Ideas are the easy part.

There is something to be said for great ideas, however, ideas are nothing more than dreams until they are realized in a form that is accessible to the marketplace. Magpul is known for its creative design solutions, and we are proud of our accomplishments in this arena not only because they are novel, but because we have successfully turned many of our dreams into reality.

Easy is hard, hard is easy.

Unnecessary complexity and expensive construction are the hallmarks of mediocre design. It is almost always easier to design a product that is complicated, confusing, and expensive rather than simple, intuitive, and affordable. Although it is more difficult, Magpul has chosen to take the latter of these two approaches to product development.

From the onset of every project, Magpul uses a list of mission-driven requirements to dictate design, material construction, and manufacturing methods that will be most efficient without sacrificing quality or performance. The goal of the design itself is to be both simple and intuitive. By incorporating ergonomic considerations, a proper user interface, and subtle visual and tactile features, the product itself should actually instruct the user about its operation and function. Although every Magpul product comes with clear, concise installation and usage instructions, our aim is to design products so self-explanatory that instructions become unnecessary.

Fail smart, fail often.

There is much to be learned from failure: product ideas, material properties, user interface issues, etc. The potential knowledge to be gained from a bad concept or failed execution is virtually endless. Only by pushing the limits of design, materials, and manufacturing techniques through a process of trial and error do we find true innovation. That said, failure for its own sake is foolish, and it is important to learn as much as possible from existing failures so as not to attempt to reinvent the square. This is the meaning behind "fail smart."

Build what they need, not what they want.

As a rule, end users are generally not designers, and are therefore limited to describing their needs in terms they know and understand. Although end user feedback is invaluable to the design process, Magpul never builds a product on the basis of simple market surveys. Instead, we study the intended mission, determine the equipment capability gap, and develop a solution based on a clearly defined set of performance-based requirements. While the end result will almost certainly not be what the user had envisioned, it will more effectively address the needs and performance capabilities they are often unable to clearly articulate or recognize from a product development perspective.

Mission dictates function, and function dictates design.

Magpul builds for the real world, so every item is built to fill a particular mission, and is designed around a unique set of cost, performance, and timeline considerations. The styling of a product follows these mission-driven parameters, and ties the functional piece into a design that can be efficiently produced.

Innovate or die.

In the marketplace of ideas, innovation is survival. Defensible intellectual property is beneficial, but we must continually adapt our way of thinking to meet the demands of a dynamic marketplace.

Visit https://www.magpul.com for more details.