Prototyping in New Product Development: Strategy Considerations

Prototyping is an important activity in most new product development processes. Whether the aim is to explore new opportunities or refine existing solutions, prototyping can be a valuable tool. This paper takes a look at the diversity of prototyping practices and the contextual factors that may have an impact on the prototyping strategy. Through existing literature and industrial as well as academic case studies, several prevailing contextual factors are identified and used as a basis to propose guidelines to aid practitioners in making important decisions when formulating a prototyping strategy.