Our Prototyping Expertise Evaluating Value and Risk

Play video: Prototyping

Video: Meet our electronics design team (1:45min)

Strategic Prototyping - Avoid Costly Late-Stage Product Failures

Too many prototypes answer the wrong questions. Design companies will build stunning models for investors, then discover critical flaws in the design transfer to engineering and production— late-stage major design modifications can cost 10x more. The same trap catches everyone from Fortune 500 OEMs to first-time entrepreneurs.

Our systematic build-and-test approach identifies risky hypotheses and assumptions about feasibility. We dive into these critical issues early in development as changes to the product design are evolving to reduce and remove risk as we maximize the new product value.

Image: Design 1st team showing Waterotor client finished prototype

We’ve seen teams skip $5,000 bench tests, then face $250,000 tooling changes. Or choose components without verifying availability, forcing complete redesigns when suppliers can’t scale or parts are discontinued. You need experts to identify and qualify risks and provide options.

• Bench model testing to validate risky mechanisms before full integration
• Component sourcing verification during part selections, not after builds
• Progressive risk reduction from bench models through to beta units
• In-house prototyping shortens iteration cycles from weeks to days
• Engineering assessments on feasibility figure out what not to do

Read Feature Article: Design Engineering Magazine – Finding the Happy Path, Interview With Design 1st CEO, Kevin Bailey

Why we Prototype (Build & Test)

Assessing Feasibility, Value and Risk

In the world of designing physical devices, you cannot just build a fully working product each time you want to evaluate a potential solution. Unlike the software world the cost of build and test is orders of magnitude greater and time to design and build each iteration to the fidelity expected by users is many months not days. The only practical way to evaluate and refine a physical product design is to use focussed testing of specific known risky elements to collect specific data to help make design decisions, as your product development progresses.

Prototyping should embed Manufacturing Thinking – and figuring out Feasible Solutions takes Iteration

Part selection and supply strategy runs in parallel with the design of the product. From prototyping to production product and beyond, we can provide manufacturer coordination services to avoid costly mistakes on production builds. By addressing sourcing, costing, and manufacturing strategy right from the start we ensure smooth transitions from idea to prototype to profitable production. Only taking risk where you have to requires experience and a process, but you cannot test everything.

It takes a physical design team with deep experience in mother nature and thousands of products designed and tested to know what the high failure risks may be, so you can carefully and selectively evaluate and minimize the level of risk where possible. We know the difference between passing certification tests and building durable and reliable products that engage customers and deliver new value.

Many Ways to Qualify Risk – from sketches to Bench Models to Pre-Production Units

Every item built to test should answer a specific question before moving to the increasingly expensive next stages of development. Too often design teams build $30,000 prototypes before validating basic user acceptance and ergonomics. Or they skip the $2,000 mechanism test, then discover their new style hinge fails after 1,000 cycles—requiring extensive redesign after production tooling was built.

Our approach is to build and test only what’s needed to answer today’s critical questions—perhaps a show model to attract investment, foam model for ergonomics, user interface model for user evaluations, a lab test to verify a circuit or mechanism, pilot run units for certification and so on.

Rapid In-House Prototype Builds and Iterations

Waiting three weeks for a prototype kills momentum while competitors pivot and capture your market when time to market is critical. We build and test risky elements in-house in our studio, mechanics lab, electronics lab and software lab.

With our network of prototype suppliers globally, its fast and low cost to do rapid iterations on risky items at every stage of the development process. We catch costly issues early in development when design choices lock in 70% of lifetime product costs. Rapid iteration means finding ways to test an idea or design change, in hours not days.

We maximize your design development velocity to accelerate the development time to product ready for sale and use.

In Use Testing - to Validate Product Fit and User Experience

Lab tests attempt to reflect reality to obtain critical insights and avoid field failures and one-star reviews of your new product. Your prototype survived your planned drop test height, but what about falling from a runner’s armband at mile 20 onto a concrete sidewalk? We simulate actual use conditions— like sweaty hands that chemically attack surfaces, dusty job sites that find their way into moving mechanisms and create havoc, and how about toddlers using your device as a teething toy which presents safety and durability challenges.

Our internal testing pushes limits to find failure points so we know where the product weaknesses are – and minimize them before you get to approvals testing and customers.

Production-Ready Prototype Builds - with Design for Manufacturer Checks

The prototype works perfectly, then a manufacturer is selected and their way of working is different than the design team envisioned and everything falls apart. Tolerances of the off-tool parts vary more than anticipated and the assembly stacks wrong, assembly takes 2x longer due to process steps not anticipated by design team, that clever snap-fit fails as the gate placement in the tooling design led to material flow weakness at the base of the snap. 95% of the time this is the reality when bringing physical devices to market. Once a product reaches the customer, it only takes one failed component to turn the entire product into landfill. Repair is only an option in the most expensive products.

We are experts at the 1000 failures that poor choices lead to. We think production limitations right from the start. Every model, survey, test and prototype orients around production limitations in process, materials and variation. By the time you’re paying for custom tooling, there are no surprises—just smooth transition as the manufacturer prepares for volume production.