San Diego is home to some of the best medical device companies in the world.

A great climate, thought leadership, and top notch universities in the area attract and retain world class talent from all around the globe. It should come as no surprise then that people passionate about medical device product development in San Diego have  started smaller communities, leadership groups, and organizations to help facilitate networking, promotional events and continued thought leadership in the medical device arena.

The following list is compiled of groups, events and gatherings that meet monthly and / or annually in the San Diego area to help spur continued innovation within the industry.

San Diego Groups and Events And Companies

The San Diego Medical Device User Group.

A List Of The San Diego Medical Device Companies

San Diego Medical Device Technology Meetup

The Health Technology Forum

Wireless Health Hub

The San Diego Biotechnology Network

The MEDevice Forum San Diego Trade Show

Multiple BioCom Events

Have your own event that you would like to tell us about? Please leave  comment below or send an email to Us.

San Diego Product Development

At Leardon Solutions, we eat, breath, and sleep product development. It’s something that we’re extremely passionate about. Everyone has an innovator / entrepreneur buried within and the funnest part of our job is helping people bring that innovator / entrepreneur out by creating an environment of collaboration that combines industry experience, creative drive and thought leadership.

Since 2005, we’ve been working with the product development community within San Diego and globally. We have discovered that San Diego product development isn’t only great for innovators and entrepreneurs just starting their journey, but also has the talent to create some truly amazing startup teams especially in the areas of consumer electronics, medical device and diagnostic equipment, health and fitness, and sporting goods.

The large biotech innovators in San Diego create a high quality leadership minded talent pool perfect for the kind of teams looking to develop disruptive technologies and devices within specific niche markets.

If you’re in Southern California and ready to take the leap of faith with your product idea, We suggest that you do your research and pick a team close to home if possible. Working with a local team that you may have face to face meetings with while reviewing physical prototypes can have several advantages such as avoiding communication pitfalls and costly time delays.

Have questions about your product development journey? Contact us today, we may be able to help.

Preparing Your Product For Retail

Here at Leardon solutions we pride ourselves in taking the burden of product development and manufacturing off of our clients shoulders so that they can concentrate on sales and marketing aspects of the business. If your small business or start-up is aiming at retail shelves then you’ll want to keep these 5 tips for preparing your product for retail in mind.

Design For Retail Shelves

Floor space in brick and mortar is expensive so your product + packaging must take up as little retail real estate as possible. Go to your ideal retailers and take notes on similar products and packaging. Where are they on the shelf? Do they hang, stack, ect? How durable is the packaging?

Once you have gathered sufficient information you may want to evaluate the need for a packaging specialist. Only choose reputable companies who have experience in designing packaging for the stores you are targeting.

Get To Know Your Retailers NOW

Select retail partners early and study their floor layouts, displays, product categories. You will get a better understanding of the product buying cycles by doing your research, networking and asking store managers about regional and nationwide buyer information. Prepare to ship the product to buyers and wait 4-6 weeks before hearing anything back.

Get Familiar with UPC

Each variant of a product i.e. size, color, ect.. will require a common UPC prefix # and a unique extension to that variant. Large retailers will want a business related prefix which can get costly. If you are targeting smaller retailers with just a few products then you may consider going with a broker who will essentially allow you to use their UPC codes at a lower cost. Here is a great article that quickly explains the options - http://guides.wsj.com/small-business/starting-a-business/how-to-get-upc-codes-for-your-products-2/

How Much Does It Really Cost?

Not only is it important for you to understand your true cost per unit but often retailers and potential investors may want you to disclose your true cost per unit as well. Just remember that your true cost per unit isn’t solely manufacturing costs. On top of manufacturing costs,  a true cost per unit breakdown also includes shipping, packaging, UPC costs and other expenses related to getting that product created and onto shelves.

Know When To Protect Your Product

We know it’s a scary to present your unique products to retailers, but retailers see thousands of products each year which means they cannot and will not sign NDA’s before reviewing yours. If an entrepreneur or business is worried about an idea being stolen, it is recommended that they speak with a patent attorney before development of the product. People who have special designs and brands should seek out trademark attorneys. In most cases,  patent attorneys and trademark attorneys are one in the same.

Last but not least you will be able to avoid costly mistakes by using a reputable product design and manufacturing firm. At Leardon Solutions,  we enjoy taking the stress of development and manufacturing off of your shoulders so that you can concentrate on making money. Your success is the key to our success. Contact us today to learn more.

Leardon -Providing manufacturing and prototyping services for small and medium sized businesses

The Leardon leadership team is featured on this week’s cover of the award winning San Diego Business Journal. Reporter Brad Graves gives an in-depth look at how Leardon Solutions guides their diverse set of small and medium sized business clients through the complex and ever changing world of prototyping and manufacturing in a global product development community.

MANUFACTURING: Firm Turns Clients’ Ideas Into Working Prototypes

By BRAD GRAVES

Leardon Solutions has seen it before. Its principals have been through the process of getting manufacturing right. Earlier in their careers, each of them saw firsthand how a company at the top of the Fortune 500 worked through its challenges

Big companies are typically familiar with manufacturing, but what is a small company to do, asked Joseph Donoghue, Leardon’s president and co-owner.

“This stuff isn’t easy to do,” he said.

Leardon saw an opportunity to market its engineering and manufacturing expertise, opening its doors in 2005. Today the firm, with seven full-time employees and six part-timers, counts more than 100 customers.

Its strong suits are mechanical, electromechanical, electrical and firmware engineering.

‘Like a General Contractor’

Leardon’s clients are typically small- or medium-size business owners who suddenly find themselves needing a better grasp of the engineering or manufacturing process. Sometimes those clients arrive in the middle of a project with the complaint, “How did I get here? Get me out of this.” That is according to Mike Hoggatt, the director of product development.

Any factory in China can tell a businessman, “I can do it, no problem,” said Donoghue. But things happen. In the last year, Donoghue said he traveled to China three times and to Turkey twice to make fixes.

“We’re like a general contractor,” Hoggatt explained. The general contractor at a building project understands the big picture. The plumbers and electricians on site don’t want to discuss challenges with the homeowner; they want to deal with the general contrantor, who talks the same language, Hoggatt said.

Under the arrangement, the client focuses on sales, marketing and ing, said Hoggatt. Leardon Solutions focuses on design, engineering and manufacturing.

Variety of Devices

The company shares space in Mira Mesa with Cal-Comp USA Inc. The table in the office set aside for Leardon is spread with devices that the company has engineered. They are as varied as a pool skimmer, an egg-shaped device to warm cosmetics, and a tap for a beer container.

Here is a horse massager, roughly the shape and size of a baker’s rolling pin. It has a handle on each end, and rolling, textured discs between the handles.

Then there is the device marketed by Carlsbad-based Aculief.

It is deceptively simple. It is a Ushaped piece of plastic. The clip applies pressure to a certain part of the lower hand called the LI4 acupressure point, relieving tension.

Leardon made at least 10 prototypes of the clip before getting it right, Donoghue said. The project was difficult because the clip could not be bulky. Nor prone to breakage. It had to apply force to the region. And, while doing all this, it had to look attractive, the president said.

Donoghue, Hoggatt and company cry-founder Murray Learmonth learned their working with Hewlett-Packard Co.

It was a valuable experience, Hoggatt said. HP gave the team a “1,000-foot view” of what it takes to develop a complex system, such as an inexpensive printer that would ship by the hundreds of thousands every month.

Teams from various disciplines in various parts of the world worked on the projects, he said. The work was complex, the pace was fast and the attitude was getting it right the first time.

There was also an intense interest in the customer — who that person was and what their expectations were, he recalled.

Prototype Importance

Today, Leardon is not locked into any particular technology. It doesn’t have an injection molding machine in the backroom that it needs to keep busy, Donoghue said, so the staff is open to all options of solving the problem.

A full third of the company’s business is from the United Kingdom and Ireland. “We are an export company, believe it or not,” Donoghue said. The partners said Leardon is thinking about setting up an office in the British Isles.

Leardon does not publicly report its revenue. In addition to its seven San Diego employees, the company has five employees in Taiwan (three of them fulltimers) and a part-time employee in the Republic of Ireland.

Other products on the table at Leardon are a handheld laser diode device for treating hair loss, a heat therapy device that puts a person’s hand in a vacuum sealed cuff, and nasal tubes for use in a hospital setting.

Prototypes have an important place in the manufacturing process, company leaders said.

Frequently companies want a prototype to show investors what the finished product will look like, Learmonth said. Very small firms that want to fund a product through Kickstarter Inc. or a similar crowd funding website need a prototype, Hoggatt said. Self-funded enterprises care less about being “cosmetically correct,” Hoggatt added, but still need to figure out whether there are any engineering roadblocks ahead.

A prototype product is good to have, Donoghue said, showing off the pool skimming device.

There are enough surprises during the manufacturing process, he reasoned. You don’t want the look of the product to be a surprise too.

Sign up for the San Diego Business Journal to read the original article here.

Need help with your prototype? Contact us today for more information!

How To Build A Beautiful Prototype

It is easy to get stuck in the “functions and features” mindset when building the first round of prototypes, but it is essential not to overlook the value of exceptional design for curb appeal.

A impressive prototype can help instill confidence in a development team garner much needed media attention and allow potential customers the ability to gain an early interest in the product and brand which may have the bonus of pre-sales and fund raising.

A remarkable design does not need to stall the product development process while undergoing prototyping, but fundamental characteristics of the end design should be taken into consideration if elements of the fit and form can be leveraged to reflect innovation and a competitive advantage in the market place.

Entrepreneurs, startups and businesses can effectively incorporate industrial design standards by maintaining solid documentation such as a product requirements document from the date of inception.

To avoid any miscommunication among stake holders, product documentation should have a change log or revision history that is easy to identify at a glance.

Poor design is often the result of poor communication. Assigning a project manager to oversee documentation, track progress and prioritize tasks such as industrial design from day one can minimize the risks associated with a communication breakdown.

In addition to thorough documentation, bringing in an industrial designer(s) early into the process is key to setting expectations that industrial design is a priority in the project. It will be helpful if the designer has  knowledge of designing for manufacturability and working with engineering specifications.

When building a product for the consumer market place, thought leading designs can be defined by their ability to convey straightforward solutions to difficult or annoying problems through the use of familiar fit, form, and function. A great design will incorporate current trends in industrial design while setting a new benchmark for ease of use and value.

The overall design, look and feel of a product does not and should not fall on the shoulders of one individual such as the industrial designer, but rather should be a collaborative effort of the entire team. This is not to suggest the “design by committee” approach, but instead, honest feedback from the entire team as the product evolves.

Innovative and forward thinking industrial design is key to a products success. However, it is important to be mindful of the market place and not getting too far ahead of the average consumer’s comfort level. An attractive design will incorporate familiar fit, form, and function, but not push the intended consumer to undergo a fundamental change in behavior to use a product.

Need help with your prototype? Contact us today for more information!

Southern California Medical Device Teams

Southern California has its share of innovative medical research and care centers extending from the San Fernando Valley all the way to southern most parts of San Diego county. These organizations play host to medical device success stories that often begin with an idea that is pursued relentlessly until that device passes clinical trials, is approved by the FDA, and then marketed for use all over the world.

Since we at Leardon are inspired by great Entrepreneurs and Startup teams that bring us many of these innovations and life saving solutions, we wanted to take the opportunity share some links that bring recognition to the talent and teams in the Southern California area.

While this first link isn’t exactly a medical device innovation, it is still a very cool program taking place in San Diego to help the next set of talented people with their mission in creating life changing / saving medical devices.

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/program_trains_professionals_in_medical_device_engineering

Second on our list is innovative, small, and agile team creating life saving medical device products by utilizing rapid cooling methods.

http://www.benechill.com/wp/about-2/

The third – develops a novel, minimally invasive catheter-based approach to an implantable therapy which invokes a biological response in the left atrium to provide a fast, simple and safe treatment for Atrial Fibrillation.

http://www.med-deviceinnovation.com/

and while last (at least for this post) but not least is a success story - NuVasive focuses on developing minimally disruptive surgical products and procedures for the spine.

Nuvasive currently has over 80 products. Learn more about NuVasive here.

Please contact us with any questions. contact@leardon.com

Many now famous entrepreneurs sat on their new product ideas for a long time before prototyping that idea and taking it to market. Those same entrepreneurs often say that their biggest regret is that they didn’t do it sooner citing lack of resources and information.

In today’s rapidly developing and evolving information super highway, an entrepreneur has nearly light speed access to just about any type of information needed. An argument can be made either way that the sheer abundance of data is helpful or harmful to ones cause.

Efficient entrepreneurs find ways to focus on the information they need and block out the rest. So what type of questions does an entrepreneur need to ask when exploring a new product idea further? Are there boiler plate questions to help narrow down and research information to avoid data overload and sitting on an idea vs. making it happen?

The answer is yes, and here are a few questions to start out with. If you cannot answer these basic questions, your new product idea needs more work before considering prototyping or patenting.

4 Questions To Ask Yourself About Your Product

Who Is My Market?

Identifying a market means looking at every aspect of your expected customer. This includes the average age, marital status, average annual income, geographic location, purchasing habits, and behaviors. Google is fantastic for finding information related to these statistics.

What Makes My Product Different? Better / Faster / Cheaper?

Product differentiation is key to successful innovation within a market. Combined with effective marketing, these two traits can make for a long term product run on the market leaving the competition in the dust.

Does My Product Offer Value?

Value comes in many different forms but mostly comes down to price, problem and quality. Does your product fix a customer problem for the right price and is it frustration free?

Is My Product Needed Or Wanted?

A consumer purchasing decision comes down to one of two primitive mindsets. Is your product needed or wanted? Depending on the answer, may give you some insight as to when to launch your product and for how much. Needed items tend to be more recession proof, but also have lower margins and more competition. Wanted items do well in the months leading up to major holidays and just when tax refund checks start arriving in the mail.

Have questions about your new product idea? contact us today!

Aculief Wins Natural Products Expo Award

When Leardon Solutions partnered up with the entrepreneurial minds behind the “Aculief” acupressure device to create a prototype and eventually move into production, the team at Leardon Solutions knew they were onto something but did not expect the success that the Aculief has achieved in such a short time.

While the product underwent many prototype revisions to get the final product perfect in the eyes of the creators, it didn’t happen without a lot valuable feedback from initial prototypes, friends, and family.

Aculief’s success isn’t only because of the effectiveness of the product, but also because of the founder’s ability to communicate the message visually with Aculief’s brand direction. If you look at the retail packaging, it is strikingly different than other products in the same category. The brand messaging conveys a message of trust and overall value.

Attention to product details and brand messaging has helped provide Aculief with several mentions in the media such as this article from the Carlsbad Patch and this award at the Natural Products Expo recently held in Anaheim California.

Have questions about Aculief or products like it? Contact us for more info.

Quality Control

A great factory relationship for a product development team is nothing short of a god send. However, until you have that relationship established, usually through a lot of business, the entrepreneur or startup can find themselves in a difficult situation with costs, quality and delivery.

Quality can often be the center of attention when product starts arriving to customers and the feedback is not all positive.

So how does an entrepreneur / startup team avoid quality issues when working with new or existing factory relationships?

One way NOT to handle it is through traditional finger pointing. Fewer things outside of finger pointing will guarantee irreparable damage to your customer / factory relationship quicker than asserting blame instead of focusing on solving the most pressing problems that are hording resources and stalling the product development lifecycle and manufacturing.

Often entrepreneurs / startups are quick to terminate the relationship with the factory based on quality , costs and delivery issues. We always encourage working with the factories and vendors already in place to resolve issues. The reality is, there will always be issues regardless of how good the team or factory is. Identifying a new factory, moving tooling and getting contracts into place with no guarantee of resolving the current issue at hand can be a tremendous waste of time and money.

If you find you and your team in over your heads with your current factory relationships, it would be a good time to bring in a project based or hourly consultant that has experience in your industry and relationships with factories. By doing so, you are reducing risk and decreasing your time to market.

If you have questions about your factory relationships and quality control, please contact us.

The Best Prototyping In San Diego

San Diego is known as an innovation capital in a few niche markets such as action sports, telecommunications and medical research product development. While those seem to be the core competencies of the majority of successful companies in the San Diego area, San Diego is also garnering a reputation for entrepreneurial product development for startups and small businesses.

If you are local to San Diego and looking to develop a product, you may find a wealth of opportunities and skilled product development professionals in San Diego when it comes to physical prototyping.

So how do you pick the best prototyping partner for your prototype?

Ask yourself these questions:

1) What market am I pursuing?

- Understanding your market and what product offerings are currently in your space will help you get an idea of what materials competitors are using. Prototyping with your desired materials is always a good practice because it gives you and your team a much more in-depth understanding of fit, form and function.

2) There are a lot of rapid prototyping shops, which one do I choose?

- We get this question a lot, and the truth is, it really comes down to your product requirements. 3d / rapid prototyping is very cool stuff and may be great for a product where the overall visual design is more important than the function of the product since rapid prototyping often doesn’t take a variety of materials into consideration. For example, prototyping a fancy new paperweight widget is great for 3d printing and rapid prototyping, but something more in depth with many moving parts like something as simple as a can opener or as complicated as a medical device needs to be designed and prototyped with tolerances for different materials in kept in mind.

3) Does my preferred prototyping partner have experience in my space?

     – It’s one thing to be able to make any type of prototype, but to have experience in the specific market is invaluable as it will avoid many pitfalls from prototyping to manufacturing. We recommend that you shop your idea around and not consider just the price of the service, but the overall value of the prototyping service. Value can include industry knowledge and manufacturing relationships as examples.

San Diego has some of the best in class prototyping / product development partners around. You do not have to live in San Diego to work with them, many prototyping companies have embraced and nearly perfected global collaboration.

If you are looking for rapid prototyping, 3d printing or building a full functioning prototype as close the production version as possible, San Diego probably has a great prototyping partner for you.

Have questions? Please contact us today for more information.