In this work we have focused on prototyping as the main lever to shortening PD timelines, as it is the longest PD activity and the one most practitioners believe can be sped up. We find that technical complexity of the product does not necessary correlate with prototyping times. Changes in complexity cannot then easily be used as a lever to accelerate development. Therefore, we focus instead on the environment external to the product itself such as processes, funding, team makeup, etc. for levers with which to accelerate prototyping. We find several potential levers through qualitative coding including a division between natural and structured development processes. We find that a natural style of PD is about twice as fast as structured when working with early prototypes, but that a structured style must be adopted at some point for optimal PD. The natural and structured modes of development can help lend depth to the strategies and theories of innovation and product development found in literature. In The Lean Startup, Eric Reis defines a process by which a startup can find success through iterative buildmeasure-learn cycles with continual customer feedback . At each iteration, during the learn part of the cycle, the team decides whether to pivot to a new design/idea/prototype or to preserve and move forward with the current. Reis suggests that a successful startup would work to accelerate this feedback loop. What the framework of natural and structured development styles brings to this picture is that a prototype's development cycle needs to be accompanied by the appropriate development style. When working on a prototype's development cycle at the beginning of creating a product, a natural process of rapid prototyping with little to no documentation and an emphasis on speed is preferred. However, as the design matures during later development cycles, if this natural style persists, the prototype will become stuck in a premature stage unable to graduate to a commercializeable product. However, if structure in the form of documentation, requirements, and clear deliverables, is brought in after 2-3 prototypes the product can evolve toward market readiness.