What could I make with a 3D printer?
While thinking about products, I found myself asking a different question:
Couldn’t someone just buy something like that at a hundred-yen shop?
I was discussing product ideas with Kimiko-chan—my nickname for ChatGPT. This time, we were thinking about small items to make with a 3D printer.
I told her:
“We should make it possible to add names or messages…”
Then I added:
“Otherwise, people can buy something at a hundred-yen shop.”
I wasn’t trying to say inexpensive products were bad. Useful things that are easy to buy are welcome. But if I was going to make small items and offer them for sale, I wanted a reason for someone to choose mine.
For the maker, “I made this on my own printer” is satisfying. That does not necessarily make it satisfying for the buyer.
Add a name. Add a short message.
Even when the purpose of an object stayed the same, I wanted it to show who it was made for.
With that requirement included, I asked Kimiko-chan to put the business plan into a Word document.
The resulting plan described using a shared base design and changing names, messages, and other details for each order. Not starting over from scratch every time, but separating the common parts from the parts tailored to one person. It was a plan for a partly customized product.
My part was to specify that people should be able to add a name, and explain why that mattered. Kimiko-chan’s part was to organize that requirement into a written approach to making the products.
Of course, having it in a business plan did not mean the personalized products were finished. Whether people would order them, or enjoy them, was still something to find out.
What I wanted to put into words in that conversation was not just how to make something. It was why someone might choose it.
After “I can make this!” comes another question:
“Who would want it?”
Apparently, before the printer gets to work, my brain has another job to do.