Prototyping

Define what a prototype is and explain its main purpose in the development of a new product or service.

Explain with an example why prototypes save money: compare the cost of changing the design of a piece of furniture when it is still a drawing and when 500 units have already been manufactured.

A company manufactured 10 000 mobile phone cases with a new grip system without prototyping it first, and users complained that the volume button was covered. Analyse the cost of the error in process terms (not only economic: image, returns, wasted time) and design the cheap prototyping plan, with two iterations, that would have avoided it.

Distinguish between low-fidelity prototypes (sketches, paper, cardboard) and high-fidelity prototypes (nearly functional), and explain why initial testing is carried out using low-fidelity prototypes even if they "look like toys".

Classify these prototypes according to their fidelity (low, medium or high) and justify your classification: a hand-drawn sketch of an app's screens, a cardboard mock-up of a lamp and a website with buttons that seem to work but always respond the same way.

A team spends three months polishing a "perfect" demo before showing it to anyone. Analyse the risks of polishing a high-fidelity prototype so much (attachment to the design, cost of changing, learning late) and what the iterative approach would have recommended.

How do you prototype a service, which is not an object? Explain two ways of prototyping a laundry pick-up service (role-playing it with actors as in a play, running a manual pilot with five neighbours) and what is learned with each one.

Explain how a service is prototyped, given that it is not a physical object: what techniques allow it to be tested before launching (role-playing with actors, a pilot with a few customers, manual simulation of the service) and give an example of each.

The "Wizard of Oz" technique consists of manually simulating a service that will look automatic (for example, an ordering chatbot actually run by a person). Explain what it is for before programming the automation, which hypotheses it allows validating and what ethical limit should be respected.

When testing the prototype of an ergonomic office cushion, qualitative data (comments, gestures) and quantitative data (assembly time, comfort rating from 1 to 10) can be collected. Explain what each type of data provides and why it is worth collecting both.

A startup is simultaneously developing two projects: a mobile app for hospital shift management and an ultralight ergonomic wheelchair. The CTO suggests applying an "evolutionary prototyping" strategy in both cases, arguing that this avoids wasting resources on disposable materials and speeds up development. Analyze the economic and technical suitability of this decision for each of the two projects, anticipate the risks of applying such an approach to the physical product versus the digital one, and propose the most efficient prototyping strategy in each case.

The coffee shop «La Taza» is evaluating investing in a delivery motorcycle and thermal packaging to offer breakfast delivery in a nearby business park. a) Formulate the two critical hypotheses (one regarding the customer value proposition and another regarding operational feasibility and costs) that determine the idea's success. b) Design two sequential prototyping experiments, from lower to higher fidelity, without purchasing permanent equipment or hiring permanent staff, explaining what key information each will provide. c) Set a quantifiable metric threshold in the second prototype that objectively determines the decision to launch the definitive service or abandon it.