4. Specifications & Requirements:
   • Helps develop pertinent and targeted test methodologies.
   • Ensures a discussion, definition and plan to test and validate the 'robustness' of the product.
   • Ensures product interoperability with intended environment and connected systems.
   • Helps establish installation, user and test / maintenance manuals.
5. Production & post-production:
   • Exposes production processes and plans more fully early on.
   • Helps validate cost-of-goods-sold (COGS - components, testing, labor, overhead) since marketing and manufacturing people can see the product, documentation and product plans.
   • Allows product-packaging design to begin early.
   • Allows focus on commercialization.
6. Service / support:
   • Exposes repair and service issues more fully - can get a jump on warranty issues / costs / business model.
   • Allows pre-planning for reliability testing, product setup and returned-product repair plans.
   • Allows early planning for shipping packaging design and testing, insurance requirements, shipping channels and partners.
7. Regulations:
   • Allows pre-testing for compliance to appropriate regulatory, legal, industrial, market, industry and corporate standards.
   • Enhances promotion into markets that require specific regulations.
8. User / market:
   • Enables a realistic assessment that the product will be accepted by a market or that there is even a market, nascent or not.
   • Allows early search for the optimum combination of functionality, performance, aesthetics and price.
   • Enables relatively simple and inexpensive 'models' that can be used to please and impress groups of users and investors.

The most important essence of prototyping is getting all stakeholders involved such that every person who touches the prototype will immediately start to think very deeply about what they must do when their time comes within the PD process. This is an extremely important intangible. Stakeholders will subsequently be more prepared for their participation, and this can cut the overall R required… sometimes dramatically.

These 'hidden' values, once realized, will enhance the overall business effort by moving much of the experimentation, failures, assessments, discussions, debates and agreements to the early stages where investment risk is more defensible.