The journey of creating great prototypes. How to make it work?

Creating a great product prototype is no easy task. Having an idea is one thing, but realizing this idea through the first steps of prototyping has its special challenges, processes, and opportunities. Hence, conducting a prototyping micro-analysis is a good thing to consider before launching your product to the market. Let’s see if we can bring more clarity into the whole process with several easy to follow steps.

It all begins with an idea

Once the idea of an invention comes to mind, I recommend starting to put it on paper. Notes, sketches, anything that you can think of on the spot.

First off, making a prototype gives you the opportunity to “touch reality” with your vision. If you have the time, make a low-fidelity prototype, it will probably help you make a better high-fidelity prototype.

When you get to the actual development process, or a new product is planned to be added to the line-up, the need for making a prototype is an essential step in the process for production.

Define your expectations strictly 

A prime example of defining expectations is this – ask yourself, what is the purpose of your prototype – to showcase its design, outlook, and dimensions, or to demonstrate its functionality?

Define your expectations for your final version of the prototype. You can make a list of “mandatory”and “not critical” expectations.The challenge of achieving all the desired things can be time-consuming and may get you into a psychological loop of not being satisfied with the outcome, whilst forgetting the true purpose and objectives.

Another good idea is to meet your mandatory list and then turn to the customer for more feedback. Supply your customer/evaluators a sample that they can observe and test. Collect all the feedbacks and improvements and decide based on your time constraints and budget if you need another version of your prototype or if you are ready to move on to the product development stage.

 

Be prepared to achieve expertise regarding your prototype 

Sometimes you get a great, unique idea which can achieve good market value. But between the idea and the prototype, you’ll face many problems, because maybe you are a professional in one area, but you can’t reach every aspect of a given matter, considering your prototype. Here are some basic steps and important details to follow through:

• Learn your field! Get comfortable with your idea – a prototype can be a software, hardware of plastic, metal, electronic part, or fabric. Each field holds its own challenges, so use the opportunity to learn new things. Study those challenges well while planning your prototype.
• Be professional! Although it’s just an idea, once you decide to make a product out of it, you must take it seriously. No cutting corners whatsoever. Cutting corners means missing details, and missing details puts you on a slippery path to failure. Learn all the steps that need to be taken and follow them throughout.

But consider this – being professional does not mean spending a lot of money!

• Spend wisely! Make these two principals your main guidelines:

1) Know the scale of your project and turn to service suppliers aligned to your needs.

2) Always have a few price offers for reference.

You will be surprised to find out how much you can learn from checking prices. Be careful as to not fall into the “too many offers” routine. This may confuse you. Do not “burn” yourself with the service suppliers, be honest and ask directly what you need.

Key considerations in the prototype production process

It is perfectly natural to stumble upon many difficulties, as well as general problems which need to be overcome. That is why it is important to have key notes and considerations regarding your prototype and the production process after it is done. Here are several examples that may come close to your own future examples and experiences. Learn them by heart or pay them no special attention, but bear in mind that the chance of getting these points is considerable:

• Good idea and a good plan are not enough for your prototype. Good prototype does not mean a good product.
• Every product has its own distinctive life cycle. You’ll need to take advantage of the time to launch your idea/ prototype/ products. Take a good buffer in assessing this time, as obstacles are inevitable.
• The budgeting cost of product development also should be taken well into consideration. Many good ideas/prototypes/products die on the stage of development costs.

 

So, to sum it up, you’d need particular help for: 

(1) Development

a: Optimized service and best user experience to end users.

b: Localization from the user’s perspective. Where is your product being marketed – include the right design, language input and detail realization accordingly. The end users need to handle your product easy and intuitively.

(2) Cost

• Start planning your supply chain, it is an important part of learning that your product is doable. Don’t wait for the prototype to be presented before you know the feasibility, the costs and the lead time for parts that build your mass market product.
• If you consider the following questions comprehensively, you will get A successful prototype.

Between turning an idea into a prototype, you need to do a Feasibility analysis report. It is more than a market survey. A feasibility study is an analysis that takes all of a project’s relevant factors into account. This includes the economic, technical, legal, and scheduling considerations, thus ascertaining the likelihood of completing the project successfully. Feasibility studies are used to discern the pros and cons of undertaking a project before investing a lot of time and money into it.

Also, feasibility studies often provide a company’s management with crucial information that could prevent the company from entering blindly into risky businesses.

After the feasibility analysis, you’ll know how exactly to do the prototype. Furthermore – in order to ensure the prototype is good, you’ll need to do a reliability test.

What comes at the end?

Okay, so you have your great idea, you have defined your expectations, prepared the needed expertise, and lined out your important considerations regarding the process. Now comes the endgame.

• Part 1 – Marketing analysis: This includes a comparison of similar to your products if any (let’s say function and/or pricing), different consumer groups, their involvement in the product, market prospect, and annual usage forecasts. All this can be done in one go, or in different steps, depending on your personal strategy and preferences.
• Part 2 – Product development: Starting with the cost of development, technical difficulties solutions, development cycle estimation, resource allocations, supplier and cost management, quality control, sourcing.
• Part 3 – Last, but not least – when you get a great prototype, don’t forget to apply for a patent to protect your product. Study your options and opportunities to register the patent for your design and/or technology.

To conclude the whole great journey of creating your prototype, we can come to the core of a concept. And that concept would be simple – protect and grow your idea with the help of a mindful, fully proven plan. Be prepared with adequate expertise, have a map of the most important key considerations, know when and how to get help for particular difficulties. Good preparation, combined with a great aid makes for the most complete prototyping, and this is the start of the future of your product.