Brian Marick, a professional software testing consultant, said, “Testing a product is a learning process.” What does this mean? It is necessary to test the feasibility of your invention with the help of prototype manufacturers. If you don’t do this, your project may fail.
You probably have been spending hours, days and weeks analyzing different IoT devices examples. These have allowed you to get excited about each feature and component your invention is incorporating. Thanks to the help of creative engineers, you are contemplating the birth of a wonderful idea that came from your mind.
Also, you spent money to get each circuit, chip, microcontroller, and necessary buttons to assemble your prototype. And that’s not all, you hired the hands of the best human talent to work on your project. What’s next? You need to start testing. But how and with whom?
We recommend you do this prototype testing with the help of manufacturing companies, and make sure to work with a reliable prototyping company that protects your intellectual property. Ask them to sign an NDA before starting with the project. This will be necessary when you take your prototype to the manufacturing process.
Why do you need prototype manufacturers?
Manufacturers that make prototypes are the key to build several replicas of your device. Getting copies of your product and putting them to work with different clients will provide a lot of data related to potential failures, performance, and quality. You may wonder, do I need to order 1.000 units? What happens if the prototypes fail?
Well, that’s the point. You need to have several units of your product to test how it will perform under different circumstances. However, you don’t need 1.000 units to do so. Usually, the product prototype manufacturing can go from 50 units to 700 units. That’s why we recommend you to look for a prototype manufacturing near you that can meet your needs, or a company that offers you the best service, no matter where it is located.
How to find a manufacturer to make a prototype
As a startup, you don’t need to invest a lot in manufacturing thousands of units. Pick the right number of prototypes you need to build, and ask the prototype manufacturer to help you out. Consider companies that have knowledge in the following areas:
These prototype manufacturing companies will offer you multidisciplinary teams that count on the knowledge and expertise to properly build your prototypes.
Once you have your prototypes built (we recommend agile hardware development methodology), ask your potential clients to test them. And gather enough data and feedback that allows you to confirm the prototypes are performing well, or if on the contrary, there are new upgrades or changes to be made.
Test the manufactured prototypes and learn
You already have some letters of intention or deals to start with pilots. Choose a small group of people or companies that may be interested in using your invention. Remember this won’t be the final version of your product, you are using low-cost materials assembled by companies that allow you to create many replicas.
If you don’t test your idea or invention, you won’t learn what’s wrong, what works out and what can be improved. See it as training sessions a soccer player must attend before the regular season starts. The soccer player identifies his weaknesses during the training sessions and works on them to get better.
Here, the soccer player is your invention, and the training sessions are the potential clients that will use it. The only difference compared to a final product is, they know it can fail at any moment. Since it is a prototype.
Would you risk your brand authority, money and credibility launching a deficient product that will fail in the first week of use? Good entrepreneurs know many risks are taken during sales, marketing and alliances; however, this is not a risk worth taking.
When you have tens or hundreds of prototypes being evaluated. You gain better insights about your invention. You would learn if the materials you chose are appropriate. If the design is user-friendly. Performance in time. Efficiency and effectiveness of your product. If the product solves the problems it is built for.
When you consider these aspects. You can identify potential improvements that are necessary for the prototype. If you have many doubts about the functionality or you got many errors during the testing time, the best option is to modify the prototype.
Go back to the lab and talk with the engineers, analyze all the information. Then, ask the prototype manufacturer company to build more replicas.
Who makes prototypes in the US?
DeepSea Developments has attended customers in the US (California, San Francisco, Georgia, among others) and helped them to make their prototypes. We have experience in providing high-quality products, since we are among the best prototype companies in the market.
This is how you can make a prototype with us:
How many times will you need to test your invention to confirm its feasibility? It depends on you. We know the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) allows to offer basic features to the market. But even the basic version of a device needs to be high-quality and high-performance.
Remember the first iPhone? It was a simple version compared to the ones that are nowadays in the market. However, at that moment, the iPhone met the needs of the customers. People could trust the phone to do its job, and everyone was ok with that.
Whether you need prototype manufacturers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, or any other city, always remember testing is a crucial part of the process. While other companies go directly to the market with an untested device, we recommend you take the time to make the proper iterations until you have a stable and reliable protoype.
At DeepSea Developments, we are experts in providing hardware design services. This means we do our best to deliver outstanding prototypes and devices that meet the needs of our customers.
We hope you liked this article and understood why it is necessary to manufacture prototypes of your invention. If you need any help with prototype manufacturing, click on the link below and get in contact with us.
