
Please stop.
It's really frustrating when wedo all the work, we bring
(06:26):
something to market and thensomeone comes along and goes, oh
, copy it, and you do it badlyas well.
So please stop copying ourproducts.
We'll always look at what otherpeople are doing and going.
Could we create something thatis better than what is currently
on the market?
Because, at the end of the day,I want to be the best.
I want our company to producethe best products, the most
liked products, the most usefulproducts and have the best
(06:48):
service as well, because that'show companies succeed and
generally, I think we're doingreasonably well.
The feedback we get from newproducts in fact, the feedback
we get from all of our productsis great.
I love it and thank you.
Please keep giving us thatfeedback.
The next stage is we come upwith an idea and that idea will
be discussed within a team, itwill be discussed with our
friends, it will be discussedwith people outside who we trust
(07:08):
, and we get feedback, and thatthen goes back into the design
process and we then potentiallyat some point in time come up
with something physical.
Our design process because werun a manufacturing company and
we have the manufacturingcapacity in the workshops our
design process is basically foran electrode, for instance,
we'll go into Fusion, we'll do a3D design, we'll do all the
(07:30):
modelling.
Potentially we'll 3D print itto get an idea of sizing.
That's what we did with therings most recently.
Then we'll look at production.
Production design is differentto straight design, because one
of the problems with 3D printing, for example, is you can 3D
print most things.
When you come to machine themin metal because that's what we
do things get a little bitdifferent.
You can't produce everything inmetal that you could using 3D.
(07:54):
Completely different processesOne's additive, one's
subtractive.
3d printing you add material.
Generally Machining you'retaking material away, so you
have to work in a differentprocess and there's all
limitations to what the machinescan do, both in capacity and
tooling and all sorts of things.
But anyway, basically what wemean is we use 3D print to come
up with basic concepts in termsof sizing and shape and then
(08:15):
we'll look at going to themanufacturing process One of the
massive points about havingmanufacturing in-house is I can
literally go from my office andI can walk downstairs, load the
code up on a machine, press thebutton and break the machine,
and I've done that.
The first CNC lathe that we hadwas delivered in November one
year, and this is a few yearsago now because I think we've
had about three since then.
(08:36):
I was working on it over theChristmas break it was nearly
New Year and I was hand codingsome stuff because I do actually
go down on the machines and Ican operate the machines and I
managed to run some two inchaluminium that's about 3000 RPM
and I put a tool on a rapidstraight through the middle of
it.
Now, those of you who areengineers will know what that
(08:57):
means Basically.
Basically, it means I took aspinny piece of metal and hit it
with a large tool which damagedvirtually everything.
It tore the jaws out of themachine.
The machine itself weighs twotons.
It lifted up and went crashingto the ground because the torque
of this rotational spindlebeing hit by another tool was
massive and I actually knockedeverything out of alignment.
(09:18):
Apart from the tail stock andthe reason I didn't lock the
tail stock out of alignment.
I wasn't using it at the time.
It got rather expensive and wehad an engineer in after new
year and I think it took themabout three days to reset all
the alignments.
It was quite a big job.
Nobody got fired because guesswhat?
It was me.
I'm going to be honest if anengineer did that, they wouldn't
be fired.
If they did it two or threetimes, I'd be, yeah, seriously
(09:41):
hacked off and be worried abouttheir jobs.
There's two types of engineers.
There's those that have crasheda machine and those that are
lying.
But anyway, different storythere.
So we go downstairs and we'llactually put the metal on the
machine and cut the machine.
That will generate someprototypes.
Normally we make more than one.
(10:03):
Because these are CNC, these arecomputer controlled machines,
it's easier to make more thanone.
So we'll make a handful mighteven make 10, and we'll generate
some prototypes and theprototypes then go for testing
and we'll check those out andwe'll talk to people and say
what do you think and we'll getfeedback back and the feedback
might be positive and equally,the feedback might be negative.
Point is, the feedback gives usan element of does this work?
Doesn't it work?
Okay, if it doesn't work, thenwe have to make changes and that
then goes back into thatprocess.
(10:24):
We change the model.
We might not 3D print at thatpoint, depends what the changes
are.
But then it goes back into themachines.
We produce more prototypes,they go out for testing and
round and round and round incircles Prototyping and testing.
That process normally takesbetween three and six months.
Sometimes it takes longer.
Sometimes we just don't get tothe stage where we're completely
happy with the product beforewe release it, and we do not
release a product unless we arehappy with it.
(10:45):
I don't know why people thinkthat we're going to release a
product that just isn't ready.
Other manufacturers might dothat, we don't.
So three to six months oftesting, then it will get to the
stage where we're reasonablyhappy with this.
That's when we start to spreadthings out a little bit more.
That's when we might starttalking to reviewers and start
putting devices out to them,when we have people reviewing
(11:05):
our products.
First thing is we do not payanyone to review our products.
There are a few people who wewill supply products to because
they have written open andhonest reviews.
We do not control any reviews.
We do ask if people are doingreviews.
We'd love to see the reviewbefore you actually publish it.
We're not going to sit theregoing.
(11:26):
You cannot publish that.
Sometimes and it has happenedin the past, so I wouldn't say
sometimes it's quite unusual,but it has happened in the past
where people have published areview and they've missed
something or something has beensaid which we're looking at and
go I'm not quite sure that'sright.
And we've gone back to them andsaid can you just clarify what
you've written there?
Reviewers write their ownreviews.
(11:54):
Now, if we're passing productsout for people to review as part
of our testing process, thengenerally they're not going to
publish their feedback at thatpoint because it's feedback
about a new product, it's underan NDA generally and it's there
to give us third-party ideas asto what is working, what isn't
working.
So that's the next process.
Any feedback from that is thenincorporated into the project.
We make more changes.
Hopefully you're seeing thisprocess that just goes round and
round and round, which isbasically we make something, we
(12:15):
test it, we listen for feedback,we change it, we make something
, we test it, we listen forfeedback, and we just keep going
on and on and on.
Eventually, at some point intime, we reach the point where
we're like, yeah, we are happywith this product, we are now
going to release this product.
Then we go into the process ofwe now have to make the product,
because we have to make enoughto be able to sell it at the
point which we release it.
I really hate it when companiesrelease new products and then
(12:38):
you have to wait three monthsbefore you can get it.
So we invest in our product andwe produce the products and we
put them on our shelf in thestock room.
That's the point.
We're actually launching theproduct for you to purchase, and
then it's fingers crossedbecause hopefully we've got a
product that people really like.
And that's one thing you cannever really control.
You spend all that timedeveloping a new product and
(12:59):
it's like I really hope this isgonna go well.
Touch wood.
Every time we've released a newproduct, it's gone well.
We released the rings and itwent ballistic.
I really really mean ballistic.
We misanticipated the number ofring sets that people were
buying by a large factor.
We were running shifts, we wererunning overtime.
(13:19):
It was manic.
So the next time we produce newproducts, we're already going
to take that into considerationand we're already going to start
producing them way before weactually release them.
It's a good position to be in,but it was a bit manic for quite
a while.
Now, something we don't do inrelation to releasing new
products is we will never tellyou about new products until
(13:41):
they're ready to release, andthis is something that one, it
seems to get other companiesreally confused, because I know
a Eastim company, who happens tobe based in China, who is about
to release a new product andpeople are still waiting for it.
In fact, there's anothercompany in the US who have been
waiting to release a product for, I think, about three years now
(14:02):
, and I believe people haveactually paid for these products
, but they still haven't gotthem.
How can you run a businessreleasing a product, expecting
people to pay for a product andthen not coming up with the
goods?
It's just bad business.
Shouldn't be doing it, guys.
And anyone who's paying moneyto a company that doesn't
actually have the product on theshelf, why All you're going to
(14:23):
do is pay their financing todevelop the product and then you
might not get anything.
I mean, this is crowdfundinggone wrong, so it's something we
don't do.
We do not discuss new productsuntil we're ready to launch them
.
This sometimes causes a bit ofangst in our customers because
they start sitting there goingwell, I didn't know the new box
(14:44):
was coming out, and the answerto that is not until the point
we actually release it.
But we do not generally createthings that are suddenly going
to be superseded by somethingelse.
If we're going to produce a newbox, it tends to have a
crossover point.
Say, for instance, we're goingto come up with a new product,
the new 2B, as an example.
I'm not saying whether we aredoing a new 2B or not doing a
new 2B.
What's going to happen to theold one?
The answer is it's still goingto be around for quite a while
(15:06):
and we're still going to supportit, and not only support it.
We will still continue toimprove it, because that's what
we do.
We're not suddenly going toturn around and go oh, the new
one's out, forget it, you're notgoing to get any support for
the old one.
No, we don't work that way.
It's just wrong.
It's bad business.
Any new product that's going tocome out, there's going to be a
crossover.
Yes, there is going to be apoint where a new product comes
(15:28):
out and you've just bought thecurrent one.
Unfortunately, there's not alot I can do about that.
It's just the way things work.
When you're developing anything, at some point in time, the day
before you've released it,somebody's bought something and
the day after you released itthey're like oh, I could have
bought the new one, you didn'ttell me.
And the answer is no.
We do not tell people aboutthings in advance.
When I say tell people aboutproducts in advance, clearly we
already are, because we'retelling reviewers, we're telling
(15:50):
testing, but for the generalpopulation, we're not going to
launch a product until it isready for you to buy.
When you see the fact thatwe're bringing out a new X, you
might get a couple of daysnotice because we're going to
start putting about it on socialmedia.
And there are certain times ofthe year where we tend to launch
products, like shows, becauseshows are always an opportunity
to showcase new things.
(16:11):
That's the whole point of doingshows.
So if we launch a new product,it is going to be available for
you to buy, subject to the usualstock things like that.
One of the problems we havewhen we launch new products,
despite the fact we still pushto get the manufacturing up
before we launch it.
Every single time we'velaunched a new product, we've
run out of stock because thenumber of people who want the
new product has gone nuts.
(16:31):
The Ring's classic case for usit was manic, I already
mentioned that but we don'tlaunch products until they're
ready and we don't launchproducts until we can actually
supply them.
When do we launch new products?
Well, shows are quite a goodtime to launch new products.
That's all I'm going to say onthat one.
Something that's interrelated tothis is do we do custom designs
?
And the answer is no, we don'tdo custom designs anymore.
(16:54):
I know there have been cases inthe past where we have done
specialist one-offs, butgenerally we don't because we
just don't have the time.
This whole process of designingsomething, developing, testing,
developing, testing it justtakes too long to do it for a
one-off, so we don't do one-offs.
The other thing we don't do iswe don't use design companies to
(17:15):
design our products.
Now there is another well-knowncompany who, if they're
listening to this podcast, youreally need to stop using that
company for your designs.
Why do you need to stop usingthat company for your designs?
Well, because at least one ofyour designs they published
before you did.
They put it on their website,which was a really great idea.
So, if you're going to use adesign company to design your
(17:36):
products, what did the designcompany know about Eastin?
What did the design companyknow about how to use your
products?
They're just a design company.
They make things look pretty.
What do they do?
What do they know?
They're a design company.
They design lots of things.
So how does a hairbrush equateto an e-stim electrode?
Who knows?
Ask?
The design company Doesn't workfor us.
I'm sorry.
I can't understand why youwould use a design company for
(17:58):
that sort of thing.
It's just me, I suppose.
Anyway, I think that's probablyme rabbiting on enough about
how we design things.
There's probably going to belots and lots of questions about
how we design stuff.
I mean, the obvious question isis something new coming out?
My answer to that is listen tothe podcast.
(18:21):
I'm not saying anything yet.
Thanks for listening.
Hopefully you find thisinteresting and informative.
It's certainly useful for us todo these podcasts because, again
, we get feedback from customersand it allows us to listen to
what people are thinking aboutwhat we're doing.
They're thinking about ourproducts and we feed that back
into the matrix of how do weimprove our products?
And we try to improve ourproducts all of the time.
We don't just stop and go.
It works.
It's selling lots.
(18:42):
There's always this questioncan we improve it?
Can we make it better?
The three roles I mentioned.
We do genuinely use those inthe business for virtually
everything we do, whether it'sbuying a new machine, creating
new products, changing stockistsfor toilet rolls Actually, no,
we don't do it for toilet rolls,but you get the idea.
Does it improve the product?
Does it improve the service?
Does it improve the bottom line?
(19:03):
If you get two out of thosethree, we're probably going to
do it.
If you get three out of three.
My question then is why aren'twe doing it already?
That's the way of doingbusiness.
So that's about it.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Wayne, I'm the MD of E-StimSystems and, yes, I make sex
toys.
If you're listening us onSpotify or Apple, please give us
a review.
Click the old star buttons.
(19:24):
You know how these things work.
I'm still learning about how todo podcasts and hopefully this
has been informative andinteresting and fun.
But whatever you do, please besafe and have fun.
Bye.
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