how to create a prototype

Page Contents

  • Instructions
  • Read
  • Watch - how to storyboard your idea, how to create a prototype, the "pretotyping" manifesto
  • Why prototype with an MVP? (customer validation)
  • Eric Ries on MVP logic, 2009 - building the MVP


instructions

You will create a storyboard that shows the narrative occurring from the time your customer has the problem you propose to solve up to the point where they are using your brilliant solution and enjoying its features and benefits.

Then you will create some form of low-resolution prototype to test in front of potential customers.

  1. View both slide shows below in "present" mode.
  2. Create a storyboard using google slides or some other presentation package. Otherwise, use a large sheet of paper and draw your storyboard by hand (hint: use stickies so you can move them around your board if needed). Share your file with me at NVDBAMA@gmail.com with the filename <storyboard_your full name/>.
  3. Create a low-resolution prototype. This can be a landing page, an app screen mock-up, a video, or physical product. Send images to me at NVDBAMA@gmail.com with the name <prototype_your full name/>.

read

Watch

How to storyboard your idea

How to storyboard your idea
Plague-Time Prototyping

Plague-Time Prototyping

I created this presentation on April 9, 2020, as our world continued to deal with the multifaceted impacts of the COVID19 virus. My intention was for students to have a toolbox of options to use to create prototypes of their ideas to help validate those ideas and in turn improve their pitches.

How to create a prototype

How to create a prototype

The Pretotyping Manifesto

Can one-sentence descriptions of your product be effective prototypes? You make the call.

These two examples come by way of Dave Bailey on Medium.com, April 12, 2017

Something where you can type someone’s name and find out a bunch of information about them.’

‘You push a button and in five minutes a Mercedes picks you up and takes you where you want to go.’

Why prototype with an MVP?

Build a prototype with the minimum set of features you need to test your assumptions about solving a customer problem. Why? Because the information you got from customer discovery does not by itself get you to launch full production and sales.

Customer validation is the process of making sure that you’ve understood your customers correctly, and that you’re developing proper corporate and product positioning. It is tightly connected with the Lean Startup concept created by Eric Reis in 2008. The concept consists of business experimentation based on hypotheses, iterative releases of different product versions and learning based on validation. So, as with Lean Startup, customer validation through creating the least resource-consuming product with basic features (MVP) and gathering feedback from real people helps to:

  • Determine whether you’re ready to hit the market;
  • Understand your customers better;
  • Build a sales roadmap;
  • Identify whether it’s time to scale up sales and marketing.

This is exactly the “work smarter, not harder” approach that prevents you from running out of money, failing and having to integrate costly changes into the completed product (Source: producttribe.com).

image source: producttribe.com

Eric Ries on MVP logic, 2009