The Product Stack

Could you walk us through the development of a typical Tesoro product, from its conception to market release?
As it goes with most products, it's all about finding what people are missing. At events, in forums, or just sitting around with other gamers, you hear things like "I wish I had something that did this or had that." These ideas could come from anyone in the company or the community, and we take all of them seriously. You do get some ideas that come out of left field, such as levitating gaming chairs or mind-reading keyboards, but no idea is immediately dismissed.

From conception, we move towards making the prototypes that get poked and prodded to see what they got. Not all of these prototypes make the cut if they don't materialize the way we imagined or just don't bring something unique to the table.

If the products do make it past this stage, we send them out to professionals and gamers to provide us with their thoughts. If all signs point to a product that fits the needs of consumers, we move on to production.



You don't just make good keyboards, but also mice and headsets. Could you briefly walk us through your lineup, and, if possible, what kinds of hardware the company is currently designing? Will we see more Tesoro-branded products soon?
Gaming products have evolved immensely over the last decade and many gamers need very specialized products to fit their needs and we try to offer something for everyone. For keyboards, we have a large range, from full-sized boards with metal casings to sleek TNKY boards. The same goes for our mice and headset lineups where we have specialized products for every niche.

In terms of new hardware, we recently introduced our infrared technology with the Tesoro IR switches at Computex 2016. I love the spill-proof nature of these because I always have a cup of coffee or another drink next to me while on my computer. We should have these available on keyboards sometime this summer.

As for other Tesoro-branded products, we have passed the prototype stage with our new gaming chairs. I snipped one of these for myself in the office, and I'm not letting it go. These should be available sometime during the summer as well.