u/_Boltzmann

Sorry second post regarding my company situation as you can tell I'm being in the role of taking care of everything design in my company.

My boss is telling me that no need to prototype even though we're making a brand new product to market, something that doesn't exist.

I've done quick mockups with 3D printing and I know they should more less work. But I need to see it with actual materials so that if it fails it doesn't fall back on me.

They're saying that the manufacturers in China will do samples for us and that way we'll know. The sourcing agents haven't gotten back to us yet but I'm telling that this is impossible. They're not going to be able to prototype for us. Especially if there are pieces that are going to be aluminum extrusions for instance.

Doesn't make any sense. But my boss is still insisting we spend time talking to manufacturer first that they'll figure it out.

I'm working for a startup, and we're doing some kitchen products. They're a bit clueless on processes for design, my boss is complicated however. I'd like to know what's general timelines from other companies...

He tells me about his friend who launches 2 products a month. My gripe with this is that, I'm the only designer and if we're making a new product from scratch not existing in the market it's going to take us longer. If we're launching already existing products but differentiated for our brand then it will not take us as long.

So I know it depends on the complexity of the project, but I've suggested from 4-6 weeks for a kitchen tool. Not sure if it's overly conservative or too fast?

Let me know what are your toughts?