Your prototype let you down at the demo

Your company has developed a folding laptop table. You can take it on a trip and set it in front of an armchair when working at the dining table is uncomfortable. You’ve arranged to show a sample to a buyer for a retail chain.

The day before the meeting, Laura, who oversees production, asks you to postpone it. The table wobbles when someone types on a laptop. She shows you at the office. You try it yourself and agree: the fittings need to be stronger.

But you hate to cancel the demonstration. The buyer has set aside the time, and you’ve been wanting to find out whether he’d be interested in a product like this. You decide to show it as it is and explain the planned fix up front. A professional buyer will understand that it’s an early sample.

At the meeting, you unfold the table. You talk about its light weight, how useful it will be for travel, and a future model for people who need a wider surface. The buyer listens, sets down his laptop, and starts typing. The screen shakes.

You explain that the fittings will be reinforced. The buyer asks you to show him how you work at the table yourself.

You take his seat and open a document. A few lines in, you’re holding the edge of the table steady with your left hand and typing with your right. You notice it at the same moment he does.

“Send it over when it’s ready to use. We’ll talk then.”

On the way back, you want to say he simply failed to see the potential. But Laura reminds you that he was trying to type a few lines. You were hoping to discuss future orders for something you couldn’t comfortably write an email on yet.

Whenever you noticed a flaw, you immediately pictured the fix: stronger fittings, a different material. Then your thoughts moved on to the next models. Laura kept coming back to the sample in front of you: hands on the keyboard, a wobbling surface, a shaking screen.

The example illustrates a difference between intuitive and sensing approaches. An intuitive approach helps you imagine how an idea might develop and see new uses and connections. A sensing approach keeps attention on the concrete properties of the object and the experience of the person using it. Both terms cover more than this example; they do not divide people into dreamers and those who can only inspect finished work.

You both knew about the defect. The difference was how seriously you took it. For you, it almost disappeared behind the improvements you had in mind. For Laura, it made the demonstration premature.

Her caution could have cost you, too. After the first heavy samples, she suggested abandoning the product. You kept looking for materials and found a lighter option. Treat every flaw as a final verdict, and you may never reach a working prototype.

Back at the office, you ask the team to reinforce the fittings and test the table’s stability. The next demonstration will happen when someone can work at it without holding it steady. You keep the ideas for other sizes. But you’ll discuss them with the buyer after he has tried the improved table.

As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get used to living with the finished product in your head. It’s worth noticing when other people have to put up with problems you’re still planning to solve. Learn more about exploring your own thinking at Personal Compass.