herausforderungen-einer-produktentwicklung-vom-problem-ueber-die-idee-zur-loesung.mp3

herausforderungen-einer-produktentwicklung-vom-problem-ueber-die-idee-zur-loesung.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

herausforderungen-einer-produktentwicklung-vom-problem-ueber-die-idee-zur-loesung.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Thomas Schmidt:
Welcome to the Online Newspaper Podcast. Once again, I've sought out exciting tips, tricks, tools and companies to help you be even more efficient in your day-to-day work. Get to grips with it and always be one step ahead. For this, I wish you a lot of fun and knowledge to take away. Yours Thomas Schmidt . This episode is brought to you by CleverWorks .com. The cloud software that makes your sales and marketing happy. Yes welcome to the online newspaper podcast. Today I am very much looking forward to Ulrich Wilhelm. He is the operator of a website, where it is about slope steps. But what that is in detail, we may learn from him in a moment. Dear Mr. Wilhelm, can you take us a little bit on the journey of where you came from and how you became what you are?

Ulrich Wilhelm:
First of all, good day to the listeners. Yes, my name is Ulrich Wilhelm. I am 53 years old and I have a very classic career behind me. I did an apprenticeship, then went through various stages in my professional life, and today I hold a responsible position in a building materials trading group. Yes, how did I get the slope steps? The story started in 2016. We bought a beautiful house and everything that arguably has an advantage, i.e. a beautiful view, also has a disadvantage. And the disadvantage in this case was just the large slope. So we are talking about a slope of 50% in part. And that basically challenged all of us afterwards. And yes, that's how the status quo used to be, that is, we stood there and then various problems arose and then, in principle, the story with the slope steps started.

Thomas Schmidt:
Perhaps briefly to explain a r slope stage . If you want to walk up the slope now, it's pretty steep. You can't put a normal step, it slides down, and now you've invented a step, it has to be said, that is shorter on one side and a longer step on the other. For me, it is interesting not only to talk about the problem that you have identified for yourself, but also how you have subsequently transformed this problem into a solution. The product, which is a metal step. As I saw, on your website, w hat did you do then to start to develop that and then actually have it become a full product?

Ulrich Wilhelm:
Yes, so that was already a longer process, the whole thing. So it started with me originally wanting to make a path up here across the slope and then I talked to the landscaper. And he told me that you can do all that, of course, but it will be very, very expensive. You have to do everything by hand. So we are talking about 15 meters of stairs and a cost of maybe 20,000 €. And then it just clicked with me and I said okay, then there has to be another solution. And then I started researching on the Internet to see if there were any solutions. And in the Alpine region there are, I would say, similar solutions that I have tried, but which were totally unrelated to practice and simply did not work in practice, because such a slope has the characteristic that it is crooked and humped, it has different gradients and so on. And so all of that didn't work out that way. And then I started to basically make drawings for myself on the drawing board, in this case the iPad, w hat can something like that look like? And from this, in the last consequence, the slope step was created. I'll explain that again in a minute, too, how I came to it. Perhaps now just in advance, so that the listeners understand better. Imagine such a small IKEA stool with the handle hole and there you now cut two legs very short and the other two you leave long. And then you can put this part on the slope, and thus you get a step. Yes, I then began to actually sketch this stage in the design onto paper, cut the thing out and glued it down and basically created a paper pattern and that was actually the first draft. Then the second design was to make the whole thing in a box and try it. And then I was actually already so far that I went to the steel constructor and said, I need now there such a prototype in principle . Yes, and then the steel constructor built the first prototype. And for me, another crucial solution arose here, and that was the question of how do I get it regulated so that I adapt the step to the different slopes? And from this came the solution that the long feet of the slope step were provided with holes through which a crossbar can be inserted. And this crossbar then rests on the ground and through the flexibility, i.e. through these different holes, the crossbar can always be positioned differently and thus the step can be adapted to different slopes. I then had the first prototype in my hand, tried it out and only when you actually have such a part in your fingers and can try it out on the slope, especially in practice, do you realize okay, that doesn't work like that or that's not so good. And one thing was very important to me in this whole thing. So I already had the idea in the back of my mind that I would like to market the stage, because I think that's a problem that a lot of people have. And my top priority was, I want to deliver top quality. Top quality then means that when I get on the step, it doesn't go off the rails, in principle, meaning that it can slide down, that maybe some feet snap off, that maybe the material is too thin and then people have to be afraid that one will break through, and so on and so forth. And so, over the course of time, I built more and more prototypes with the steel constructor until the saleable product was finally created.

Thomas Schmidt:
How do you prevent these long supports from sinking into the ground when the slope is perhaps unpaved and this then slides off relatively quickly, possibly.

Ulrich Wilhelm:
Uh, yes, so such a slope, as we had it now with us, it was partly already overgrown and the soil already set. There are, of course, slope situations where the soil is completely loose, which is where the product really does reach its limits. However, I must say, from today's perspective, I have received only positive feedback from all the people who have bought slope steps so far. This means that there are situations where it is perhaps not quite optimal, but where in the end there is a clear improvement in the situation. I can describe a case that ultimately led to the learning process. A customer then called me and said, yes, so it doesn't work out that way after all and the slope is too steep. It is partially all rooted. So it ar a former piece of forest and then I went there and had a look and from that ... first I was nervous, because I knew okay, it leads to mords problems now. But out of this eventually came another solution. And that is that an extension has been built for very steep situations. I did this again in coordination with the step producer, i.e. with the steel construction company. That even very difficult positions can be made accessible with step extensions, i.e. with extension of the feet at the front. And most of the time, if the slope is already a little loose at the top, then it's just on the surface. And if you then go further into the soil with the front long feet, then it already solidifies. And you actually have to try that out. If you then push this crossbar through the front feet and this crossbar rests on the ground, then it has such a strong stability in itself that the thing hardly moves. So it bounces maximum and I just said, I put a lot of emphasis on the quality. I then made experiments with elevator weights and put 200 kilos on one step . And then my daughter has still put on it. So that means the step, it didn't give a millimeter and it lifted over 250 kilos of weight. I just wanted to make sure that it was a good and safe product.

Thomas Schmidt:
Now let's talk about marketing. I mean, it's always the case that you might find an idea quickly, then develop a solution from that problem. The second fragment now you have a solution. Of course, no one knows about this yet. How do you go about it?

Ulrich Wilhelm:
Yes, that is a very exciting question. I have had to do with such things before, but in the end it is now so that I have noticed, I am a total beginner in this whole story and had to feel my way over a long time now. Sure, first or the first way is just to build a website. The first was then nothing sensible. I then totally relaunched them last year and then you have a decent web presence. But that's why people still don't come to the site. Of course, there are many starting points, and it's not something that can be done overnight. You have to dance on several weddings in the end, so that just starts, like these general well-known channels like Google My Business and Facebook and Pinterest of course, where you bring such a product times simply under the people. In the end, one big difficulty was that no one searches for my product because they just don't know it exists. And the word "slope steps" is not a well-known neologism, but rather something that is unknown or unfamiliar. And so I have now just approached. I always ask my buyers, how did they search for me and how did they find me on the internet? So with which keyword combinations? And these many search words, I expand them many times over in the meantime. People are really looking for all kinds of different names and word combinations, and I can already tell that this is a problem for people. But you can't say that I sell soap and optimize my website for soap so that it can be found, but I have a slope level and I have to rewrite it with all the keyword combinations and ultimately put myself in the shoes of my fellow sufferers, i.e. those who also have a slope or a difficult situation, so that I can put myself in their shoes, how they search, how they ask for the product.

Thomas Schmidt:
Wouldn't that also be something for the building material trade itself? I mean, they are always confronted with requirements from their customers on the sales side, m ight they not?

Ulrich Wilhelm:
I also thought that I had meanwhile made contact with several building materials trade groups that operate throughout Germany and even Europe, and in the end they said that the product is simply too niche, i.e. it lacks mass appeal, and that is what the building materials trade wants. They want to put a pallet where and sell quickly. This is more of a niche application, and that's why it hasn't come about like this, at least not yet. Who knows, maybe that will come.

Thomas Schmidt:
Now, if you invent through a new product, don't you have to protect that somehow? Not only from the trademark, but perhaps also from the utility model.

Ulrich Wilhelm:
Yes, that was one of my first approaches. The brand is not so important to me now. Okay, you certainly have to build them up and slope steps, at least I checked myself, is now so in the form not a word worth protecting? So you'd have to build something around it. But it wasn't that important to me either. I then filed a utility model application relatively quickly and it was granted immediately. That's there, but well, that was only half the battle for me. In principle, I then wanted to patent the whole thing further and then filed an application with the Patent and Trademark Office for a European patent. And in the meantime I also have the verbal commitment. Unfortunately, it is not yet in writing, but it will come that I will receive European patent protection.

Thomas Schmidt:
A great idea. And so we are already at the end of our short interview. Dear Mr. Wilhelm, thank you very much for the time you have given us and the interesting way you have taken us to give an insight into how from the idea here a product has been created and how you approach this. Thank you very much before we close. So are there any books that have inspired you in any way that you'd like to share?

Ulrich Wilhelm:
Yes, I can't name one in particular. I have read quite a few books in my life, but I can't highlight any one in particular. Perhaps I can highlight one direction. In the end, it was always or mostly about the fact that problems are not only problems, but they also offer opportunities and solutions can arise from these opportunities. And in the end, that's exactly what happened in this case.

Thomas Schmidt:
Thank you very much for your time and good luck!

Ulrich Wilhelm:
Thank you very much! I wish you the same.

Thomas Schmidt:
That's it again. Thank you so much for joining us this time. We have one more special service for you. Under Online News, Newspaper or Podcast Service you can subscribe to the Subscription Service. You will then be informed before everyone else as soon as a new podcast appears from the business area that is important to you, so you never miss an episode again. We are also happy if you subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Spotify or other platforms. Thank you for being part of it.

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