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Been thinking a lot about the importance of really doing things right during gear prototyping lately. We rushed a prototype for a new type of hiking backpack last year, skipping some rigorous stress testing on the strap attachments to save time. Seemed harmless then,but on the user feedback models about 3% had strap failures.
That "minor" shortcut cascaded into way bigger problems. We had to delay the product launch, issue refunds to early adopters who experienced the issue, and scramble to redesign the attachment point. It ended up costing us way more time and money than the initial, thorough testing would have.
Made me realize that cutting corners on prototyping almost always backfires. A little extra time spent upfront to fully vet a design can prevent major headaches (and meaningful financial losses) down the road. Anyone else have similar learned from gear prototypes that went wrong from shortcuts? What seemingly small things ended up causing big problems?