Lean Prototyping Techniques for Hardware

I have been amassing stuff for a long time. My friends call me a hoarder, but I shrug it off. Every time I move I have boxes and boxes of stuff to bring with me. It's a pain.

But, I am getting ever so close to the day when I wake up in the morning with a good idea, and before I go to bed at night I have a functional prototype. Talk about momentum, if you can go from nothing to functional (for something somewhat complicated) in a single day. It's easy to do with software, all the parts are there, there are zero expenses to getting a prototype working, but oh so much harder with all the things you could need in the real world.

There's nothing that puts out creative fire like waiting for parts. When you first think of something, your mind is most easily changed. I like thinking of thoughts as crystallizing idea space. The more you think about something, the more real that idea becomes. When you need to wait a week, and you have only your thoughts to throw at your project, you'll start to put the fire out. Your mind will be less able to change because it's creating a thought structure based on only your first ideas and how you will implement the parts that are on the way. Experience fuels the fire, thoughts put it out.

I'm sure this isn't what Graeham had in mind with this post, but I'll comment anyway: Steven Spear identifies rapid experimentation as one of Toyota's strengths, not necessarily in product development, but developing how they build the product. An example given in his book was checking to see if adjusting the height of a source of parts. Rather than welding it a new position, bolting it, or even using duct tape, the fastest way to check is to just hold it there. It's cheaper and faster. When you lower the costs (both money and time) of experimentation, learning happens more quickly. Or as this post puts it: "the more you can build quickly, the faster you can find what you don’t know"

Rapid prototyping/experimentation leads to rapid feedback, which in turn can lead to rapid learning.

There is a huge benefit from 'getting your hands' on something. For folks who are visually challenged (verbal thinkers) having a prototype or a way to provide a sense of scale and design is really really important.

Steve Roberts clued me into a really useful way to prototype an enclosure, basically corrugated cardboard and fiberglass. Make your "thing" out of corregated cardboard (some sturdy boxes) and then cover it with fiberglass dipped in resin. (be sure and where a respirator mask though, the fumes are nasty).