Designing Trade-Resilient Products for Uncertain Times

Global trade just got complicated. New tariffs and shifting supply chains mean the design decisions you make today determine if your margins survive tomorrow. The companies that survive aren't just finding new suppliers—they're designing differently from day one.

This newsletter shares real strategies from our CEO Kevin Bailey's latest Fast Company article, showing how smart companies build tariff resilience into every product decision. Plus, discover how Design 1st is leveraging AI to support product development with curated tools, prompts, and resources that help you move faster at every stage.

In this Issue:

• Why Design Flexibility Enhances Your Supply Chain Strategy

• Client News: Groove Thing Launches Record-Breaking Kickstarter

• AI Tools to Accelerate Your Product Development

Why Design Flexibility Enhances Your Supply Chain Strategy | Fast Company Magazine Article

Design 1st CEO Kevin Bailey, a regular Fast Company contributor, recently published an article about why most product companies approach tariffs completely wrong.

Everyone's scrambling to find new suppliers, but that's missing the point. The real vulnerability isn't your supply chain—it's your product design. Make the wrong component choices early, and 25% tariffs can kill your margins two years later.

The winners aren't just diversifying suppliers. They're fundamentally rethinking design, with multiple sourcing options for critical components, materials that qualify for trade benefits, and modular architectures that can pivot production when policies shift.

What used to be a supply chain problem is now a design problem. If you're not solving it from the concept stage, you're already behind.

Kevin's article is just the starting point. For companies ready to act, we've pulled together tactical resources that dig into specific tariff strategies:

Additional Tariff Resources:

• Small Ship Strategy to Minimize Tariff Impact (Design 1st)

• Pitfalls to Avoid When Manufacturing in China (Design 1st)

• Tariffs, technology, and the new geography of manufacturing (Harvard)
  

Client News and Product Launches

We're excited to share our clients' recent wins—record-breaking Kickstarter launches, celebrity partnerships, viral breakthroughs, and industry recognition. Here's how smart product development translates to real market success.

🎶 Groove Thing Launches on Kickstarter
The world's first internal music player, developed by two entrepreneurs and productized by Design 1st, blew past the funding goal, raising $345K with 15 days to go.

🧲 Lūp Cable Hits Amazon Bestseller Status The magnetic USB-C cable that eliminates cord chaos is now a top seller in Amazon's competitive USB-C category. From our fastest development cycle to market leader in under a year.

👩‍⚕️ Joylux Secures Halle Berry Partnership Our longtime women's health client landed a major celebrity collaboration, with Halle Berry co-launching their expanded wellness product line.

☎️ Cloud9 Technologies Wins Top Industry Award The VOIP platform we helped develop just earned 'Best Sell-Side Trading Communication System' for 2025, outpacing established financial technology leaders.

🤖 SwabBot™ Unveils SEAS 2.0—Rapid Access for Automated Cleaning
Plug-and-play module halves setup time; customer trials begin this summer.

🏒 OneTimer Hockey Prototype Goes Viral The at-home training device we prototyped is gaining millions of TikTok views, with hockey players at every level demanding this game-changing practice tool.

Design 1st Client Feedback

When BlueKit Software needed to bring their no-code educational platform into the physical world, they faced a classic challenge: How does a software team design and manufacture a custom cellular IoT device? Design 1st guided them from concept through production-ready prototypes, hitting their trade show deadline and turning a software company into a hardware success story.

AI Tools to Accelerate Your Product Development

AI can't replace good product thinking, but it can make your development process faster and smarter. Here are Design 1st's curated tools, prompts, and resources to leverage AI at every stage of product development.

Design 1st Budget Tool: Our custom GPT (requiring a ChatGPT account) provides instant ROM budgets, timelines, and risk assessments.

10 AI Prompts to Evaluate Your Product Idea: Custom contextual prompts built by Design 1st, you can copy and paste, insert your idea, and get rich, detailed results.

Top 23 AI Tools for Product Development: Our curated list gives you an edge, whether you're at the ideation, prototyping, or launch stage.

Free Google AI Startup Course: Want to integrate AI into your venture? Google's new free course covers LLMs, agents, and practical applications.

Prompt School: Finding Funding Sources

Skip hours of funding research. This prompt delivers a customized list of local, national, and global funding opportunities based on your specific product and stage. The more details you provide, the better your results.

Instructions: Add your product description to the prompt below, copy it into your favorite LLM (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude etc.), and hit enter.

YOUR PRODUCT IDEA: [ENTER YOUR PRODUCT IDEA DESCRIPTION AND STAGE]
YOUR LOCATION: [ENTER YOUR LOCATION]

You are a top VC hardware investor at Y Combinator. Output verified funding sources for this physical product startup.
CRITICAL: Only include sources you can verify. If uncertain about any detail, mark as "Unknown" - do not guess.
Requirements:
- Group: Local / National / Global
- Add Match Strength (High/Medium/Low) based on stage/geography/focus
- Include brief rationale 
- Table format only
- NO fabricated links or details
Table columns: Source Name | Type | Focus | Match Strength | Check Size | Rationale | Link
If no verified link available, use "Search: [Source Name]"
Organize: 1. Local Sources 2. National Sources 3. Global Sources
Prioritize accuracy over completeness.

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