According to data from the McKinsey Global Institute, for every 7 new product ideas, only 4 enter the product development stage, only 1.5 launch, and only 1 succeeds.
As you can see, the odds are against every company when it comes to product development.
The big question is – how do you give yourself the best chance of hitting the ‘money shot’?
The simple answer: prototyping.
When it comes to product development, here’s the typical series of events:
The best way to understand just how valuable it is to create a working prototype is by imagining what the product development process would look like without it.
If you took a product idea and almost immediately sent it out for mass production, here’s the unfortunate situations it could lead to:
- You’re excited to receive your first batch of the completed product only to realize that you forgot to include a series of resistors and transistors during the design phase. Worst of all, not only have you lost money on this batch, but also all the other ones that have already been ordered and entered production.
- Upon receiving your first lot, you test a bunch of the units and everything seems great. You move ahead and launch the product. A few weeks later, you wake up to thousands of tweets calling your product an #epicfail and encouraging other people to stay away from it. What happened? There was a misinterpretation of your concept by the manufacturer’s design team due to the language barrier. Not only do you have to rebuild the trust with your customers, you also now have a legal battle with a manufacturer in a totally different country.
- The product is finally launched for the world to use – and well, they are not liking it. The consumer need is not satisfied by the actual product, and instead of having it boost your revenues, you’re dealing with an angry mob scrambling to return it. Not only is your brand reputation tarnished and expenses growing from all the returns, you’re also stuck with an inventory that will most likely end up in the garbage.
Hopefully, this paints the picture of just how important it is for you to create a prototype for your product first and foremost, in which you can thoroughly test and verify, before committing to the costly mass production process. In addition, how critical it is to choose a prototyping partner that can closely collaborate and effectively communicate with you from concept to final product.
The good news is that once you have the right partner and build the right prototypes, everything becomes easier and safer. You can test, improve and build confidence in your product moving into mass production.
Think of comedian Russell Peters, for example. Before he creates his Netflix Specials, he spends tons of time at small comedy clubs testing his jokes on small audiences. Throughout this ‘research phase,’ he’ll test various types of jokes in different orders, to see where he gets the most laughs. The parts of the routine that work, he’ll add to the special knowing that a majority of people will like it. Whereas the ones that don’t, he’ll get rid of without anyone knowing they even existed.
In a similar light, prototyping gives you the chance to work with control groups to see what they like and dislike about the product as it evolves. In the end, you and your stakeholders will gain the peace of mind knowing that the final version you decide to launch and scale is something that you all truly believe in and others have proven they want.
At Dena Technologies, our dedicated design engineers, who are based at our assembly facility in Burnaby, British Columbia, will work alongside you in understanding your product concept, key objectives and budget constraints. They will design your required PCB, as well as any enclosures that are required, ensuring it meets all Canadian Standards. Finally, they will quickly adapt to your design improvements and provide you with evolved prototypes for iterative testing.