Behind the Evolution of a Revolutionary New Speaker Design Go step-by-step through one designer's process.

When Susan Taing left her product marketing job at Google, she went to New Jersey to help run her family's manufacturing business. Taing soon found herself caught up in a belabored transcontinental design process. "I was trying to prototype with the manufacturers, shipping each version back and forth. It was inefficient," she says. "I thought, What if we could 3-D-print all of this?" That idea forms the bedrock of Bhold, Taing's product design company that asks users to play with prototypes and give feedback. It's like beta testing, with accessories. Taing's latest is Bsonic, a $69 seashell-shaped acoustic iPad speaker that went through 39 versions.

Here's how the product evolved:

David Rinella