From Sketch to Success: Prototyping Secrets with a BattleBots Designer

Ever wondered how ideas for toys or gadgets start as scribbles on paper and then turn into something tangible you can hold in your hands? How designers collaborate to bring even the craziest ideas to life?

Well, professional product designer and BattleBots robot fighting champion Bam Singnghasaneh to talked about the wild, wonderful world of professional product design last September at Maker Faire Bay Area. Unlike most designers who discuss theoretical best practices, Bam shares some real-life examples of the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of prototyping from the robot arena to the toy designer’s desk.

Don’t Design, Prototype!

Bam begins with the simple yet profound mantra that to create the best designs, you shouldn’t start with design; you start by prototyping.

She opens with the Marshmallow Challenge, an exercise where groups are given common materials like spaghetti, tape, and a marshmallow with one goal: build the tallest tower. The group that typically wins is usually composed of kindergartners. Bam explains that they reach the solution faster because they prototype right away. There’s no crafting the perfect design on paper, only to have it fall over (i.e. when you try to place the marshmallow on top) the first time they build it.

Prototype Quickly = Iterate Quickly = Learn Quickly

Toy Design Secrets From the Battlefield

Bam dives into examples from the subscription toy series at CrunchLabs, and how this mindset translates into toys kids (and grown-ups!) will love to play with. Designing physical toys with electronic elements presented a unique challenge. How do you prototype something that hasn’t been designed yet? Bam and her team whipped up some clunky electronic prototypes that looked nothing like what you see today, just to test fundamental concepts. Did the motion sensor work well enough? Was the button’s reaction time too slow? These “ugly” prototypes are crucial.

Fail Faster in BattleBots!

Bam shares how competing in BattleBots has changed the way she looks at design, iteration, and yes, failure.

“In BattleBots, when your bot fails, it fails hard. You don’t get graceful failure; it explodes or gets thrown across the arena. But that’s the best way to learn.” Bam compares tweaking a bot to achieve maximum beat-downs to tweaking your product design. If your prototype fails spectacularly in front of your user, you’ll learn far more about what you need to change than if they had used it with no issues.

Watch the Journey Unfold

Bam’s stories bring this process to life with humor, humility, and the thrilling proof that every amazing product on your shelf started as a sketch, a crazy idea, and a willingness to learn from what went wrong.

Watch the full video here to see the prototypes, hear the BattleBots stories, and get inspired to turn your next concept into something remarkable.