From Prototype to Production: The Design Process Explained
You had an idea for a product. Concept sketches were drawn, market research validated the need for your product, you identified potential customers, and prototypes were created. However, the design process is still far from over. As feedback is gathered and technical issues are resolved, changes will be made to the design. Decisions regarding materials, manufacturing processes, and cost considerations must be carefully evaluated. Transitioning from a working prototype to a market-ready product involves rigorous testing, compliance with regulatory standards, and scaling up production capabilities. Many important decisions must be made to get a product from prototype to production.
Design Refinement and Prototype Testing
Prototypes are a critical part of the product design process. These early versions of your product allow you to test and evaluate its feasibility, functionality, and user experience. As such, your product’s design should evolve during the prototyping process.
Product designs should be refined according to feedback from various testing groups, including internal teams and potential users. This feedback highlights practical issues, usability concerns, and possible improvements that may not have been apparent during the initial design phase. Through rigorous testing, you can identify weaknesses in a design, such as structural flaws, ergonomic issues, or user interface problems, and address them promptly.
Designs should be changed not only to fix these issues but also to enhance overall functionality and performance. If a prototype reveals that a component is prone to wear and tear, materials or manufacturing processes can be adjusted to increase durability.
Design for Manufacturing
Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is vital when developing any mass-produced product. The most important factor in DFM is creating simplified, optimized designs. A complex product design may use many different components that have to be individually sourced. Standardizing product hardware reduces inventory needs and lowers manufacturing costs. Simple designs also foster easier product assembly. Streamlining assembly processes lowers assembly times and reduces the possibility of errors and defects by eliminating as many complex steps as possible.
With DFM, it is important to maintain the level of functionality settled on in design refinement. Products developed with DFM in mind should be of the same or higher quality than more complex designs. Materials should be cost effective, but still suitable for the product. Consider the environment the product will be in. For instance, when developing a medical device, choose a biocompatible material that can withstand repeated interactions with cleaning agents.
At this stage, you should also consider whether the product will be manufactured domestically or internationally. International manufacturing has lower costs but may take longer, while domestic manufacturing has higher production costs but is easier to travel to and has higher quality control. You also want to use a manufacturing compatible with scalable manufacturing, which accommodates increased demand for a product while retaining quality and cost of production.
Additionally, a bill of materials (BOM) must be created. A BOM lists the raw materials, components, quantities, and instructions to assemble a product correctly. As product specifications change, it is vital to keep the BOM updated.
Successful Product Design
Engineers are vital to successful product design. They develop designs, create prototypes, and refine designs throughout the development process. They use their technical expertise to ensure that products are functional, reliable, and manufacturable. Engineers create specifications to show all the requirements and details of the product. Specifications include a detailed product design and its functions, features, and performance.
Engineers also conduct rigorous testing and analysis to ensure prototypes meet all specifications and performance standards. However, successful products are not just developed by engineers, but by cross-functional teams that integrate various skills.
Cross-Functional Teams
In addition to engineers, teams should have finance expertise. Their insights help make informed decisions about material choices, production methods, and market pricing strategies. Effective financial management ensures the design and manufacturing process stays within budget and delivers a profitable product. Marketing is also essential. It brings awareness of your product to your target audience and collects feedback. A good financial and marketing team is vital for long-term success.
Final Design and Pre-Production Testing
Once the final design is chosen, the last step before manufacturing the product is to complete pre-production testing. Before ordering a large production run, a small number of units can be built and tested to ensure everything is functioning properly, including the manufacturing process. If an error is detected, it can be remedied before many defective units are manufactured. Once everything functions as it should, certifications and regulatory hurdles must commence.
Regulatory Requirements
Not only does the end product have to meet regulatory requirements before going to market, but the actual manufacturing facility where its produced must also meet requirements. For products sold on the global market, approval by multiple regulatory agencies is required, such as the FDA in the United States, which approves medical devices, and the CE marking in the European Economic Area. The ISO certifies quality management systems. While not a requirement, ISO certification is often expected and is something to look for in a design and manufacturing partner.
Once your product has passed all certifications and regulatory requirements, a full production run can begin. Depending on the complexity of your design and the location where it’s being manufactured, this can take anywhere from one to several months.
Product Launch and Post-Launch Evaluation
Now that your product is in production, it is ready for market. Your sales and marketing teams must promote it and collect feedback.
The Importance of Marketing
If no one knows your product exists, does it really exist? A strong marketing and sales strategy is needed for potential customers to know about your product. The plan should be based on market research that was started before prototypes were created. The plan determines how the product should be priced and the best way to advertise the product to your target audience. This involves choosing the right mix of advertising mediums, whether it be digital marketing, social media campaigns, traditional media, or direct sales efforts. Customer demographics and purchasing information can inform which medium is the most effective way to reach customers for a particular product.
It is important to collect feedback on your product after it has launched. Feedback lets you know how your product is performing in the real world. This feedback can highlight strengths to be emphasized in future marketing efforts and reveal areas for improvement that can be addressed in subsequent product iterations. Engaging with customers also builds a loyal customer base by showing that their opinions are valued.
Continuous market monitoring should also inform us of changes to the product. Staying updated with market trends, customer preferences, and competitor activities ensures your product remains relevant and competitive. Innovations can be driven by observing the latest advancements in the industry and adapting them to enhance your product. A well-crafted marketing and sales plan is essential for a product’s successful launch and prosperity.
Bringing Your Product to Market
If all these steps seem rather overwhelming, you’re not alone. Working with an experienced product development partner can be the key to developing a successful product. A partner with manufacturing systems in place and knowledge of regulatory agencies can make a long process quicker and easier.
Pivot International has over 50 years of experience designing, developing, and manufacturing products for a variety of industries. We’ve helped several clients throughout the product development process and offer a multi-disciplined global design team. We have over 300,000 square feet of manufacturing space throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Contact our team to learn more about how we can help you develop your product.
From Concept to Prototype: The Design Process Explained
Many consumers only see the version of a product that appears in stores, but the process of getting a product to market begins long before it even reaches the factory. From conceptualization to prototype to beta testing, there are many steps to designing and developing a product before it reaches production.
Ideation and Conceptualization
All products start with an idea, serving as the foundational spark for innovation and development. Generating new and innovative product ideas is crucial for maintaining competitiveness in the market, as it allows companies to meet evolving consumer needs and differentiate themselves from competitors. The most successful product ideas typically come from identifying and solving a problem.
Engaging in brainstorming sessions is essential to generating ideas. This process often involves exploring a wide range of concepts until a viable idea is settled upon. Once the initial idea is identified, concept sketches are created.
Concept Sketches
Concept sketches are preliminary visual representations that highlight the essential components of a design without capturing every detail. They may be made by hand or digitally and effectively convey the product idea to a design team. Concept sketches play a crucial role in communicating key elements and design intentions when working with a partner to develop a product. They are a foundational tool that facilitates discussions, identifies potential issues, and iterates on ideas before advancing to more detailed design stages.
Market Research and Analysis
A good idea alone is not enough for a product to be successful. Developing a product that will perform well with customers requires extensive market research and analysis. Market research involves systematically gathering, recording, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data about customers, competitors, and the overall market environment. The insights gleaned from this process ensure that the product meets market demands and achieves success.
The Importance of Knowing Your Target Audience
The first step in market research is identifying your target audience. Define potential customers using factors such as demographics and interests. Understanding what these customers want from a product, using tools like focus groups and surveys, is imperative to success. In addition to knowing customer preferences, it is also important to be aware of their purchasing behaviors. Studying customer purchasing decisions aids in designing a product that not only meets customer needs, but also aligns with their buying patterns.
Competitive Analysis
Market research is not limited to research involving your product. Competitive analysis is a critical component of market research. Analyzing competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, market positioning, and product offerings will help you differentiate your product. Trend analysis tracks industry developments and predicts future ones. Using trend analysis, you can track and predict innovations in the field so that your product stays at the forefront of the market.
Continuous Market Monitoring
For extended success, competitor and trend analysis must continue through continuous market monitoring. After launching the product, it is essential to monitor market conditions, customer feedback, and competitive actions to make necessary adjustments and improvements. Continuous market monitoring ensures the product remains competitive and continues to meet customer needs.
Product Requirements
Functionality in the Design Process
The most important requirement when designing a product is its functionality. Functionality encompasses all the features and capabilities that enable the product to perform its intended tasks and meet user needs. The product’s primary function, or core features, should directly address the need identified in conceptualization. Secondary functions, while not the main focus, are also crucial as they enhance the user experience and differentiate the product from competitors. All facets of the product need to function effectively to ensure a positive user experience. Each feature must be carefully designed and rigorously tested to ensure reliability, ease of use, and performance under various conditions. It is also important to Design for Manufacturing (DFM). Standardizing materials and processes saves on costs and shortens time to market.
Design and the User Experience
The size, shape, and feel of products also require careful consideration during the design process. Successful products are comfortable and easy to use. Additionally, visual design should not be overlooked. Customer-facing products should be appealing to the eye. Products with graphical user interfaces need to have well-developed software. A well-designed interface helps users easily access and utilize the core and secondary features, providing a positive user experience.
Concept Development
Developing a Digital Prototype
Developing a digital prototype before a physical prototype allows for more efficient and cost-effective product testing. Using digital prototyping software also makes it easier to design multiple prototypes at once and quickly remedy problems. Digital prototypes are more advanced than concept sketches. Whereas sketches show initial ideas, digital prototypes are fully imagined products, some of which can be turned into physical prototypes with the click of a button.
Types of Digital Prototypes
- CAD Drawings: Computer-aided Design, or CAD, can create both 2D drawings and 3D models. There are a multitude of CAD programs available online. Beyond just creating a drawing, some CAD programs can also perform tests on models and provide data on materials used in the design. CAD drawings can also be easily shared with multiple parties. Although pictures of manual drawings can be shared online, CAD drawings can be shared directly from the modeling program. If you are working with a partner to design a prototype, CAD programs allow you to see updates in real-time.
- 3D Models: 3D CAD models not only allow designers to test for functionality but also connect with a 3D printer to create a physical prototype from a digital drawing. Rapid prototyping using 3D printing cuts down on the time it takes to manufacture a prototype. 3D printing can also produce high-fidelity prototypes more efficiently and at a lower cost than a small production run.
Prototype Fidelity
Not all prototypes are created equal. Fidelity classifies how similar the prototype is to the final product. Low-fidelity prototypes test the functionality of key elements. High-fidelity prototypes are as similar to the product as possible, both in functionality and visuals.
Beta Testing Groups
All previous testing done by engineers and product development teams is alpha testing. Beta testing involves a sample group of real users testing a product before it is released to the public. Testers provide feedback and report issues to the product development team so that designs can be amended and changes made before placement on the market.
Just as innovations happen in technology, they also occur in product development. One of these innovations is the idea of a minimum viable product. A minimum viable product is designed to allow the product developers to collect the maximum amount of feedback from customers with the least amount of effort. Unlike prototypes, some product development teams choose to release their minimum viable products to the market to receive feedback from the public as quickly as possible before ordering a large-scale production run.
Starting your Design Process
Working with an experienced product design and development team is critical to establishing a foundation and pathway to success. Experienced teams have knowledge of the market and streamlined processes to take your product from concept to prototype, and, eventually, to market.
Pivot International has over 50 years of experience designing, developing, and manufacturing products and has won several awards for product design. We work closely with our customers to bring their visions to reality and have experience in various markets, including medical, industrial, entertainment, agriculture, security, and construction. Contact our team today to learn more about how we can help develop your next product.
How to Cut Prototyping Costs and Leverage Builds With Users, Investors, and Decision-Makers
Contemporary best practices for NPD (new product development) include iterative prototyping, and no complex product makes it to market without multiple rounds of this activity. But many companies lack a conceptual framework for understanding the wider implications of the prototyping process. For this reason, they often unwittingly leave value on the table while accruing unnecessary and excessive prototyping costs.
At Pivot, we are US-based global leaders in one-source, end-to-end product development and supply chain solutions. For over fifty years, we have helped companies worldwide deliver profitable, internationally award-winning products that have positioned them for market leadership. With DFM expertise that spans fourteen industries and 320,000 square feet of scalable manufacturing capability across three continents (including domestic options), we provide a smooth, seamless, highly cost-effective prototyping process that takes your product from proof of concept to successful launch.
To keep costs down and capture maximum value from the prototyping process, it’s not enough to understand the various types of builds. Instead, companies must learn to identify and avoid the hazards that contribute to excessive investment and understand the critical role prototyping plays with various stakeholders in the broader product ecosystem.
Why Prototyping Costs Can Quickly Become Excessive
When prototyping costs begin to mount, it’s typically for three reasons:
1. Prototype designs fail to include manufacturing considerations.
2. Physical prototypes are created prematurely or disconnected from real-world contexts.
3. Prototypes are created with unnecessarily costly materials.
The solution to the first hazard is DFM (Design For Manufacture). As its name suggests, DFM exists to ensure that designs are optimized for scalable manufacture. This approach fuels superior product design and also prevents sunk costs. How? By ensuring that pre-production prototypes are undertaken with supply chain variables and manufacturing materials and methods in mind. This protects companies from costly back-to-the-drawing board scenarios that can too easily occur when builds are not created with the end in mind.
The solution to the second hazard lies in relying on AR and VR applications that reduce the number of physical builds needed to successfully reach a production prototype. Because AR and VR applications render designs at scale, in-depth testing can be conducted that reveals how the product will behave in the context of actual use — all without the level of investment required for physical builds.
The solution to the third hazard is 3D printing. In contrast to other materials, this fabrication technology is a much faster, significantly more cost-effective approach to prototyping. Between Pivot’s top DFM talent, advanced AR/VR applications, and 3D printing capability that can cycle through a dozen builds in record time, companies can feel assured of avoiding costly hazards.
Prototyping’s Role in the Broader Product Ecosystem
Iterative prototyping first appeared on the scene as a way to better understand and predict customers’ reactions to a new product. But prototypes play a much more extensive role in the broader ecosystem with stakeholders that include end users, investors, and decision-makers.
End Users
Product developers would often begin by studying end users and gathering quantitative and statistical data, building a use case, creating the physical product, and launching what they hoped would be a successful product — in that order.
Unfortunately, this was a recipe for failing to get the most out of the process, and it’s a recipe that too many companies are still following. No matter how solid a company’s up-front understanding of its intended customer may be, it’s rarely deep or ethnographic enough to predict how they’ll respond to the product. This is why it’s essential to engage end users throughout the prototyping process.
Investors
Prototyping isn’t just about bringing a product closer and closer to perfection for the end user. It’s also a key funding strategy for companies looking for capital investment. Any new product — especially a potentially disruptive one — always involves risk to those who place their bets on it. Well-designed prototypes can go a long way in reducing anxieties about ROI, especially when the intended innovation is complex or intangible.
Decision Makers
Complex B2B products are almost always purchased by teams rather than single buyers. Buyer teams often approach a purchase by identifying a pain point, seeking a solution, and making a case for their preferred solution. Key decision-makers often counter with varying objections to proposed solutions, citing multiple reasons for potentially rejecting the product in question. (Particularly if adoption poses the threat of change to organizational structures or business processes.)
The takeaway is that prototyping can play a significant role with buyers, providing iterative opportunities for pinpointing problem definitions, exposing design deficiencies, envisioning further possibilities, analyzing options, and testing an evolving product. Using this approach, the actual purchase may be little more than a formality since enthusiasm for the product has been built over time.
Looking for a Premier Product Development Partner?
Pivot delivers an integrative, expedited, cost-effective prototyping process to take your product from conception to launch. If you’d like to learn more about our collaborative approach to doing business and how we’ll help you transform your product vision into a successful market reality, contact us today.
Take Your Product From Prototype to Production in Less Time With Less Expense
Many businesses see a prototype as a kind of “rough draft” for the final product they hope to launch. While this idea isn’t entirely mistaken, prototyping consists of not one but of multiple drafts. When companies aren’t aware of this, it’s not uncommon that they’re unprepared for the complexity, time, and expense involved in this phase of the product development process.
Iteration is Inescapable. Excessive Costs Are Not
For complex products, there’s simply no way around the iterative nature of the prototyping process. There is, however, a way to make an end-run around the excessive costs and extended time horizons that often accompany it. Achieving this requires high levels of integration. In other words, the prototyping process must not be mistaken as a job for which only the design team is primarily responsible. Instead, from the very beginning, prototyping must be approached and undertaken with the full participation, insight, and expertise of design, engineering, and manufacturing teams alike.
To do this requires two things. First, a one-source business model that integrates design, engineering, and manufacturing. Second, a sought-after sub-specialty, known as Design For Manufacture (DFM). The combination of both ensures that these stages are integrated and that each is undertaken with scalable manufacturing in mind.
At Pivot International, our one-source business model and industry-leading DFM expertise makes us a proven and preferred partner to companies worldwide. With product development experience spanning nearly fifty years and fourteen industries, we are the driving force behind some of the world’s most prestigious and innovative products. With 320,000 square feet of tri-continental manufacturing might, we offer flexible production runs and the ability to easily shift production between locations to support your distribution needs.
Let’s explore the prototyping process to better understand what it entails.
Understanding the Prototyping Process
Although the broader prototyping process can involve more than ten iterations, prototypes generally fall into three categories:
1. “Looks-Like” Prototypes
Looks-like prototypes are the least complex of the three and might be considered “all appearance, no substance.” (Which is why they are often known as Appearance prototypes.) These prototypes look like the finished products but lack the “guts” that make them functional or operable. These “dummy” prototypes are most often created for use in crowdsourcing campaigns or publicity stunts designed to create high levels of anticipation for a product that is not yet available. Appearance prototypes are typically created using CAD drawings and 3D printing (additive manufacturing) technology.
2.”Works-Like” Prototypes
Works-like prototypes are early Proof of Concept (POC) prototypes. Their purpose is to test the fundamental design and technology premises on which the product depends. Unlike looks-like prototypes, works-like prototypes seldom look anything like the finished product. Instead, their aim is to determine if the product will meet minimum viability requirements. POC’s play a special role in validating high-risk aspects of design. For this reason, they are a crucial piece of gaining or maintaining investor buy-in to ensure a product is sufficiently capitalized for further development.
3. Functional Prototypes
Fully-fledged functional prototypes represent varying combinations of looks-like and works-like prototypes and generally fall into three categories:
Engineering Prototypes are necessary for testing a product’s performance. While earlier prototyping efforts may have tested individual parts or components, engineering prototypes ensure the product functions well as a whole. Despite its name, engineering prototypes must always go hand in hand with design. “Design,” explained Steve Jobs, “is not just how it looks and feels. It’s how it works.”
Pre-Production Prototypes look and function like the final product or are highly similar to it. These prototypes validate whether the product has been effectively optimized for supply chain and manufacturing. (If a product cannot be cost-effectively manufactured at scale, even the most user-friendly design and innovative performance cannot justify further development.)
Design-Validation Prototypes (DVPs) ensure that products comply with industry standards and regulations. This stage is among the most complex, especially when validating medical and security-sensitive innovations. (Since they must meet higher safety, durability, and environmental standards) Certifications are obtained during this stage. Pivot brings FDA registration and ISE and ISO certifications (ISO 9001:2015, ISO 13485:2016, ISO 80079-34, and IEC 60601-1) to ensure strict quality control and regulatory compliance.
At Pivot, our one-source model and DFM expertise ensures a smooth, seamless process to take your product from prototype to production with maximum efficiency and cost-effectiveness. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you launch a successful product, contact us today for a complimentary consultation.
4 Surprising Ways Parallel Prototyping Fuels New Product Development
How can product designers fuel new product development? This is a question explored in a Stanford University study which found that designers benefit from using multiple prototypes. Specifically, researchers found that creating and receiving feedback on various prototypes in parallel, as opposed to serially – leads to the following:
1. More Divergent Ideation
Ideation consists of divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking involves creating and generating numerous options. Convergent thinking means zeroing in on one concept.
It can be extremely fruitful for designers to practice generating several ideas. Not only does this process help curb perfectionism, but it can also eventually lead to creating some of the most innovative products. As the Founder of IDEO Toy Lab, Brendan Boyle puts it: “Often, the brilliant ideas seem ridiculous. Paying to stay in another person’s home and having a stranger drive you around [in their personal vehicle] are great examples of seemingly ridiculous ideas — but Uber and Airbnb went on to become hugely successful companies.”
2. More Explicit Comparison
Sharing multiple designs helps designers form constructive comparisons between prototypes and products. According to the Stanford study, “Comparison helps people understand underlying principles better than just one.” Additionally, “parallel prototyping better enables people to compare feedback on multiple prototypes, leading to a better understanding of how key variables interrelate.”
Comparing is instructive in new product development. The more experience and knowledge designers possess, the better.
3. Less Investment in a Single Concept
In their abstract, the researchers note that “Overly investing in a single design idea can lead to fixation and impede the collaborative process.” But when the focus is placed on creating multiple prototypes in which everyone has a stake, greater collaboration is fostered. Additionally, when teams generate several ideas at once, “people feel more shared ownership and stronger team cohesiveness.”
Using multiple prototypes also promotes the integration of ideas to enrich the overall design and end product. A study participant explains, “Getting a different perspective helped, and also seeing different ideas — not flaws in mine, but different ideas in his that I’d like to borrow.”
4. Better Overall Design Performance
Sharing multiple prototypes also results in designs of higher-quality.
As part of the Stanford study, participants created online ads. The ads created with multiple prototypes received more clicks and shares than those created with a single prototype. The former also received a higher rating from judges.
In summary, this study demonstrates how parallel prototyping fuels new product development by helping designers 1) generate multiple options, 2) better understand underlying principles through comparison, 3) enhance collaboration, and 4) improve design performance.
If you’re in the process of launching a new product, we’re here to help. With over 46 years of experience in helping businesses achieve their potential, Pivot International leverages leading-edge design, development, and manufacturing practices to bring award-winning products to market. Are you interested in learning what a partnership with Pivot can do for you? Reach out to us today and consult with one of our design professionals for free.
What to Do When Your Prototype Exposes Problems with Your Product
Here’s the scenario. You receive the prototype for your product and discover there are some problems. While this can cause product developers to panic, it shouldn’t. After all, the purpose of a prototype is to expose all potential product defects prior to actual production. Whether the issues are related to design, functionality, or technicality, any complication at this stage is fixable.
At Pivot International, we’ve helped businesses create prototypes ranging from small, simple, hand-produced models to large designs engineered from 3D printing. With over 46 years of experience, we’ve seen it all. If your prototype uncovers a problem with your product, here’s how to take the next step in solving it.
1. Bring the whole team together to brainstorm.
This is a great opportunity for everyone to regroup. What elements will be easiest to fix? Which problems present more significant challenges? Have you correctly identified the issues? If possible, how can you avoid these mistakes when designing future products? Getting everyone on the same page about what went wrong and what needs to happen next will be extremely helpful down the line.
2. Factor in your users.
Feedback received from testing provides you invaluable information. Not only will you learn more about what users want from your product, but you’ll also discover new things about users themselves. Such findings will help you solve prototype problems in highly personal and therefore relevant ways that ultimately make your product more marketable.
3. Consider alternatives to your current design.
Sometimes all it takes is a small change in design to solve a larger problem. Think about what design alternatives could work for your product. Though these alternatives may not have been your first choice, they may turn out to be your best choice.
4. Start the repairs.
Once you have accurately pinpointed the issues and formulated a plan, it’s time to start fixing. As the inventor of the digital camera, Steve Sasson, said: “Failure is a valuable learning opportunity that allows us to be equipped with the knowledge and power to adapt to any situation.” Make the most of this opportunity.
After you regroup, listen to your users, rethink design, and start repairs — you’ll have succeeded in acting on the learning that the prototype was designed to provide. Remember, the discovery of a problem in the prototyping process is a sign that your product development is progressing exactly as it should.
At Pivot, prototyping services are a key part of our product design and development expertise that we offer businesses of all sizes. In fact, it’s part of our standard product development package. Our expert designers will guide your prototyping process every step of the way and offer suggestions and critical analysis, enabling you to move confidently to the production process and to market. To learn more about our product design and development services and how Pivot International can help, reach out to us today.
How Do You Know if Rapid Prototyping is Right For Your Project?
Rapid prototyping is the process of generating several iterations of a product or product component. Using three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) data, rapid prototyping has many benefits. Still, you want to be sure this process is a good match for your project. How can you tell if rapid prototyping is best for you? The following signs are indicative:
When you want to test the visuals of your project
Rapid prototyping enables users to engage with the look and feel of their product early on in the design process. With rapid prototyping, you can get feedback from your development team in addition to your investors and potential client base.
A physical rendition of your product, as opposed to a design or schematic, can give way to a more realistic experience. Rapid prototyping allows you to get helpful feedback that is critical for the success of your final product.
When you are working with a limited amount of time on your project
A defining advantage of rapid prototyping is, of course, how quickly it can be produced. Designs are subject to change even in the final stages of product development. Executing these changes can be difficult and time-consuming. With rapid prototyping, however, changes can be expeditiously made throughout the process. This prevents the costly possibility of having to start from square one when a product is produced without the benefits of iterative experimentation and testing and therefore evidences defects or inadequacies late in the development process.
If you find yourself quickly approaching a deadline, rapid prototyping can help you get quick feedback and promptly carry out any necessary changes.
When you are open to more than one option for your project
Maybe you are still testing out different versions of your product. Perhaps you have different markets or clients that have unique needs for your product. Rapid prototyping makes quick adjustments possible.
Rapid prototyping is an excellent means for exploratory design, allowing you to toy with numerous designs and styles. If you want to compare and contrast different renditions of your project, rapid prototyping enables you to assess them before before proceeding to production.
When you are looking to save time and money with your project
Revisions undertaken at later stages in the product development process tend to be much more costly and time consuming than those undertaken at the beginning and along the way. Rapid prototyping helps companies protect against this.
Money saved with rapid prototyping can be allocated towards supply chain reinforcement, marketing efforts, warehousing, and any other arena.
While in the past it took weeks to secure a prototype of a product, rapid prototyping can often be initiated and completed within the same day day. To learn about how rapid prototyping can help your business, download our e-book “Product Prototyping: Getting It Right the First Time.”
At Pivot, we bring nearly 50 years of experience in offering product design and complete prototyping services to entrepreneurial start-ups and established corporations alike to help them bring profitable products to domestic and international markets. If you’re ready to take the steps to prototype a product or are simply looking to optimize your manufacturing operations, we can help. Contact us today and see what we can do for you.
Turning a Prototype into a Product
Going from prototype to product is an exciting—albeit sometimes intimidating—process, one that relies on both standard procedure and innovation. Your course of action and timeline depend on a variety of factors, and there is no one way to develop a prototype. That being said, these three essential steps have been proven to make all the difference.
1) Determine material availability and pricing
The first thing you should do is create a bill of materials (BOM) that includes the total cost of every individual part as well as its assembly. Your BOM should also incorporate expenses for shipping, labor, and import taxes.
Once your BOM is complete, you can determine the product’s retail price. Adding the BOM to the labor and shipping costs for a single unit—or total cost per unit—results in the cost of goods, also referred to as the COGS. To calculate the gross margin, you subtract the COGS from the sale price. The margin depends on the distribution channel. For instance, selling through retail stores requires a higher margin than selling directly to the customer.
It is important to determine these costs before building a product. That way, you don’t run the risk of encountering unexpected costs and needing to raise prices in the future.
2) Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst
It is wise to assume that production, shipping, and regulation will require more time and money than your initial estimates. Finding a contract manufacturer can become a long and expensive process. Communicating your standards early on, however, can make creating a repeatable assembly process more manageable.
In terms of shipping, it’s especially important to pay attention to what needs to be sent overseas. While air shipping is the more expensive option, sea shipping takes up more time. It’s also vital to determine if it makes financial sense to ship a specific item by air.
It is also advisable to set aside extra time for government testing. Remember that a few iterations may be required to pass FCC Certification, UL testing, and CE testing.
3) Conduct a pilot production run
A pilot production run prepares you for the product launch. During this phase of the product development cycle, each item or component will be manufactured in the same way and in the same sequence it will be upon actual launch. Routine inspection procedures and assembly instructions are employed and modified if needed. After the pilot product is tested, packaging, stocking, and distribution should be evaluated for iteration or removal.
At Pivot International, we care about the quality of your product as much as you do. We bring over 40 years of experience ensuring that our clients understand the entirety of the production process, and we take inventory of and address any issues before you commit to production costs. Contact us today to learn more. We look forward to hearing from you.
Complete Prototype Services: Which Ones Do Your Company Need?
A prototype is a mock-up of the product you plan to bring to market.
In product development, prototypes take guessing and conjecture out of the equation. Prototypes are not only useful for internal decision-making, but can also help your company attract sponsors and future clients.
Product samples can come in a variety of forms; from a working model, to a purely representational, non-working model, or even a video.
With so many options, how do you decide which prototype to use?
Simply put, it mainly comes down to the specifics of what you’re testing, the level of completeness of your design, and the resources that are available to you. With that in mind, we hope the following article sheds light on how your company can best approach prototyping.
Interactive aka “Clickable” Prototypes
Interactive prototyping involves setting a response for every potential user interaction before any testing occurs. When a user interacts with a clickable target, the interactive prototype is intended to respond accordingly.
Static Prototyping
Unlike interactive prototyping, static prototyping responses aren’t determined before a testing period, but rather, happen during testing. The following are common forms of this type of prototyping:
Wizard of Oz Prototyping
In Wizard of Oz prototyping (WOZ prototyping), a user interacts with a product, while a designer in a different location controls the product and decides what happens. This method is commonly used to figure out how to best implement AI-based technology in a product.
Steal-the-Mouse Prototyping
Steal-the-mouse prototyping is similar to Wizard of Oz prototyping except that the “wizard designer” is in the same room as the user.
Paper-Prototyping
In paper-prototyping, the product’s design is sketched onto paper. Someone who is familiar with the product’s design plays the role of “the computer,” responding to the live user’s interactions with the paper screen.
Classifying the Prototypes: Low-Fidelity and High-Fidelity
Low fidelity and high fidelity prototyping refer to the correlation between the prototype and the final product.
Low-Fidelity Prototyping
A low-fidelity prototype is used to hone in on some—but not all —elements of a product. If a designer wants to get a feel for a product’s aesthetic qualities more so than the functional attributes, a low-fidelity prototype would be appropriate. Low fidelity-prototypes require less time than their high-fidelity counterparts. They also allow more room for additional changes in the product development cycle.
High-Fidelity Prototyping
A high-fidelity prototype is a comprehensive model that corresponds with the desired end product as closely as possible. High-fidelity prototypes encompass the user interface (UI) of a product and the user experience (UX). High-fidelity prototyping is useful when the product’s visuals are set, and the interactive elements are close to being finalized. Target customers can test out high-fidelity prototypes and offer their instant feedback. High-fidelity prototypes usually cost more than low-fidelity models, require more time, and are more difficult to make immediate changes to.
Pivot International brings over 40 years of experience in product design and complete prototyping services. Having worked with both entrepreneurial start-ups and established corporations, we know how the prototyping process can work to your specific benefit. Contact us to see what Pivot can do for you today.
3 Common Prototyping Pitfalls
For centuries, prototyping has been a proven method of designing, developing and perfecting a product, allowing designers to experiment with an object’s function and appearance, actively test its performance, and compellingly present it to stakeholders. Today, innovative approaches to prototyping as exemplified by titans such as Google, as well as lesser known but still highly successful businesses, have evolved prototyping into an art and best practice for companies both large and small.
Despite a proliferation of white papers, podcasts, and TED talks extolling the virtues of prototyping, the method can be fraught with predictable difficulties for even the most experienced design and development professionals.
At Pivot, we’re experts in product design services and product prototype manufacturing. We’ve partnered with hundreds of businesses to help them successfully design, develop, and launch their products and optimize their operations.
What follows are three key considerations that we’ve found useful in helping our clients investigate, understand, and overcome prototyping pitfalls.
1. Getting caught in the sunk cost trap.
When designers invest unwarranted time and expense into prototypes too early in the process the result is often sunk costs that can fuel an irrational commitment to continuing rather than reevaluating how best to proceed. By prototyping with incremental orders of fidelity — starting out “lean” and beefing up investment only as the prototype succeeds across multiple iterations — designers can avoid the sunk cost trap. At Pivot, we offer designers a free consultation with one of our engineers to enable them to accurately predict, scale and allocate their prototyping expenses.
2. Failing to ask fundamental questions.
Designers often jump to elements of high-fidelity prototyping before they’ve fully thought through certain foundational assumptions, leading them to answer the wrong questions and essentially “bring a gun to a fistfight.” Paradoxically, this danger can be particularly pronounced with the use of prototyping software: in skipping over low-fidelity considerations, it can lend itself to the illusion that fundamental questions have already been asked and answered.
Before ever starting a prototype, it’s important to identify the particular questions a prototype is designed to answer. Designers need to behave much like scientists at this point of the prototyping process, developing a clear, explicit, working hypothesis about specific ways a product will perform in order to run an experiment about the validity of this hypothesis. Said differently, without a designer having a clear sense of what question he or she is trying to answer via the prototype, prototypes are often created that either succeed in ways that are largely irrelevant or fall short in ways that are difficult for designers to recognize and evaluate.
3. Falling prey to investment bias.
It’s human nature for a designer to be invested in their own ideas, often at the cost of seeing them objectively. When designers become too identified with their own design, it can cloud their vision and preclude their recognition that a design doesn’t hold the merit they think it does or blinds them to significant design changes that must be made in order for prototyping to successfully proceed.
Investment bias can become particularly tricky when the central idea or design is basically sound or even revolutionary but the designer is unwilling to compromise on peripheral features. Though Steve Jobs became legendary for his refusal to compromise during the process of prototyping what became the original iPhone, his refusal was backed by twenty years of experience and multi-million dollar R&D budget.
When it comes to the investment bias, forewarned is forearmed. Simply being aware of the danger of becoming too personally invested in a design can help protect designers from this prototyping pitfall. And by being realistic about a design’s potential shortcomings and actively soliciting feedback early on — especially from an experienced design services team — designers can ensure that they don’t become overly invested in “barking up the wrong tree.”
At Pivot, we bring over 40 years of experience in offering product design and complete prototyping services to entrepreneurial start-ups and established corporations alike to help them bring profitable products to domestic and international markets. If you’re ready to take the steps to prototype a product or are simply looking to optimize your manufacturing operations, we can help. Contact us today and see what we can do for you.
