The Prototype Marathon: Five Years Into Building It Right
Five years of concept development and validation for a multiple dog walking lead focused on safety and usability
Originally posted 1 July 2019
By 2019, we had already been working on MyHerculead for five years.
Not five years of sitting on an idea — five years of testing, rebuilding, breaking, refining, and rethinking what a multiple dog walking lead should be when safety, usability, and real-world conditions actually matter.
Invention rarely moves in straight lines. It moves in loops. And sometimes the loop is the work.
Why Five Years Didn’t Mean Five Finished Designs
When people hear “five years,” they often imagine five full redesigns. The reality is far less dramatic — and far more meaningful.
Most iterations were micro-adjustments:
Geometry refinements
Load distribution tweaks
Grip and balance improvements
Material substitutions
Failure-mode testing
Each change addressed a specific problem revealed through use — not speculation.
Progress didn’t happen in leaps.
It happened in millimetres.
The Hardest Problem Wasn’t Tangling — It Was Physics
Preventing tangles is conceptually simple.
Preventing tangles while maintaining smooth, independent movement, load stability, and user comfort, across dogs of different sizes and behaviours — that’s where engineering begins.
One of the biggest hurdles was finding materials light enough for daily use but strong enough to safely manage the pull force of multiple large dogs without fatigue, slippage, or control loss.
Strength alone wasn’t enough.
Strength with balance was the real target.
Why We Didn’t Rush It
Many products reach market after only a few prototype cycles. They work — until they meet real users, real environments, and real misuse.
We weren’t designing for ideal conditions.
We were designing for sidewalks, distractions, sudden lunges, uneven terrain, tired hands, and unpredictable dogs.
Rushing forward would have meant shipping known compromises.
We chose refinement instead.
Why We Count Every Iteration
Some people only count a prototype if it looks radically different from the last. We count every version that removes risk.
A few millimetres of geometry change can:
Reduce wrist strain
Improve tension control
Prevent rotational binding
Improve reaction time
Those changes don’t photograph well — but they define whether a product feels intuitive or exhausting, safe or unstable.
That’s why they matter.
That’s why they count.
Five Years In, Still Moving Forward
We’re not chasing perfection.
We’re eliminating failure points.
Five years into development, MyHerculead wasn’t “late.”
It was becoming reliable.
And in products that deal with animals, people, and real-world unpredictability — reliability is the only finish line that matters.
