Launching your first physical product is like climbing your first serious mountain. Ambition is vital. But so is respect for the mountain.
The founders who make it understand that turning your ambition into a real, manufacturable, shippable product is far harder than it looks. The key is finding the right partners to guide you.
Lumenate Nova began as an ambitious idea: a light-therapy mask that uses flickering light synced with your brainwaves to induce meditative states. Think meditation app meets psychedelic therapy, minus the substances.
Co-founders Tom and Jay brought Realise in because they needed more than concepts or visuals. They needed a team to ‘sit’ in the mess with them and help make hard decisions, all the way to the finish line. The result was more than 80 prototypes, multiple factory visits in China, and a Kickstarter campaign that raised £870,000.
On the eve of Nova’s launch, we asked Tom to reflect on the journey. What surprised him, what nearly broke, and what he now sees very differently about building a product the right way?
The Origin Story
When you first had the idea of turning the Lumenate app into a physical product, what was driving that decision?
Hardware was always in our minds. When we first started Lumenate, me and Jay were both mechanical engineers. We built a group light that 50 people could sit around – a powerful LED circular array. We launched it in Bristol just when COVID hit. We had a month of sold-out sessions, but only got to run one before everything shut down.
The real pull came from our users. Pretty much the day we launched the app, people started sending us their weird and wonderful inventions – bent coat hangers, cardboard boxes with holes cut in, covered in drawings. When we surveyed regular users, about 50% had created or bought something to solve the problems of creating a dark space and holding your phone up.
There was the opportunity side too. The app was hacking the phone’s hardware. The ability to accurately control an LED on a phone was nowhere near what we could achieve with custom hardware. It was this combination – a pull to solve user problems, mixed with the knowledge that we could enhance the experience by creating something purpose-built.
How did you know you needed a product design agency?
As mechanical engineers, we could get something to proof-of-concept level. We just didn’t have the expertise to take it from there to a fully marketable, mass-manufacturable solution.
What made you choose Realise Design?
We spoke to quite a lot of different agencies. What stood out was Realise’s focus on positive impact. Speaking to David and Andrew, what was said on the website came through from them personally. Their excitement and commitment were clear.
They also got involved upstream – before the big decisions hardened. When they understood our potential and funding situation, they agreed to create an really good investor presentation – pro bono, that helped us raise the development money. When we won the investment, we paid them back. That fact that they believed in us and the project enough to take that risk with us meant a lot.
“They were clearly thinking like our partners, not just suppliers waiting for instructions”.
The Brief
Did you have a detailed brief when you approached Realise?
We knew the rough scale and had a proof of concept we’d validated with 20 to 30 app users. But it wasn’t pretty. It just about did the job.
Beyond that, there were an awful lot of question marks. We had an idea that we wanted it to feel like a softer, more wellness-based piece rather than a hard, techie product. But many of the wonderful ideas that made it into production came from the creative back and forth with Realise.
“It was amazing being guided through this process that considers brand, design, and engineering together from the start rather than working in sequence”.
What were the non-negotiables?
Our users told us early on that comfort was everything. Closely followed by intensity – the ability to fully immerse. That also meant it needed to be as blacked out as possible, so the outside world didn’t intrude.
The Science
What’s the science behind what Lumenate does to the brain?
As the light flickers on and off, the neurons in your brain fire in response. That draws your natural brain waves in and synchronises them to the frequency we’re driving through the flashing light.
People find themselves completely immersed in the present moment, lost in a kaleidoscope of colours created by their own mind. That allows them to feel deeply relaxed, explore their minds, and fall asleep easier.
Sussex University is currently working with the NHS to explore whether flickering light could treat depression – not with Nova specifically yet, but using the core mechanism.
Some products probably shouldn’t exist. What makes Nova something the world needs?
When we started Lumenate, we set out to inspire people to live more fulfilling lives. It just felt to us like the world is crying out for better ways for people to cope with and grow through the chaos of modern life.
Right now, meditation apps have great promise, but for most people, they don’t achieve much impact. Meanwhile, psychedelic therapy is proving to have a great impact, but it’s inaccessible. It’s wildly expensive, illegal in most countries, and just not accessible.
We wanted something in between. Taking the accessibility of the meditation app world and combining it with the impact of deeper states of consciousness. Nova is an enhancement, a layer on top that allows even deeper immersion.
The Development Journey
Walk me through the moment you realised this was going to be harder than you expected.
I dread to think how many prototypes we went through with Realise. It would be 80-plus. Even pre-Realise, I’ve got four or five iterations on my desk. Then working with them took it to a whole new level.
Getting electronics that close to someone’s face, that work safely, feel comfortable, and block all light – what was the hardest technical problem to crack?
LED placement. We needed to ensure the technology didn’t become too big while still delivering an immersive experience. Then there were questions about keeping it soft and flexible whilst housing the electronics.
We placed LEDs in different locations and conducted blind tests to see whether moving them made a difference. There’s the safety side too – strict guidelines on optical safety. Designing in a way that maximised immersion whilst meeting safety standards was a constant balancing act.
Nova had to work on thousands of different face shapes. How did Realise approach that challenge?
The idea that it fits everybody would be a little hopeful. But overall, it’s been very well received for a single-size product.
All the electronics are housed within a central solid piece, which means the rest of the mask can be completely flexible – it twists and bends to fit most face shapes. That contrasts heavily with the VR hard-plastics world.
The eye pad is removable and adjustable using Velcro tabs. We designed an appropriate thickness so it can squish and form to different faces, minimising light leakage.
The mask combines soft textiles, foam, hard plastics, and electronics. How did the team work through those material transitions?
The material transitions were one of the more challenging parts.
We had the idea early on to make all the electronics and plastics removable – designed with end-of-life in mind, so you can separate electronic waste, plus repairs and future updates.
That added another level of challenge. How do you house hard components within fabrics so they’re held securely but can be removed?
An awful lot of it was continuous iteration – first with prototypes in Bristol, then working with the factory in China to refine and tweak. This is where the final details stopped being “just details.” That last stretch took as much effort and discipline as everything before it.
“Realise tackled the endless detail with impressive creativity and a patient focus on getting to the quality levels that we all wanted to give our users”.
We’ve all learned that fabrics are not the easiest things to work with. You think you’ve nailed it, then they get a new batch of fabric, and it behaves differently. You have to stay on your toes.
The China Factor
Were your trips to China helpful?
If I could send a message to anyone looking to create a product, spending significant time in the factory with the people making it, especially as the production line starts warming up, is critical.
We thought we’d go once. In the end, Dan from Realise went first for about a week. Then Jay went out, then I went out again, then Dan and Jay went out before Christmas. One trip, I was on the ground for 20 hours.
Early on, I heard about founders spending a month in the factory and thought it seemed ridiculous. With hindsight, Realise’s advice to get out there early would have saved us money and time over the back-and-forth process we ended up in before we bit the bullet and flew out there. Such a valuable lesson.
Working With Realise
You mentioned in your Google review that Realise delivered “way beyond what you or your audience had hoped for.” Can you expand on that?
They had a complete level of commitment and passion for the project.
We’ve worked with an awful lot of different agencies over the years, and for most, you can tell it’s just a project on the side.
“With Realise, there was a sense of ownership and pride. They were willing to step up, go above and beyond, and really be part of the team”.
The Launch
When the first Kickstarter backers started opening their boxes over Christmas, what were you feeling?
Pretty terrified. We’d sent early units to about 30 random backers and got initial feedback, which gave us a boost of confidence.
People are comparing the unboxing to Apple. One person cried. Jennifer Aniston has one. What’s your reaction?
The feedback has been wonderful. Myself and Jay were basically customer support over the entirety of Christmas. At times, it was painful, but it meant we got to read all these amazing messages about the impact the product was having. How it was enhancing their mental wellbeing and helping them feel more fulfilled. Which is ultimately what we set out to achieve.
“Seeing someone like Jennifer Aniston using it is pretty exciting. A nudge that this is stepping us closer to a more mainstream audience”.
£870,000 raised. Nearly 15 times your goal. Over 7,000 backers. Did you see that coming?
Before we launched, it depended on how I felt waking up that morning. Some days I thought we were never going to hit our goal. I had big, lofty dreams, but we were very pleasantly surprised by how things played out. We hit our goal within 40 minutes.
From then, it just went up, and the support went up, and the excitement went up. Brilliant to see.
On reflection, how does launching a physical product differ from software?
Anyone in the software world has an insane reliance on AB testing and analytics – the ability to test ideas in all sorts of forms before committing.
It’s totally different with hardware. You have to learn to trust your gut and surround yourself with people you trust, especially experts like Realise who understand how to manage the risk through the whole process. That first launch point, when you don’t know how it will be received, is pretty scary. A lot scarier than launching a new feature behind a feature flag with a test rollout.
What’s next for Lumenate and Nova?
We’ve got an awful lot of features we want to work on. There are special parts of Nova that haven’t been unlocked or revealed to people yet.
It’s going to be a really exciting year or two.
Nova is available at lumenate.co
Want to see how we got there? Read the Lumenate Nova case study.
Want to see how we approach design that makes real change? Have a look at our work.
