Not every prototype needs to be perfect, as they fulfill different purposes. We often discuss this topic with our customers to align expectations, and we found it can be confusing. So let’s look at some examples of what prototypes do, and we’ll explain how to define a quality standard for prototypes, and what you can expect in terms of quality, and when.
The difficulty of defining a quality standard for prototypes early on
In a previous article (How To Set Product Specifications), we provided an outline of the usual documents used to define what is and is not acceptable in production. We also wrote about 5 common ways to document a quality standard. How to do it is relatively clear.
The problem is, that all those documents usually come together or get finalized in the tooling and pre-production phases. Earlier than that, in the product development phases, a few prototypes are prepared but defining a quality standard for prototypes at this stage is difficult for various reasons.
Why defining a quality standard for prototypes early in development is tough
- The focus tends to be on answering questions such as “does the product fulfil its intended function?”, “any user feedback on the form factor?”, and the like. The focus is NOT “will it look good on a store shelf?”.
- Those prototypes are usually not made with production-intent processes. For instance, 3D printing or CNC milling is used instead of high-pressure injection molding, since the mold hasn’t been fabricated yet. Typical visual defects with those technologies are quite different.
- Only 1 to 3 prototypes are typically prepared in each early iteration, so there are not many imperfections to look at and categorize. Most of the potential defects that might appear in mass production haven’t come out, yet.
That’s why product developers should start to think of potential defects, but they often have a hard time exhaustively documenting them.
Let’s look at another development process as an example: Writing a book
Comparing with practices in a different industry is often useful. In this article, a book editor provides the main steps involved:
- Write
- Revise
- Manuscript critique
- Developmental edit
- Line edit
- Copy edit
- Manuscript cleanup
- Interior book formatting (aka typesetting)
- Proofread
- Proofreading corrections
- Final review
- Publish
- Celebrate!
Steps 1 and 2 are the creative process. That’s equivalent to the engineering design work and putting together the initial prototypes.
Then, steps 3, 4, 5, and 6 are various types of reviews & adjustments. That’s the equivalent of having your product design reviewed, having typical users test prototypes & provide feedback, and running accelerated reliability testing. That usually leads to new prototyping iterations in order to improve the product.
When are defects removed from the book? In steps 8 and 9, when a proofreader is brought into the project. Not before. And that’s on purpose. Get the content right, and only after that make it shine.
That’s also reflected in the NPI process that large companies like Apple follow
Once the initial planning and research have been done and the project of developing a new product is authorized to proceed forward, the 3 phases before mass production can start are listed below:
- Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) – getting the product to actually work as intended. We call it the Prototyping phase at Agilian.
- Design Validation Testing (DVT) – getting the product to look & feel as intended with production-intent tooling. We call it the Tooling phase.
- Production Validation Testing (PVT) – getting the manufacturing & testing processes ready for mass production. We call it the Pre-Production phase.
(Sorry if I over-simplified the content of these 3 phases – we covered it in more detail on this page about how we work at Agilian.)
The naming of these phases is quite revealing. You will get products that look most similar the industrial designer’s renderings, based on production-intent processes, in the DVT phase. Not before tooling is fabricated.
Let’s look at the way one of the most brilliant product innovators was handling this. Early in a project life, the Apple hardware teams dared show Steve Jobs a working prototype as an illustration of a ‘rough concept’, to get feedback and to ensure they are going in the right direction. The design studio did not have to make everything pretty for every demo. This is lost on many other product innovators who believe they should be handed ‘perfect products’ every time.
So, what should you expect aesthetically from prototypes during product development?
There are two different situations here.
Two different situations regarding prototype aesthetics
a) The usual situation
As much as possible, you need to manage the early users’ expectations. The finishing on prototypes is not going to look amazing, and it’s normal because that’s not part of what needs to be validated at that stage.
Let’s say you develop a new type of e-bike that makes use of a revolutionary new technology to power the ride (let’s imagine it forces users to stop every 3 km and pause for 30 seconds… but the overall weight is much lower). The technical challenge of “will it actually work for the typical use cases of e-bikes?”, and the human-factor challenge of “will real users welcome the new technology, or be put off by its limitations?”, must be addressed first. If the answers are ‘no’, there is no need to work on making the e-bikes visually appealing, is there?
b) Special situations where nice aesthetics are a must-have
Naturally, there are also the cases of “we need nice-looking prototypes for showing to investors/distributors and we want them to feel we are quite close to production”, as well as “we need nice-looking prototypes for shooting the photos & videos for Kickstarter”.
In those cases, aesthetics play a major role. 3D printed samples might need to be painted nicely, for example, but that comes with its own limitations:
- Getting to the exact color & effect with paint can take a lot of trial-and-error iterations and it will still look a bit different from a plastic enclosure coming out from a mold.
- Adding paint layers adds to the parts’ thickness, and in some cases it affects the fit between the different parts.
The mistakes around prototype quality that we often see unfold
- The product manager (or startup founder) says “go ahead, please make prototypes based on this design”
- The manufacturer says “OK, let us work on that”
- [A few weeks later] Prototypes are delivered to the product manager, who complains there are aesthetic imperfections.
- The manufacturer responds “oh, you want them to be near-perfect then, you should have told us… we already spent efforts making them look relatively good, and we were not made aware of your expectations in specific terms”.
That is frustrating for both sides. In a sense, both sides are right. Manufacturers can only work with specific instructions, while product managers tend to be more focused on their end users and customers’ subjective appreciation.
What can be done to make your quality standard for prototypes clear?
So, in this situation, what should the product manager (or startup founder) do? He/she should:
- Ask the manufacturer questions about the types of imperfections that are expected to come up.
- Look for somewhat similar products (at least with regards to the form factor and/or the use case) on the market and point to what you like and don’t like about their colors, materials, and finishing.
- Get one of those similar products and damage it slightly (with a dent, a few scratches, a few blemishes…) and then show the manufacturer what would or would not be acceptable on the next prototypes (making your quality standard’s requirements tangibly clear).
Based on that, if your quality standard for prototypes has relatively high requirements, expect a higher price, since there will be more work and re-work. Remember, those early samples are made by a few engineers on a bench and there is a lot of trial & error involved. They are not made by the thousands with tested & proven injection molds and assembly lines!
Get help with your product development
Our experienced industrial designers and product engineers are here to help get your product from concept to market. Contact us to discuss your product and we’ll give you no-nonsense feedback and advice, as the first step.
