Product developers often have a critical blind spot. It’s something I still suffer from myself — and I invented the smartphone selfie stick, as well as more than 50 products for brands including Disney and Nestlé.

Here’s an example of a blind spot that set me back recently.

In 2023, I created a kid-friendly, hands-free drink blender called the Snoopy Magic Mixer. When it debuted at the New York Toy Fair, people loved it. But then I shipped early samples to content creators, and feedback was puzzling. They kept saying the same thing: “The batteries don’t work.”

At first, I was baffled. Then they showed me the problem, and it all made sense. The Snoopy is manufactured with a little silicone ring, which disables the motor and keeps it from accidentally turning on. The ring had instructions printed on it telling people to remove before use — but the text was too subtle to notice. People thought the Snoopy didn’t work, when in fact, they just hadn’t removed the ring yet.

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At the time, I had already manufactured and packaged 8,000 units. That left me with two options: I could proceed and hope the confusion didn’t spread, or I could stop everything and fix the problem.

To me, it wasn’t a hard choice. I instructed the factory to open every box, add a high-contrast sticker to the ring — “Remove To Use Mixer” — and reprint every carton. These changes cost thousands of dollars and delayed my launch by 45 days, but they almost certainly saved me from thousands of angry returns and 1-star reviews.

This is the blind spot I’m talking about: Entrepreneurs love innovation, but we forget that customers demand clarity. If people don’t instantly understand how your product works, they’ll assume it’s broken. To ensure I make my creations as clear as possible, I’ve come up with a 4-step process that I now call the “Feedback-Makes-Safety System.” Here’s how it works.

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Step 1: Build for breakage.

I begin with rough prototypes to prove the concept and identify weaknesses. I deliberately look for ways to break the design, whether through drops, extreme temperatures, or deliberate misuse.

Step 2: Test for safety.

Once the obvious flaws are addressed, I refine the prototypes for safety. I tested the Snoopy mixer for 10 months — at every angle, with wet fingers, and under every scenario a child might attempt. Accredited safety labs later confirmed compliance. Yet none of us professionals noticed the issue with the ring.

Step 3: Seek brutal feedback early.

This may be the most overlooked step. Inventors should want “brutal feedback” — the kind you don’t want to hear but need to know. At the Toy Fair, my Snoopy drew universal praise, because I was there to explain every feature. With content creators, I wasn’t. Their confusion about the silicone ring exposed a clarity gap that no lab test would have revealed. That’s the power of letting outsiders try your product without guardrails.

Step 4: Own your solutions.

Because I controlled the tooling and packaging, I was able to quickly halt production, add stickers, and reprint cartons. Painful? Yes. But by acting on feedback, I was able to preserve customer trust and prevent the damage that could have sunk the launch before it even began.

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As I complete these steps, I’m constantly iterating — tweaking the design, improving the instructions, and solving problems.

While innovation creates excitement, clarity creates confidence. Parents trust a product they instantly understand. Retailers stock products that won’t generate complaints or returns. Online shoppers leave 5-star reviews for products that work without confusion. And competitors, while they may copy features, cannot copy trust.

The Snoopy Magic Mixer could have been remembered for dead batteries. Instead, it became a product that parents were eager to bring home to their kids — safe from all the confusion I could imagine, and all that I couldn’t on my own