This revolution can be viewed as the culmination of three longer-term trends. First, innovation in small-scale manufacturing or on-demand manufacturing brought product personalization to the market. Think customized Nike sneakers, Timbuk2 messenger bags, or personalized Levi’s. These products are typically designed for use by a single person. Next came the rise of user-to-user marketplaces like eBay or Amazon that introduced new, highly efficient ways to connect buyers to sellers in the long tail. And third, online communities and social networks are now tapping into the viral loop to enable producers to market to millions of niches outside of traditional distribution chains. 

The intersection of these three trends has created something new: people making—and selling—their own products. Ponoko allows people to upload original or customize existing product plans, e.g., tables, chairs, lamps, etc., and then acts as a personal factory that manufactures the product on demand and provides an online sales showroom. At Styleshake, users choose fabrics, design a dream garment, and have it in-hand, ready to wear, or placed for sale online in ten days. My own company, Blurb, provides a platform for anyone to make, share, and sell bookstore-quality books. Cafe Press, of course, was one of the first companies to build a business around these trends, though it feels like this latest generation of companies including Moo, Threadless, and Etsy are pushing the business model in new ways by focusing on smaller niches; offering higher-quality goods; and building robust, connected communities. 

So, what might this mean to designers and innovation planners? There are many exciting implications, but let’s start with three examples: Designing the tools of production, limiting choice, and community as a long-term differentiator. 

There will always be a place for the rock-star designer and iconic product, the Jonathan Ive-designed iPod, the Dyson vacuum, the Eames chair. But increasingly, companies will focus on enabling people powered products. One key to building a people powered user experience is designing and developing easy-to-use, most likely free, tools of production. In Blurb’s case this means BookSmart, our free bookmaking software. Many of the above companies provide similar creation tools. As designers we will be asked to design templates or components, like a Lego set, that users can arrange and customize, instead of a final manufactured product. 

Achieving true retail quality, on-demand products is a requirement for success, though still a huge challenge. Right now, the answer is to limit product choice. For example, at Blurb you can create any book under the sun as long as it falls under one of the sizes and binding types we currently offer. Adam Dewitz described this limiting of design variables as a deterministic production workflow in reference to print, but it also describes the approach of nearly all of the companies mentioned here. The need to design outward from manufacturing constraints is a common consideration for industrial designers and engineers, but more often than not, interaction and visual designers will need to understand and design within these manufacturing limitations as well. 

Finally, let’s talk about building community as a long-term differentiator. In the end, most companies will have access to the same manufacturing equipment everyone else does, and then some new start-up will come along and build a cool, new software tool that’s easier to use and more robust than the other guy’s. As these business variables become commodities, successful companies will win by taking the next step and building or innovating around new or existing online communities. As designers we need to have a strategy for using social networks such as Facebook as distribution channels or building our own viral loop features as a key component of our product strategies. For example, Blurb recently launched a Facebook application called Groupbook. Groupbook allows users to invite friends, collect photos for and eventually market their book easily to their existing friend network on Facebook. JPG Magazine, another people powered company, uses a smart mix of tell-a-friend and voting features to drive adoption and awareness outside of the traditional magazine stand.  

It seems contradictory in these days of everything Web 2.0 to talk about starting a business built on traditional manufacturing skills, but it’s quite possible that people powered business models will make user-generated content profitable long before YouTube does.