Many startup businesses launch because they wish to offer something innovative to the market. They have big ideas and believe they can make them work. Of course, they also feel there is a market for the new products they want to sell.
That’s all good. But, how can those startups get their target audience interested in the first place? Some of those new businesses will get 3D drawings of their products designed. They might even hire a company to create a 3D animation or movie of what they want to build.
Yes, those are some good ideas for getting the party started, so to speak. The thing is, people want to see something physical in front of them. Technical drawings and 3D animations aren’t enough to sway consumers and company buyers. That’s where the process of prototyping can come in useful.
Prototypes are ways of creating functional, working examples of what firms hope to achieve. How can you get your startup noticed with a prototype? Today’s blog post discusses the science behind the technology.
All prototypes start with a crude model. Believe it or not, the initial stage of building a prototype begins with a crude example! Often, prototypes will appear naked. That is, they won’t have any visual details. Rather, what one will see is the first functioning version of the final product.
Some prototypes will include parts fabricated from scratch. Others will get assembled using existing parts. A crude model prototype is usually the result of ideas and designed noted on paper or PC.
Analysis of competing products. Next, it’s always a good idea to find out what the competition are doing. That way, you can improve the flaws present in their existing products. The analysis stage is literally about dismantling competitor’s products and seeing how they work.
You might think this is a “sneaky” way of developing your own product. But, I can guarantee you it is something virtually all product manufacturers do.
Building a full-scale prototype. Once any problems get ironed out in the initial crude prototype, it’s time to build a full-scale one. In a nutshell, this is where the item starts looking like the final product.
Many processes happen at that stage. For instance, 3D design techniques on PCs get used to build a visual example of the final product. That design can then get transferred to the working prototype. And injection molding techniques get used to craft the product’s exterior.
A professional circuit board gets built instead of the initial breadboard for electronic products. And long-term testing begins to ensure there are no nasty surprises such as explosions.
With electronic prototypes, programming is almost always a core part of the process. There will no doubt be a team of developers writing code and testing it “live” on the prototype.
In fact, startups often have several prototypes for testing purposes. Another reason they do so is that it’s cheaper than building just one item. Plus, if something happened to one prototype, there are many copies available to use.
Photo by Bench Accounting
Milo Senalle
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