Written by Student Reporter, Deo Fernando (Entrepreneurship 2021)

In enhancing student knowledge in developing a prototype of a product, the Entrepreneurship Study Program through Commercialize Technology course invited guest lecture Harry Anugerah Mawardi who master in Design. The class was held on Tuesday (02/04/2020) in the Nemangkawi auditorium SBM-ITB.

Harry is a lecturer in the faculty of fine arts and design (FSRD), who is the founder of a well-known product called Amigdala Bamboo. The business he founded is associated with processing bamboo-based materials into a creative product such as necklaces and also in the process of processing involving local people. The product he developed started from his research while at ITB where he developed a bamboo handicraft product design, from there Harry also saw the huge potential of the business to be developed.

In his lecture, Harry first opened by giving an understanding and concept of design, from the literature, the design  (as a science) is to design (Activity) a design (Concept) to produce a design (object). As well as prototypes can be interpreted as a design form of our product even though it is incomplete by following its original form but uses the same material as the original. If using artificial materials, it is called a functionalist mockup.

Then, Harry explained about how to make a good product or prototype. “When we make and sell a product, we have to pay attention to three things: Visual, Physical, and Logic. First of all, consumers will see from the visual first, whether the product looks good or not. Then, the next stage is they will see from the physical like texture, shapes, color, and volume. The final stage is the consumer will determine whether he will want to buy or not and this needs direction and encouragement from us. An example is Uniqlo, the Japanese fashion company has a concept of a fashion product that visually looks common, but suitable for all consumer ages because of the appropriate color selection and simple design. Besides that, Uniqlo also has a soft and comfortable cotton texture.” said Harry. 

When develop a product we should consider three basic step as mention by Harry. There will be :

  • Early-stage: wild, flexible, out of the box
  • Evaluation stage: calculation, prediction, experiment
  • Final stage: Forecasting, projection, testing, costing

In terms of delivering good end products, consumers will have certain demands that will create different responses. We need to calculate and project it to receive the intended response that we want. Furthermore, in building a product we must know the resources and capabilities that we have to make a minimum viable product. “The concept of the minimum viable product is that we start from the most basic ones we can offer to consumers.” closed Harry.