How To Build A Crappy “Garden Shed” Prototype Of Your Product Idea
Let me start with a question. (TL:DR at bottom).
What does the phrase “garden shed inventor” conjure up in your mind?
A crazy old man wasting his time on mad ideas that have no hope? Or perhaps an unrecognized genius just one “big break” short of her deserved fame and fortune?
Whatever image you have in your head of this person, I’m willing to bet the image you have of their prototypes is probably something like this:
An ugly jumble of store-bought parts seemingly hastily cobbled together with glue, tape and who knows what else.
How far off was I?
From Wallace & Grommet to Back To The Future. Homemade inventions have been a staple of popular culture for generations. But have never really been taken seriously. They should be though, because they’re the stepping stone from early sketch to professional prototype.
If you’ve got an idea for a product in mind, chances are you could benefit from making a crappy prototype yourself. This way you can see if your idea has legs without sinking too much time and money into it. In the tech world there’s a nice name for this… Minimum Viable Product, or MVP. So let’s use that.
Assuming your MVP isn’t massively complicated you could be able to make one for under $100. For more ambitious electronic projects maybe $100- $500. To get started follow these steps:
- Distill your idea into its essential elements. Just the bare bones needed for a prototype that works
- Look at one component or function of your idea at a time. For each, think what exists already that has similar properties and could be used or re-purposed for your prototype.
- Assemble a kit of prototyping materials to help bring everything together.
- Build with what you can readily buy, and 3D print the rest.
Let’s take these 4 steps one at a time, in more detail.
1. Distilling Your Idea Down To Its Essential Elements
We can use my first product Geco Hub as an example.
Geco Hub is a wall-mounted organiser. It uses a matrix of flexible elements, which work together to form a compact, modular storage space for important everyday items. Think “notice board” for things like keys, wallet, ID cards, letters to post etc.
Geco Hub’s essential elements are as follows:
- A rigid backboard which can fix to a wall.
- Flexible “fins” which hold objects that are pushed into it.
- Flexible discs which hold thinner items like ID cards, coupons, notes and letter to post.
2. Consider each component or function of your idea individually
Looking at each of these elements one at a time, it’s much easier to imagine how you might prototype them. Here’s what I used for our first prototype.
- Backboard: An old plastic chopping board and a wood off-cut I had lying around.
- Fins: A silicone rubber heat trivet from a budget kitchen & home store.
- Discs: Circles cut out of a rubber beach ball bought from a toy store.
3. Assemble a kit of prototyping materials to help bring everything together.
For this prototype, that involved glue, paint (for appearances) and string. A more general purpose kit might include:
- Sugru (mouldable putty that sets as a rubber)
- Polymorph (plastic that melts in hot water)
- Araldite epoxy resin (glues most things to most things)
- MDF (medium density fibre board), job lots of 2nd hand Lego & Mecano, lollipop sticks and/or any other building material you can get your hands on for cheap.
- Does your idea involve electronics? Look at Rasberry Pi or Arduino, they’re programmable computers you can buy for as little as $20. There are heaps of resources online which you can use to learn how to get these wonderful things to do what you want.
- Does your idea involve software? Try and avoid coding right away. Instead, ask yourself if you really need it to test or demonstrate your idea. Software is expensive to build. If you decide you need some sort of software, try Airtable or another platform that allows you to build things without coding.
4. Build with what you can readily buy, and 3D print the rest.
With the first prototype of Geco Hub (and for dozens of others) no 3D printing was required. That said, if your build kit from step 3 isn’t enough, 3D printing may be necessary for your first prototype.
If you need to 3D print some parts, I can recommend two resources: Shapeways and 3D Hubs. These are both easy to use websites that let you upload a 3D model and have it 3D printed for not too much money.
To make the 3D model you can use SketchUp, a free program by Google. Alternatively get a 1 month license of Autodesk Fusion 360 for around $50-$60 (free trial available). Failing that, you could even ask a friend, or pay a stranger on Upwork, to make a model for you.
For 2D shapes, a better option might be laser cutting, Shapeways offers this too. Programs like Adobe Illustrator (free trial available) or even SketchUp can be used to make the shapes in the right file format for laser cutting.
So, what did my first prototype of Geco Hub look like? In a word, ugly…
But you know what? It did its job. It proved the idea worked, and let me communicate it to others, all for the high high price of $15.
Conclusion
So that’s it, that my argument for the importance of garden shed prototypes, and a quick how-to to get you started building your own. Now go, go to the shed and start building!
TL:DR
- Break your idea into parts.
- For each part find something of the shelf you can use. 3D print the rest.
- Combine all parts using an assortment of “fixing materials”.
- For electronics use cheap programmable computers, and “build it yourself” software platforms.
- Job done!
About The Author
Simon is a lifelong inventor and founder of Version 22.
He’s currently developing the 2nd version of Geco Hub, the example used in this article.
If you want to see what Geco Hub 2 looks like, have a look behind-the-scenes & get a heads-up at launch, you can sign up here.
