In the linked article, the first two sentences of "Step 1" are: "Before you can solicit interest in your product, there are two things that you need to do. The first step is to obtain a provisional patent for your invention..." This step comes before "design your product" and "build your product". After I saw that, I stopped reading.
This approach isn't as stupid as you might think. A lot, if not all, of the successful entrepreneurs I know would never make a product before they've sold it to somebody. This is a great approach because if you can actually sell the product before you've made it you know there is a market.
