In today's competitive environment, prototyping is necessary to understand customers, create a new market or attend to what has been ignored by industry leaders. The big problem is that most engineers don't see the benefits of prototyping and are not convinced that it is an effective way of developing and using a prototype.

This article covers the basics of why, when to and how to prototype (Figure 1, below) and discusses the main reasons why dedication to creating a prototype will prove to be fruitful in both gaining visibility for your product and also getting an early taste of whether your idea will resonate with targeted consumers.

Figure 1: Why Prototype?

Why Prototype? There is a huge pool of great ideas with no material to show for it. A prototype makes an idea a reality and makes investors or partners confident by showing them that the idea could actually work. Creating a prototype can be a tough hurdle to jump because it converts an idea to something that has value and requires some dedication.

Most engineers understand the benefits of prototyping, but don't have a good grasp of its importance and how it can be used to develop a better product effectively in a short amount of time. To fully understand the benefits of prototyping it is necessary to look at the process from two different perspectives, the business and technical.

Business Benefits
Provide value to the idea for funding. Building a prototype shows determinism and a passion for further developing the idea. To an investor, execution matters more than an idea. Having a prototype in hand shows the execution and provides a layer of functionality to the idea.

Alternative ways to present ideas.It is always a difficult task to present the full picture of an idea which typically involves trying to transfer information that's on your mind to paper or directly to an investor.

Information can easily be lost when verbally described or written down. A prototype puts the idea physically in front of the user, providing an upfront experience and helps visualize an idea that is just too hard or complex to describe on paper.

Reduce production cost and determine initial costs. Developing a physical prototype will help determine a detailed cost distribution that will be involved in manufacturing. Factoring in the cost earlier in the development process will help with predicting feasibility of the product for production.

It's also essential to understand that a prototype can be used to reduce the cost that's involved down the line in production (Figure 2, below) and speed up product deployment. With a prototype, you can determine more effective ways of designing a product for production and streamlining the product to lower the cost involved in manufacturing.

Figure 2: Reduced Production Cost

Most engineers find that creating a prototype usually incurs high initial cost in the product development process. This may be true, but there are ways of reducing this initial time and cost involved by making use of the right tools. This will be addressed later by presenting a variety of high-level tools to help create prototypes effectively, while saving time and cost.

Figure 3: Reduced Cost of Prototyping

Getting upfront feedback. Prototyping will foster constructive feedback faster and more effectively. It's always easier for users to get a better picture of your product by helping them see it and feel it.

This will bring their understanding of the idea to another level which in turn allows for you to harness more constructive feedback. This direct feedback will help perfect the idea for the target consumer.