Prototyping is a crucial part of product innovation, as it allows you to test and validate your ideas, get feedback, and iterate on your design. However, some products have long development cycles, which can make prototyping challenging and costly. How can you prototype products with long development cycles effectively and efficiently? Here are some tips and methods to help you.
Low-fidelity prototypes are simple and rough representations of your product, such as sketches, wireframes, paper models, or mock-ups. They are easy and quick to create, modify, and discard, and they can help you communicate your concept, explore different options, and identify key features and assumptions. You can use low-fidelity prototypes to test your product with potential users, stakeholders, and experts, and gather feedback on the functionality, usability, and desirability of your product.
As innovation facilitator of 100+ projects, I advise you to EXPERIMENT BY PRETOTYPING, like TESLA… FAKE IT BEFORE YOU MAKE IT ???. Pretotyping is a technique for testing - and validating ideas quickly and cheap, founded by Savoia. It involves creating a simplified version of a product or service to collect user feedback and understand market demand. It’s a non-working prototype. Pretotyping reduces the risk of failure by assessing market response early in the development process. A famous pretotyping story is how Tesla ‘faked’ their first electrical car, the Roadster, using a so-called ‘glider’ of a Lotus Elise to confront their potential customers with a ‘real car’, leading to 250+ launching customers who paid $ 5000,- in advance.
Simulation and emulation are techniques that allow you to mimic the behavior and performance of your product without building the actual hardware or software. Simulation is the process of creating a virtual model of your product, such as a computer program, a mathematical equation, or a physical replica. Emulation is the process of using one system or device to imitate another system or device, such as a software application, a circuit board, or a sensor. You can use simulation and emulation to test your product in different scenarios, conditions, and environments, and evaluate its feasibility, reliability, and compatibility.
Utilize platforms like Retool.com or Power Apps to create a mock workflow. Then, spend a week sitting next to the customer to evaluate its value—if it doesn't add value, go back to the drawing board. Say you're developing a business intelligence report; start by crafting raw SQL queries. Export these to a CSV and share them with the customer for feedback. Before constructing a massive data warehouse, focus on the raw data you have to ensure alignment with customer needs. Adhere to the 'begin with the end in mind' philosophy: assemble a rudimentary report, gather customer feedback, and then decide if a 6-sprint business intelligence platform is warranted. Stick to the lean cycle of build-measure-learn, and keep it tight.
Modular and agile approaches are strategies that allow you to break down your product into smaller and independent components or features, and develop them iteratively and incrementally. Modular design is the process of creating your product as a combination of interchangeable and reusable parts or modules, such as Lego bricks, microservices, or plug-ins. Agile development is the process of delivering your product in short and frequent cycles or sprints, such as Scrum, Kanban, or Lean. You can use modular and agile approaches to prototype your product in stages, reduce complexity and risk, and adapt to changing requirements and feedback.
Parallel and collaborative prototyping are methods that allow you to generate and test multiple versions or variations of your product simultaneously or sequentially, and involve different people or teams in the process. Parallel prototyping is the process of creating and comparing several alternative prototypes of your product, such as different designs, features, or solutions. Collaborative prototyping is the process of co-creating and co-evaluating your product with other stakeholders, such as users, customers, partners, or experts. You can use parallel and collaborative prototyping to increase your creativity and diversity, leverage different perspectives and expertise, and optimize your decision making and learning.
Feedback loops and metrics are tools that allow you to measure and improve your product based on the data and insights you collect from your prototyping activities. Feedback loops are the mechanisms that enable you to receive and respond to feedback from your users, customers, or other sources, such as surveys, interviews, reviews, or ratings. Metrics are the indicators that enable you to track and evaluate the performance and impact of your product, such as revenue, retention, satisfaction, or quality. You can use feedback loops and metrics to prototype your product with a data-driven and user-centric approach, and validate your assumptions, hypotheses, and outcomes.