Is It Worth Creating a New Product Prototype?

Hello, my name is Ian Peterman. I'm CEO and founder of Peterman Design Firm, and today I'm going to answer the question, is it worth creating a new product prototype? And this is something that I've definitely had clients for one reason or another ask, hey, can we Is there any way we can skip that cost or skip the time and be able to jump over that and move forward into production or into whatever the next stage is? Now, it's always worth making a prototype. So no matter what the project is, no matter what you're developing, it's always worth it to make a prototype, even if it's just a rough one, if it's made out of foam, cardboard, something that allows you to tangibly hold it, put it where it's supposed to go, put it in the environment it's going to be in so you can get an understanding of what it is. And so that's something that our design team and designers in general, we do prototype even through the design process and beyond into engineering and actual prototyping where you're developing complete prototypes, functional prototypes, things like that. Prototyping is part of the process and It's something that we really don't want to skip. Now, why are prototypes so important? They're important because it allows you to be involved in seeing what it looks like in situations, it allows you to get user input, it allows you to test the product, it allows you to do tests on it such as durability or seeing if it holds up to the weather or whatever is your best metric for knowing whether a product is going to be successful or will work properly. And so prototyping allows you to do all that testing beforehand. If you go straight to production, then you're going to skip all that part. So prototypes are really important. They also create a great tool for communicating and walking through a project. You as a client are going to value the prototypes that are created and the process that you're able to go through by touching and feeling and experiencing and walking through prototypes with, you know, your design team or your agency who's doing the design work. And whether it's digital or physical, it's going to allow you to have conversation and dialogue and experience that you won't be able to get without doing some kind of prototyping. Now, why is skipping prototyping dangerous? It is dangerous because you are not taking the time to do a check on the product to see what is it going to look like in reality, what is it going to actually do, how is it going to function once you actually produce it. And making sure that it is something that will work. So designs change as you go through the process, the things get modified a little bit, you know, design for manufacturing process, you end up adjusting things so that it can be manufacturable. And you want to make sure that when you launch a product that it is going to be the best product possible and do what you say it's going to do. And if you skip prototyping, it can lead to products that are not tested and don't work right and have manufacturing problems. And so skipping ahead and just jumping to, oh, we have a design, let's go straight to manufacturing, is really going to put you in a dangerous spot. Now, can you? Absolutely you can. However, the chance that you had a product prototype be perfect and therefore you could have skipped it It's virtually zero. I think I've worked on one product, maybe 2, where prototype came back close enough that we probably could have skipped it. I've worked on hundreds of products, and one or two, that is a very low percentage. It's a 9— over 98% chance that you are going to skip something. You're going to miss something. That prototyping is going to help you catch an error, an issue, a problem, a potential mistake, and skipping it gives you a 98% chance that you're going to have a bad product, and then you're going to invest all that money into producing the parts and assembling it, and you will have wasted all of that money. So prototyping is really important. Last thing is prototypes don't need to be fancy. We don't need to have the most complicated or the most expensive prototype. Prototypes can be made of foam, they can be made of materials that are not the product final materials, they can be quick and dirty prototypes, they can be— they don't have to be the most expensive version possible. You can prototype in many different ways, and we do through the design process. That's pretty typical for designers to Make a paper prototype, make cardboard, make foam, right? Do these things that are just to put the product into physical reality, because especially with physical products, as much as we like to do digital and 3D modeling and even VR or AR, it gives you a great experience that never will fully replace tangible. So until we're able to build a holodeck from Star Trek and we can make digital physical, we have to prototype it in some other way. And by doing that, we bring it into physical reality and you're able to touch and feel and interact with it on a different level. And you don't have to do a crazy prototype. You can do a more simple prototype, but you need to do it. And it is part of the design process. It will make It'll save you money, it'll save you time down the road, and is very well worth the investment. So we've— I've covered, you know, it makes sense, it's always worth it to prototype, why prototypes are important, why skipping prototypes are dangerous, and you don't need to make the most fancy of prototypes. You can make simpler prototypes in order to still achieve Great results. So hopefully this gives you understanding of why it's worth creating new product prototypes when you're developing it. Hey, thanks for watching! We really appreciate our viewers, and if you haven't subscribed yet, please do subscribe to our channel so you can get more great videos like this in your feed. And like the video. If you want to learn more about the Peterman Design Firm, please check us out on our website petermanfirm.com. You'll find link and information. information in the description. And of course, we're on all social media as well, so check us out there. All right, thank you. Thank you.