Thingiverse + Odesk + 3D Printer = Idea to working product in 5 days.

Idea to working product in 5 days. Thingiverse + Odesk + 3D Printer

I’ve been trying to get my devices and charging and cables sorted out for ages. Thanks to Thingiverse, Odesk and a 3D printer at work, it’s done!

I have an Apple Macbook Pro Retina 15 inch, Macbook Air 13 for work, iPad, iPad Mini and Kindle Paperwhite which are normally lying around the house in various stages of charging and use. What I wanted was a “dock” or “home” so that they cause less clutter and live in one place. I found the Macbook Pro Vertical Stand by Walter on Thingiverse and, although it worked well for the one device, it didn’t solve the problem.

After some brainstorming and 2 iterations, I hired a freelancer on Odesk for $50 and he designed the current stand. The first version worked well, but I realised that whenever I unplug a cable it flys off the desk to a tangle below. I asked the freelancer to add some cable slots between the devices and voila! — problem solved!

Anyone wondering why I’m always banging on about problem-solution fit for your startup — this is why. You only understand the real problems when talking with real customers — in this case, me ;-)

The interesting part of all of this?

• Time from idea to first design delivered via Odesk — 2 days
• Time from idea to final design, including 3 iterations — 5 days
• Total cost — $50 for Odesk + a few $ for 3D printer material.

If you have any doubt that this combination of highly skilled, low cost freelance talent available instantly combined with rapid prototyping to create actual useful products is disruptive, try it yourself and consider the impact of this in future .

By the way, you can grab a free copy of the open-sourced design of the famous ThoughtStand — Vertical 5 Device stand + cable holder on Thingiverse.

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