The Biggest Hardware Myth: You Can’t Validate Without a Prototype
So there’s something you probably don’t really want to think about, but it’s important you hear it.
You can spend months, sometimes years, developing a hardware product and still end up with something that barely sells once it finally hits the market.
And it’s one of the most painful outcomes.
Getting a product developed, prototyped, certified, and manufactured is already hard, and most products never even make it that far.
But the worst outcome is the product that actually makes it to the shelf, and then sits there.
Sometimes that happens because the product itself just isn’t needed.
More often though, it happens because a few things weren’t aligned.
Maybe the feature set wasn’t quite right, or the pricing didn’t match how people saw the value, or the messaging didn’t speak to the right customer, or the target audience was off.
Those things are usually much harder to figure out than they look, and it often takes real testing to get them right.
Those kinds of problems aren’t fatal when you catch them early, because you can adjust and shape the idea into something that fits the market better.
But once the product is built, packaged, and ready to go, every change becomes expensive, slow, and risky.
And that’s really what validation is about, because it gives you the chance to learn what matters before you lock yourself into a path that’s tough to undo.
It doesn’t guarantee success, but it dramatically increases your odds.
Unfortunately, most new founders mistakenly believe they need a finished product before they can test and validate it in the market.
But that’s simply not true, and it’s actually the risky way to do it.
The smarter approach is to validate as you build, because validation is what tells you how to adjust while you still can.
And when you do it this way all the other steps become easier.
Validation opens doors with investors, distributors, retailers, manufacturers, and press.
For my own product, which was a miniature lighting device, I presented the concept to a national retail chain using just a crude non-functional prototype.
They expressed interest and provided a letter stating they wanted to carry it when it became available.
And that simple letter allowed me to secure a manufacturing partner who lent me their engineering department to help finish development, invested over one hundred thousand dollars in tooling, and gave me payment terms of ninety days.
This meant they funded everything initially, and I only had to pay them for inventory after my customers paid me.
Without real validation, none of that would’ve happened.
Validation doesn’t slow you down, it stops you from racing in the wrong direction, it shapes the product, exposes weak assumptions, teaches you what really matters to customers, and gives you leverage you can’t fake.
Build with proof rather than hope, and almost everything else in the journey becomes easier.
Talk to Real Customers, Not Friends and Family
So the first meaningful step is talking to people, the same type of people you eventually hope will buy your product.
And this is where a lot of otherwise talented founders hit a wall.
Most founders, and engineers especially, tend to feel more at home with circuit diagrams, code, and spreadsheets than with open-ended conversations with strangers.
Getting feedback from strangers feels awkward, it feels vulnerable, and it feels like something you should only do once everything’s “ready.”
The problem is that every month you wait, you drift further into assumptions.
What most people do instead is talk to their spouse, friends, or coworkers.
Those conversations feel pleasant, but they’re almost useless for validation, because everyone around you wants to be supportive.
Even those friends known for their bluntness are not reliable sources of validation, and it works totally differently when you talk to people who don’t know you and don’t have any reason to protect your feelings.
The Presentation Trick That Gets Honest Feedback
There’s also a simple trick that changes the quality of feedback dramatically.
If you present yourself as “the inventor” people will sense that you’re emotionally invested, and they don’t want to disappoint you, so they’ll soften their punches.
But if you present yourself as someone evaluating the idea for possible investment, they tend to relax and speak honestly.
Where to Find Your Potential Customers
Good conversations happen where your customers already are, and that might be outside the gym, outside a baby store, at a sports field, or leaving a hardware store.
And yes, it feels awkward at first, but after a few conversations it stops feeling awkward and starts feeling surprisingly useful.
Oh yeah, and the people running these gyms, stores, or events are also good sources of validation.
If doing this in person is too terrifying for you, then you can also find potential customers online and schedule video calls with them.
Although, you’ll likely need to give them something in return for their time.
Why Surveys Can’t Validate Demand
I know surveys are tempting because they feel safer, and they give you all this nice data that you can geek out on, but don’t trust it.
People will click “yes” even when the chance they’d actually pull out a wallet is close to zero, because they’re agreeing to a hypothetical version of reality, not the real one, and that’s too easy for them.
So surveys can reveal rough direction, but they can’t validate demand.
People may tell you all day they’ll buy your product, but when it comes to opening their wallet it never happens.
The Two Rules of Product Validation
The first rule of product validation is simple: nothing matters unless money actually changes hands.
And second rule is that the first dollar is always the hardest to get.
How Reservation Funnels Work
So this is where a reservation funnel comes in.
It’s where you ask potential customers to put down a small reservation fee, usually just one to ten dollars, to hold one of the first units when it launches.
That might sound insignificant, but pulling out a credit card, even for a dollar, requires real purchase intent, and you suddenly have proof that this isn’t just theoretical interest.
A typical reservation funnel looks like a normal product page, with nice visuals, good copy, a reasonable target price, and a buy button.
When someone clicks, instead of checking out immediately, a message explains it’s not yet available, and they’re offered the chance to reserve one of the first units and usually get a discount once the product launches.
That transaction gives you a measurable signal, and you can use it to iteratively improve your product and how you present it.
Using Reservation Funnels to Shape Your Product
And this is where reservation funnels become much more than a simple yes or no, because they become an engine for shaping the product.
You can test versions with different feature sets, see how response changes with pricing, compare reactions across customer groups, and rewrite the messaging to watch what happens.
Really often, the version that customers respond to most isn’t the version you originally planned, and the path forward becomes clearer and far less risky.
One useful tactic is to collect an email address first, so if someone isn’t ready to reserve yet, they don’t disappear completely.
You can follow up, educate, build trust, and invite them back later.
You can do all of this on your own website, or use a platform like Prelaunch.com which makes it easier.
From Prototype to Pre-Sales
Eventually, you get to the point of having a prototype that looks like and works like the final product.
Many founders believe so strongly in their product they push straight to production, confident it’s going to sell like crazy, but the better strategy at this stage is to begin pre-selling it.
At this stage, customers are no longer just reserving, they’re paying full price before the product’s available, and that requires trust, but it moves you into a space most founders only dream about.
You can either do this pre-selling on your own website or through a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter.
Real-World Pre-Sales Success Stories
Nick is a good example who went the Kickstarter route.
He started with nothing more than a great idea. Within 6 months he developed a prototype, built an audience around the problem it solved, and launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than three hundred thousand dollars.
This all proved people were willing to pay long before production even began.
Another example is Ronald, who created a smart home product called Button+.
Rather than ordering inventory and hoping people bought it, he opened pre-sales on his website, convinced a tech publication to review his prototype, and when that review was published, it drove more than sixty thousand dollars in pre-sells within a few days.
This meant he could move forward knowing real customers had already committed.
That revenue didn’t just validate the idea, it helped pay for manufacturing, attracted suppliers, and made everything else far easier.
The Responsibility That Comes With Pre-Sales
Crowdfunding and pre-sales also come with responsibility, because hardware almost always takes longer than founders expect.
Certification adds complexity and manufacturing always brings surprises, and promising unrealistic dates leads to angry customers.
By the time you pre-sell, you need enough clarity to make promises you can realistically keep.
