Why Prototyping is So Important to Product Development

Why is prototyping important in product development? Because it is the cheapest place to be wrong. Rarely is anything perfect on the first attempt: writers draft and edit, musicians rehearse, athletes train for years. It only makes sense that a product developer builds a prototype — often several — before committing to manufacturing.

But why? Why can’t a perfectly designed product go straight from CAD to production? In reality, making a product that is worth further investing in, one that customers will want to buy, requires several prototypes. Sometimes tens of prototypes to prove the concept and perfect your idea. Success comes through practice, just like with the musicians and the athletes.

The word prototype derives from the Greek word meaning, “primitive form”. An early sample or model of a product built to test a concept or process. Understanding that a prototype, by definition, is an early form of your final product, know that there is often a compromise between your prototype and the final product design. Differences in materials, manufacturing processes and design may create a slightly different look and feel of your prototype.

So then, why prototype? A full design build is expensive, and it can be time-consuming. First, you build, then you look for any flaws and problems, figure out the solution, then rebuild with the updates.

The process may repeat multiple times. Instead, rapid prototyping can be used for your initial prototype.

This allows you to inexpensively build and test the parts of the design that are most likely to be flawed, solving issues on the front end, before you make the full product.

This step is necessary to progress with your product development and take you further toward the commercialization and marketing of your product.

The process allows you to learn about the product, the design, and the functionality. Tom Chi, former Experience Lead for Special Projects at Google X, stated:

“We’re all pretty smart people in product design and development, but the truth is that no matter what we start working on, there’s a 5% chance that the thing we’ve started working on is the right thing, based on the first idea that comes out of our head. Now, if you end up having some startup idea or a product idea and you chase after it and it has a 5% chance of success, you end up with a success rate of most startups. Less than 5% have a useful product or a great exit. But, by the time you try 20 things, even if each individual thing only has a 5% chance of success, by the time you try 20 things, your chance of success goes up to 64%. By the time you try 50 things, it goes up to 92%. It’s almost like you can’t fail!”

His process is sound. By doing repetitive prototypes, you eliminate the guesswork and base your decisions on actual data and facts. Don’t ever guess. Just learn. Just prototype.

Initially, companies put products into a store untested and hoped the product did well. As product development grew, so did the understanding of the market, the users, and the idea that the consumer knows best what he wants.

Product designers cannot predict how a consumer will react to a new product, and IDEO’s designers realized that early on. They began to engage the consumers with early prototypes, receiving valuable feedback that helped shape their final products. They would release several prototypes, and gather feedback.

Switching up the product until it was exactly what the consumer was looking for. When the final product went to manufacturing, and finally to market, it was almost guaranteed to be a success, and yet one of its best uses.

Designers quickly began to realize that what looks good on paper isn’t always what the end-user is going to want to see. Unquestionably , by getting an inexpensive prototype in front of the consumers, designers have been able to get quick feedback, adjust the product, and create a winning product!

Prototype, share with consumers, learn, improve, repeat! And get ready for success.

Let’s dive a little bit deeper into the types of prototypes (for both hardware and software) available and goal of each:

This method is used for quantitative purposes. Often dozens of sketches, CAD drawings, and models are created to understand the product, and many times several prototypes are made to understand how the product will function and feel. It is quick process that allows you to get a product in your hand, understanding the nuances.

When creating a pilot prototype, you aim to get as close to the real product as possible. These prototypes are used to prove that the product is economically sound. This is often the prototype that is built right before a product is ready to launch.

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Depending on the goal, budget, and type of product, the proper selection of methods can make or break the product.

Let’s take a look at some examples of early prototypes of well-known products on the market.

In 2008, Nintendo realized that their Wii system had several limitations, and public perception was that the system was more for a casual audience, not for gamers. Obviously Nintendo sought to bring those gamers back with their Wii U system. The console required to stand apart, and significant changes had to be made. This prototype was one of the designs.

The iPhone was ahead of its time. The early designs show ideas similar to smartphones today. As Business Insider tells us, “…the prototype by Hartmut Esslinger, who helped design the Apple II desktop PC. It’s pretty slick for a device from the early 80s, featuring a touchscreen and stylus input. On the screen, you can see a virtual check and an accounting app. So it looks like Apple wanted to design a hybrid phone/computer as early as 1983.”

Below we show you the progression this product went through when designing the perfect VR set. The first attempt was not perfect, nor was the second. Through the series of attempts, this team reworked, analyzed, and studied the product, making changes and working to create a product that finally was ready for mass production.

As you can see, everything starts with a rough prototype to test product intended use. Sometimes making a perfected prototype can even negatively affect further product development. The product team can appreciate the product without further looking for improvements and asking for feedback from the target audiences.

In that case, the product might be very close to the inventor’s original intention, but not close to consumers who will pay for it, which might lead to a commercialization failure.

On the other side, we need to carefully follow the prototype path, avoiding the pitfalls of polished prototypes. When people, in general, see something that closely resembles a final product. They focus on the prototype itself – what it can do and how it performs. People forget about why the product was created, what problem it is solving for, and any additional obstacles that stop the team from solving that problem.

There is always a confusion between prototypes and initial samples. Manufacturing or production samples are just as useful as the prototypes during the right stage of the game. But in order to know when to use them, we need to make a clear distinction between the two sample types.

Again, both samples are valuable, and without both, an inventor won’t have a solid product to go to market. But to make the product a success, each sample should be used at the correct time in the creation process.

The beauty of prototyping is that each interaction opens new opportunities to improve. It’s like an exam at the universities-with each interim test, you get better get ready for a final.

The type of prototype is based on the goals of your product development and budget. You need to put constraints on time as well to ensure the most efficient resource allocation.

We would summarize the prototypes usually are done for:

In all reality, you will likely need more than one variety of prototype to develop a truly valuable product. Product development can get bogged down in meetings, where the product is analyzed, and guesses are made as to “the best way,”. But by getting to the rapid prototype stage, you can skip some of that guesswork and replace it with real information from the product.

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A prototype is an early sample or model of a product built to test a concept or process. The word prototype derives from the Greek word meaning "primitive form." It often involves a compromise between the prototype and the final product design, with differences in materials, manufacturing processes, and appearance. Prototypes are used to identify flaws and solve issues before full product development.

A prototype is an early sample or model of a product built to test a concept or process. The word prototype derives from the Greek word meaning "primitive form." It often involves a compromise between the prototype and the final product design, with potential differences in materials, manufacturing processes, or design.

Prototyping is important because it allows developers to test ideas and identify flaws early. It enables learning about the product, design, and functionality, reducing guesswork. By creating multiple prototypes, the chances of success increase significantly. Prototypes also allow for market testing with consumers, gathering valuable feedback to refine the product before full production.

Prototyping allows product developers to test ideas and solve issues before full production, avoiding costly rebuilds. It helps in learning about the product's design and functionality, reducing guesswork. It also enables market testing by gathering consumer feedback, which helps refine the product to meet user needs.

Prototyping helps in market testing by allowing designers to engage consumers with early versions of a product. This process gathers valuable feedback, which can then be used to adjust and refine the product. By getting an inexpensive prototype in front of consumers, designers gain quick insights, helping to create a product that aligns with consumer preferences and increases its chances of success in the market.

Prototyping allows designers to engage consumers with early models to gather valuable feedback. This helps shape final products based on user input, ensuring the product meets consumer expectations. Getting an inexpensive prototype to consumers for feedback can lead to a winning product.

Rapid Prototyping is a quick process used for quantitative purposes, involving many sketches, CAD drawings, and models to understand product function and feel. It allows for hands-on understanding of nuances. Pilot Prototyping, in contrast, aims to create a product that is as close to the final version as possible. These prototypes are used to prove the economic viability of the product.

Prototypes include Proof-of-Principle, which verifies key functional aspects; Working, representing most functionality; Visual, showing size and appearance; Form Study, an early visual prototype; User Experience, for consumer testing; Functional, capturing function and appearance. And Paper, a drawn visual for software UI testing.

There are various types of prototypes. A Proof-of-Principle Prototype verifies key functional aspects. A Working Prototype represents nearly all final product functionality. A Visual Prototype shows size and appearance without functionality. A Form Study Prototype is an early visual showing geometric features. A User Experience Prototype allows consumer testing and feedback. A Functional Prototype captures function and appearance.

The two main ways to develop prototypes are Rapid Prototyping and Pilot Prototyping. Rapid Prototyping is a quick process involving sketches, CAD drawings, and multiple prototypes to understand function and feel. Pilot Prototyping aims to create a model as close to the real product as possible, proving its economic viability.

Why is prototyping important comes down to arithmetic: a change made on a prototype costs hundreds of dollars, the same change after tooling costs tens of thousands. Every prototype should be built to answer one specific question, and the type follows from the question rather than from the budget.

Caption: match the prototype type to the question. Building one prototype to answer all of them is the most expensive option available.

Budgeting for one prototype round is the most common planning error in hardware.

A typical consumer product needs three: the first proves the concept and fails in ways nobody predicted, the second fixes those failures and exposes second-order issues in assembly and tolerance, and the third confirms the design is stable enough to tool.

Programmes with electronics, watertight seals or moving contact surfaces routinely need four or five. Plan the rounds explicitly and the schedule holds; plan one and every subsequent round arrives as a crisis.

Prototyping only pays off when it is coupled to production intent. Our rapid prototyping shop builds works-like and looks-like units from the same CAD, and design for manufacturing converts the surviving revision into tooling-ready files instead of a beautiful part that cannot be molded.

Because it converts assumptions into evidence while changes are still cheap. A design change on a printed part costs a few hundred dollars and a few days; the same change after steel tooling costs tens of thousands and weeks of schedule, and after launch it costs returns and reputation.

From roughly $100 for a printed geometry check to $40k for a bridge-tooled pilot unit. A typical consumer product spends $8k-$40k per full round across works-like and looks-like builds, with three rounds being the realistic plan.

A works-like prototype proves function and ignores appearance; a looks-like model proves appearance, ergonomics and shelf presence while ignoring function. Keeping them separate until both are stable roughly halves the cost of iteration.

Only for a near-copy of a product you have already manufactured. For anything new, skipping prototyping moves discovery of the failure modes into the tooling stage, where every fix costs a tool modification and several weeks.

Why is prototyping important: matching type to risk

Prototypes exist to retire risk cheaply. Pick the type that answers the biggest open question, not the one that looks most finished.

Rules that keep prototyping cheap

• One prototype, one question; combining goals hides the answer.
• Test the highest-severity risk first, even if it is inconvenient.
• Record results in writing with photos and measured values.
• Stop iterating when the remaining risks are commercial rather than technical.