Expertise: Prototype Development

“Prototype” means a lot of different things in Product Development:

• At the very beginning of a project, a prototype is a (usually unattractive) apparatus that demonstrates function.  It’s intended to de-risk the engineering.
• Somewhere near the halfway point, a prototype looks and behaves kind of like a final product; though perhaps without all the functionality and toughness of the final version.
• At the end of the program, a prototype means the earliest samples from a high-volume assembly line; intended to train the factory to make a product reliably and efficiently.

It’s not unusual to have as many as five or six different prototypes during a development cycle; each with it’s own purpose and emphasis.