A Prototype from Pakistan
Lessons Learned from Prototyping Overseas
Hi,
I’m an amateur entrepreneur attempting to start my own company at 23 years old. In my last post, I talked about going through the process of hiring a product engineer from Pakistan to create a prototype for me. His name is Muhammad.
Spoiler Alert: It didn’t go well.
I mean it could’ve gone better, but it also could’ve gone much worse. From the challenges emerged valuable lessons. Here are the highs and lows of this journey, which started on December 8th and came to a conclusion on June 17th, and the insights it brought along.
Plus, of course, a video:
The Honeymoon Stage:
December 8th 2022 - February 3rd 2023
The project first kicked off with Muhammad on December 8th, 2022, after a few preliminary meetings. I made a document complete with images and written descriptions detailing exactly which features I wanted to include, and how I wanted it to appear.
Muhammad quickly got to work, and my prototype started to come to life. I received weekly updates on the progress, and each week I gave my feedback on what I liked and wanted to be adjusted.
Relatively quickly, Muhammad transitioned from computer CAD models of the prototype to physical 3D Printed prototypes. These prototypes looked very promising and I assumed *wrongly* that the project was almost done.
In a weekly report, Muhammad even alluded to this. Under the “Tasks for Next Week” section of his report, it listed “Dispatch Prototype”.
Because I was looking for ANY excuse to quit my corporate work-from-home 9-5 sales job, I pulled the trigger, on February 3rd, and quit my job to focus on my business aspirations full-time.
Mistakes
I did not specify a timeline for how quickly I wanted the project to be completed. I remember being curious how much money would be charged to my bank account after Muhammad’s first week of work (it ended up being around $300).
I wasn’t in a rush because I still had a 9-5 job, but a clear working schedule with progress milestones should have been established at the beginning of the project to allow me to accurately access current progress.
I quit my job veryyyyy prematurely. I was so excited to get started on entrepreneurship that I stopped my main income stream (my job) before I actually had a prototype in my hand.
Counting my chickens before they hatch, jumping the gun, and putting the cart before the horse all ring painfully true here.
Distracting Myself Stage:
February 4th 2023 - April 30th
This is where the trouble starts to arise. The prototype is mostly complete, except for one small issue. It leaks! (the prototype is a lid to a stainless steel water bottle). Muhammad basically spent a couple of months turning this large leak into a smaller leak… but still a leak. He always cushioned these disappointing results with promises that the problem had been found and the solution was just around the corner.
I busied myself by making YouTube videos, writing blogs, and crafting marketing and business plans, but eventually, I started to become frustrated that this project seemed to be progressing EXTREMELY slowly.
To compound this, Muhammad also experienced delays. He needed to contract a third-party company to get some additional parts for the prototype, which slowed down the pace at which he was working, from a walk to a crawl.
Mistakes
While I don’t believe I made any specific mistakes in this section, my failure to establish a proper timeline and progress milestones in the Honeymoon stage made it much more difficult to evaluate the lackluster progress. After all… I don’t know ANYTHING about the engineering process of manufacturing a prototype.
The Breakup Stage:
May 1st 2023 - June 17th 2023
The Breakup stage kicks off with one of Muhammad’s promised solutions falling flat and still not fixing the leak. I promptly requested Muhammad to reduce the rate he is charging me due to being over budget. He agrees, which saves me money but doesn’t solve the problem.
Another delay occurs when Muhammad must order parts from China, that he is SURE will fix the leak. When these Chinese parts arrived a few weeks later and STILL did not fix the issue, I ended the project. The date was June 17th.
Mistakes
The big takeaway from this section was not to be so narrowly focused on the current step. I knew that even if Muhammad finished the prototype, the eventual manufacturers would have to tweak some things. I waited months, despite suspicions that Muhammad’s skills couldn’t quite get the job done, to have a perfect prototype to send to the manufacturers.
If I had just looked to the future a bit, I would’ve seen that I didn’t necessarily need a perfectly functioning prototype just yet. This insight would’ve helped me decide to end the project earlier (saving time and money.)
$o, How Much Did I Spend?
Muhammad logged a total of 183 hours on the bottle… he had originally estimated around 80 hours. You might think I’m crazy for not ending the project sooner, and you’d be right, but that is a much harder decision to make in the moment. Especially when the project is ALMOST done and each week there are confident assurances that the solution is ALMOST there. Muhammad had done some great work for me, he just couldn’t take the project over the finish line.
The Total? $5142.67 USD
What I wanted - A Fully-Functional Prototype: A functional prototype is a model that closely resembles the final product in terms of functionality. It demonstrates how the product will work and allows designers and developers to test its core features and functionalities.
What I got - Interactive Prototype: Interactive prototypes allow users to interact with the product as if it were fully functional. These prototypes can be used for usability testing and to simulate the user experience.
Checkout My Last Post Here!
And My YouTube Channel:
Oh and one more thing… because Muhammad blew past my budget, I became a DoorDash Delivery driver to make up the money. It’s a little humbling to have these grand dreams of building my own business while delivering people their McDonalds, but it will make the journey that much more rewarding.
Hopefully.