The digital ecosystem continues to develop over time, affecting various fields, including research & development in a business unit, including Torch. Thursday (8/7/2021), Ben Wirawan, the Chief Executive Officer of Torch.id, shared his knowledge and experience in the New Product Development classroom at the Bachelor of Management.
Having a background in Research & Development, Ben started his career as a product designer at an outdoor product company. Later, he continued his career by establishing a clothing business before finally focusing on developing Torch.
Torch, founded in 2015, is expected to be a solution to every problem experienced by travelers. This fashion brand develops simple, innovative, and practical travel bags and accessories for every trip.
“Consumers are the core of today’s product development and marketing,” said Ben at the beginning of his presentation. Before designing a product, we must understand what consumers want and what their pain is. To find out, Torch always relies on data. Ben said that at least, Torch always looks at data from Google Trends before developing a product.
Data also provides a significant role for Torch in spreading its wings. Ben shared how data from the Torch website and third-party apps influence the decisions his company made.
Torch’s growth cannot be separated from applying the Lean Startup method to the product development process. Its starts from ideas, developing an MVP, and testing to consumers, to doing iterations before finally launching a product to the public. The method is very helpful to build a product that meets consumer needs.
From this lecture, students are expected to dig deeper into how to develop a product from an expert perspective so that it will make them easier to build a product as an output at the end of the New Product Development course.
Written by Student Reporter (Nailah Shabirah, Entrepreneurship 2022)