In this week’s lecture, Dr. Simon discusses some reasons as to why a product can fail on the market.

Can you describe an experience that you have had with a product failure? (Either from a development standpoint, before it reached market or even a product failure after market- such as a personal experience or a product recall.)

One product recall that I recently learned about was for Tide Pods. A Tide Pod is a mix of small, brightly colored, highly concentrated detergents held together in a small, dissolvable pouch. The intention is to throw the pod into a load of laundry and eliminate the need for measuring. It seemed like a convenient household item and the bright colors made for a great design and appealed to customers. Unfortunately, children were also very attracted to the design and in some cases, mistook the pods for candy, thus ingesting them and creating a recall for Tide. Tide was able to overcome this setback by creating a more expensive but child-resistant container to prevent children from ingesting the pods. In this case, the failure could be overcome but in some cases, that is not always feasible or financially sound. (To learn more about it: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/07/the-problem-with-laundry-detergent-pods/index.htm )

What are some product failures that you have encountered?