Between designing and manufacturing sex toys and building the World’s first Adult App Store Market, the past two years have been incredibly exciting, scary and rewarding at the same time. Compared to the mobile app world, the manufacturing world can feel very old school sometimes. I deal with raw materials, mechanical components, tangible gadgets and prototypes that I can craft with my hands and tools. Whereas with MiKandi, the entire product is delivered, experienced and enjoyed online. At first the transition from adult retail goods to adult digital goods, seemed like a giant step away from my resume. My friends and family sometimes would ask how I can be so obsessed with two seemingly different businesses and take on the 14 hour days that it takes to keep things moving and not get burned out. But I soon realized that the skills I’ve developed building our sex toy OEM/ODM business has prepared me more than I ever expected in building adult mobile products. That’s because both businesses revolve around the same passion I have for making products that improve your sex life and satisfy our deep need for pleasure. So as I look back on the success of MiKandi’s first two years, the saying “do what you love and you’ll be successful” is exactly what it’s all about.
For over 7 years, I’ve been focusing on making sex toys approachable and more mainstream. I’ve been obsessed with designing these products that are essentially on the edge, that deal with sex, your sexuality and generally things many people are uncomfortable talking about with their partners or even to themselves. How do you design something that helps eliminate some of those barriers, inspires people to open up and explore new sensations? Which designs will deliver a better first time experience and instill confidence in the user, which during such intimate moments, is absolutely critical? What makes this texture or that shape more pleasurable than the other? How do you make this feel more natural, more instinctive? How do we take advantage of the latest technology to deliver these types of experiences in a positive way? What’s the story behind this sex toy design and why does it matter?
These are the fundamental questions that drive our business. And in the process of figuring out the solutions, I’ve learned so much about product design and development, but more importantly how to find the answers. I’ve surrounded myself with an amazing team of engineers, designers, artists, marketing experts and fellow entrepreneurs to aid in our quest to deliver the best products possible.
Our approach to building the MiKandi product complements this in a beautiful way. In a world that constantly censors and considers sex taboo, we decided that the MiKandi brand is a reminder that we’re all adults here. That we all have our deep desires and want to explore our sex lives and be treated like adults along the way. Therefore, in building the MiKandi product, similar questions apply. How do you design the product so that it’s easy to talk about? What matters most when experiencing our services for the first time? What are people finding most pleasurable? What technologies do we focus on to deliver the best experience possible? How should we design the product to adapt to each user and resonate with their unique adult desires?
To find these answers, the MiKandi Team is comprised of software engineers vs mechanical/electrical engineers, but I now see that it all stems from the same passions and dreams. Being “obsessed with sex products” has done me good.
Cheers!
This is an excellent blog post! Very inspiring and nice to hear about other people who work towards product design. I only play a tiny part in it myself, but one day would like to play a larger role. I do understand about the long days too, with my blog, and other writing projects, and prototype testing, I generally wake up at 5 am and then sleep at 11pm. It’s often pretty work focused, but it feels very rewarding =)