Your business idea will not remain an idea. It should come into life. It should become a reality. But before you mass-produce a product, you need to create a prototype first. This phase of product development can be quite stressful and taxing. But it can also be fun and rewarding, as you finally get to see how your design transitions into something tangible. Moreover, creating prototypes also helps you address the design flaws that you have not considered before.
Whether your product will come from a 3D printing machine or designed with a Powermax Plasma cutter, here are some things that you need to bear in mind:
Simplicity is beauty
At your product’s early stages, everything is sketched, drawn, or doodled. And because you’re drawing by hand or simulating the design through a computer, it’s easy to be tempted to put in embellishments or auxiliary items. This is something that you should avoid; you should always aim for simplicity. Later on, you will realize that the additional elements will not serve any purpose. Moreover, you will realize that they will cost money when it comes to mass production.
Hire experienced product designers
You and your founders might have the vision, the sketching skills, and the aptitude for conceptualizing. But you still need some experts who can help you turn this vision into a reality. Enter product designers. The product designers and engineers will not just make sure that the product is working. They are also trained to make these products safe, ergonomically sound, and easy to use. After all, the usability of your products should be among their unique selling points.
Think of the future
When you are dealing with the design process, you should also be thinking of how the product will be mass-produced in the future. Mass production should be cost-efficient, operationally efficient, and easy to deploy. You are supposed to make sure that the design of the product will allow you to come up with a production model that works for the business and responds well to the demands of the market. If you want you can simulate mass production by creating products in small batches, which can be sent to your investors, product reviewers, and other stakeholders.
Test, test, test
At this point, you have to remember that the release of your product is still quite far. You will need to conduct many tests to make sure that certain design and technical flaws are addressed to see to it that the product will be easy to use. You need to know that the testing period has many phases, and you need to keep accurate records of the results.
You’re ready!
Again, you are d tnot yet in the production phase. At this point, you will still neeo prove to your investors that your products are useful, feasible, and easy to produce. But when you already have a strong product prototype, you should always be ready to present. If you need more help, you can consult a business expert.
