Product development is hard enough but add social distancing to it and it becomes even more challenging. Our hand sanitizer is truly built by our community, from packaging to scent to size, we've had our community deeply involved. Here is a high-level look at how co-founders Amanat and Shubham developed and launched a hand sanitizer while in quarantine.
Before we began anything, we had a chat with our existing manufacturing partners to gauge whether they had the capabilities to produce hand sanitizers. Once we received confirmation, we started working on other parts of the product. Here is a step by step look at the messy world of product development (a lot of this happened simultaneously):
Step 1: Procuring Packaging
We sent our packaging vendor a photo of existing packaging that we thought would work for us (on the left).
Procuring packaging was especially tricky because due to COVID-19 there is a shortage of packaging supply world over. After some samples shipped back and forth of different types of packaging available, we narrowed in on our final packaging (above on the right). Even though the hand sanitizer is a more universal product than SoaPen, we still kept kids in mind while designing it and picked this bottle for a couple of reasons:
- The lid is a snap cap, making it very hard for kids to open the whole thing in one go and overuse.
- The nozzle is fine which allows for controlled pouring.
- Squeezing function makes it easy for parents to administer sanitizer on multiple kids.
- The 8oz size is perfect for at home and on to go use.
Step 2: Label Design
When it comes to design feedback, no one knows better than our customers. We have a strong community of parents who helped us narrow down the designs through online surveys after we mocked up a couple of design directions.
Pattern based design direction got the most votes so we went ahead with that. Post that we worked with our illustrator to finalize the label (extreme right above)
Step 3: Testing proofs and formulation
After finalizing the design we sent the labels for print proof and received samples of the formulation. Above is a photo of us going over the samples over video conferencing since we are quarantining separately. Once these got approved, the production started. Now the exciting wait began!
Step 4: Finish production and receive shipment
We received 3 pallets of our hand sanitizer!
Step 5: Ship orders to customers!
The best part is shipping to customers and here a photo we received from our customer.
