Product Development

This page talks about our Product Development work–by which, at this moment, we mean the work personally done by Alam-e-Nau founder, Ramala Hubb’Allah.

We will start with our legacy project BetterBonds, a herbalism business where we formulated new products, and packaged, marketed and sold them, got the client feedback and incorporated it whereas improving the baseline health and experience of the clients–thereby creating a complete loop business, which is a feat for a solopreneur who migrated from a large city to the wilderness of Pakistani Himalayas, and answered the call of the Pioneer Spirit.

And Pioneer Spirit is what we need more of in order to create a thriving, adequate, providing new economy that is an alternative to old ways of being and delivery to the population.

To my mind and in my paradigm of work and economy, solid product development forms the core. This is because the product, to me, is the pinnacle, the enabler of transaction between various parties, the deliverer of needs and expectations, the embodiment of values, the solid manifestation of promises and the conclusion of enterprise and endeavor. It is in the final and actual product that many aspirations and endeavors solidify, if and when at all. This doesn’t mean that aspects like process are ignored or that they aren’t vital, but that, at the end of their being effective, a product needs to be generated to validate the reality and effectiveness of processes and other promises and components.

BetterBonds was/is a herbalism business that started in 2016. The founder rapidly developed many prototypes and finished, viable products that were packaged, marketed and sold, and received feedback. The products used all natural, hand-harvested ingredients and were prepared without the engagement of electricity for the most part. These are the defining features of the enterprise:

• Utilization of native ingredients.
• Engaging local community members in harvesting. (The methods of engagement could be better as this work was conducted in private and personal capacity, and not at a full-scale community level.)
• Sustainable harvesting practices (to the extent that we had control on the harvest)
• Education of community and clients, to the extent that we had control over the same
• Discovery of the potentials and benefits of the said flora, and cultivating a relationship with the same. Honoring the flora and granting them their lost significance.
• Weaving together stories and narratives about the floral world and the human world. The story of our work with Rosehips, for instance, is heart-touching; as, in the process of engaging with the fruit, I learned about its significance as a source of nutrition during the times of war, and what importance the plant held for the people of the West (who were my second source of information on the plant and confirmed my suspicion that the “thing” I had just found was valuable). The second story is of my work with Dandelion, and then there is a third order containing of many herbs mostly to do with dreaming and relaxation. The collection of the entire body of knowledge and its ranking, spacing and order is what is
• Market development and customer education.
• Resilient supply line development; education of the links in the supply chain.
• Learning about optimal packaging, presentation and market delivery.
• Repurposing and recycling in the value chain where feasible.

These are but some of the features of the very-complex work. The BetterBonds brand intended to extend into responsible and sustainable travel, but did not manage to extend into the same. This image is an insight into our vision:

While this vision was not fully realized due to turbulence and the lack of business systems that would sustain our expansion, this, we believe, is the way to go.

These are only some of the initiatives by Ramala. The aim, going forward, is to develop a range of products and services that populates the needs of a New Economy that is emerging around the world, and which steps away from the cruelty and shenanigans of old ways of being and of enterprise. Amen.