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Internet of Things - Knowledgebase

Research to market

Building one of our blueprints is a great way to learn something about embedded, web and physical design. But what if you want to take it further? What if you want to build a product and sell it? This is where research to market comes in.

You don't have time to investigate how to improve every aspect of your product. Instead you are going to choose one of the following areas to focus on:

  • 🧰 Embedded Technology
  • 🔒 Cyber Security
  • 📝 Business
  • 🔗 Web Application
  • 🖌️ User Interaction

Getting started

Here is a plan of approach to get you started:

  1. Choose one of the areas above to focus on.
  2. On your Portfolio website you create a new section called "Research to Market".
  3. Start by writing down your research question. What do you want to find out? What do you want to improve?
    • Don't make your research question too broad. You don't have time to investigate everything. Focus on one problem/issue.
    • Implementing your research will take time. Make sure you have enough time left to actually implement your findings.
    • Research and implementation should be balanced.
    • Your research question should be relevant to your chosen area.
  4. Write your research in the format:
    • Introduction / context
    • Research method
    • Results
    • Conclusion
    • Recommendations
    • Sources
  5. Implement your research findings in your product, create a new section on your Portfolio website called "Research to Market: Implementation" and write down your findings in the format:
    • Introduction
    • Implementation
    • Conclusion

Make sure you document everything you do on your Portfolio website. This is your proof of work. Include pictures, videos, code, schematics, etc. to show what you did.

🧰 Embedded Technology

The Embedded device you created is a prototype which you can improve on different levels. Maybe you can make it more production ready by designing and milling a PCB or by adding more sensors/actuators to solve bigger problems.

You can scope your research to one of the following areas:

  • Make your embedded device permanent and production ready so it can easily be mass produced.
    • That means, no breadboard, no jumper wires.
    • You will need to create a schematic in Eagle/Kicad, design a PCB, and produce at least a single PCB.
    • Then solder the components onto the PCB. You are free to use through hole or SMD soldering techniques.
  • Design and create a casing for the embedded system that can be easily mass produced. So no 3D printing (too slow).
  • Add more sensor(s) / actuator(s) to solve a problem.

🔒 Cyber Security

Because the IoT industry is relatively young, IoT devices are notoriously insecure, with lots of far reaching implications for society. The technologies used in your blueprint are not designed to be secure and can probably be exploited easily. Find vulnerabilities and harden your product, using standard analysis methods and hardening techniques.

You can scope your research to one of the following areas:

  • Pentest your application and embedded device against vulnerabilities from the OWASP IOT top 10.
    • Extend your application and embedded device with 2 security measures countering vulnerabilities from the OWASP IOT Top 10.
    • Pentest again. Are the risks mitigated?

📝 Business

What if your blueprint device would become an actual product? Inventing something is just a small step in the entire journey to bring your product to market. Without actually improving the device itself you can learn a lot by setting up a kickstarter campaign, in which you take notice of all the choices you have to make to actually make it work.

You can scope your research to one of the following areas:

  • IoT devices can use a lot of energy and can have a negative impact on climate change, but in other ways they can also help reduce the challenges of climate change. Do some research on the relationship between your blueprint device and climate change. How would your device contribute to climate change, either positively or negatively? What would you recommend to implement in your device to make the impact on climate change as positively as possible?
    • Create a business case for your blueprint device with a focus on sustainability. Determine target audience, funding goal, production costs, wholesale and retail pricing., profit margin. Figure out worldwide S&H costs including VAT and other taxes. And try to determine what you need to keep your company afloat in the long run (employees, job functions, salaries, office space, phone, water, cleaning, electrical, heating, security, insurance etc.). Note that you should keep in mind that after shipping things can get lost in the mail. 10% of your rewards will NOT get delivered.
  • Create a (virtual) kickstarter project for raising funds for your new business.
    • Start with creating a business case. Determine target audience, funding goal, production costs, wholesale and retail pricing., profit margin. Figure out worldwide S&H costs including VAT and other taxes. And try to determine what you need to keep your company afloat in the long run (employees, job functions, salaries, office space, phone, water, cleaning, electrical, heating, security, insurance etc.). Note that you should keep in mind that after shipping things can get lost in the mail. 10% of your rewards will NOT get delivered.
    • Then create the kickstarter page, complete with reward tiers, a movie clip showing the finished product, and the manual. Remember that the days that funding could be successful on an idea alone are over. People nowadays want to know what they are getting in advance and want to see at least pictures/ a movie of the product in action. So show mockups of the finished product, and/or your poc in action. Sell your product!

🔗 Web Application

The chosen web platforms and communication protocols used in the blueprint phase might not be the first choice for everyone. In the profile phase you may improve your web application in any way, as long as you can substantiate why your choice of framework is considerably better than the current one used. What options and features are preferable for your product? What frameworks or techniques better suit your needs?

You can scope your research to one of the following areas:

  • Use an existing, modern and adequate framework(s) to improve the front-end and back-end of your web-application.
  • Find new and better ways for your device to communicate with your application.

🖌️ User Interaction

Your blueprint can become anything. But not everything has a specific purpose. Choosing this profile you will perform a small research in order to improve and extend your blueprint in a way it will actually solve a problem for a specific target audience. Your pet-tracker can become a vehicle tracker. You game console can become a chess-controller. Everything is possible, as long as you can make it plausible that your product will be wanted by somebody.

You can scope your research to one of the following areas:

  • Use existing techniques to
    • determine a target audience
    • determine a specific "problem" that members of your target audience want to see solved
    • ideate on solutions for these problems
    • prototype or realise your solutions
    • test your solutions
  • Examples of techniques you could use
    • User research
      • Interviews: what are your users like? when/where/how would they use your product?
      • Desk research: find information about your type of users online
    • Ideation
      • Brainstorm
      • Mindmap
      • Analysis of similar products
      • Sketch out ideas
    • Prototyping
      • Make a prototype out of cardboard or a clickable prototype in in a tool like Figma if you are focusing on a digital interface
      • Change your product
    • Testing
      • Guerilla test/ rapid test: ask users to test your prototype, observe and take notes
      • Formal user test: create a testplan, determine which goals and metrics to measure, ask users to test and observe, measure and take notes.