In recent weeks, Hulu and Netflix both released documentaries about Fyre Festival. As I watched the calamity unfold, I could not help but think about the similarities to product development and designing for manufacture and assembly (DFMA).
If you are unfamiliar, Fyre Festival was a luxury music festival scheduled for the Bahamas in 2017… that never happened. A brilliant marketing campaign was created and tickets sold out, but it was all sizzle, no steak. The creators never figured out how to deliver on what they promised. Thousands of people arrived on the island with nowhere to stay and little to eat or drink. It was an utter disaster that resulted in millions of dollars lost and a 6-year jail sentence for the founder.
Now, SPARK has never planned a music festival on a tropical island, but we do have many years of experience developing successful and functional products. While we work to ensure that the products we design are beautiful, we pride ourselves in the fact that our designs are always rooted in reality. As we work with clients from early ideation to prototyping to final design, our team is always considering DFMA. We do not want to produce designs… or music festivals… that don’t work — functionally or in the market.
After all, what good does it do to sell out your music festival, crush your Kickstarter campaign, or get your sales and marketing team amped up about a new product if you don’t have the expertise to follow through?
Check out the documentary for yourself or learn more about DFMA here.