Prototyping: concept and usefulness
A company in Guadalajara makes 10,000 phone cases with a new grip system without testing it first, and users complain that the volume button is covered. That mistake would have been discovered with a cardboard prototype and one afternoon of testing. The sooner a flaw is found, the cheaper it is to fix. How do you test an idea without spending a fortune? That is what this section is about.
What a prototype is and what it is for
Define what a prototype is and explain its main purpose in the development of a new product or service.
Define what a prototype is and explain its main purpose in the development of a new product or service.
Levels of fidelity
The first tests are done with low fidelity even if they "look like toys": they are so cheap that you can throw them away and redo them, and people criticize a pencil drawing more freely than something that looks finished.
Distinguish between low-fidelity prototypes (sketches, paper, cardboard) and high-fidelity prototypes (nearly functional), and explain why initial testing is carried out…
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".
The figure shows three levels of fidelity in prototyping a mobile app, from lowest to highest. Identify the missing intermediate level, marked with '?', and explain what…
The figure shows three levels of fidelity in prototyping a mobile app, from lowest to highest. Identify the missing intermediate level, marked with '?', and explain what can be validated with it that cannot be validated with the paper sketch.
A team wants to create a book-sharing app for neighbors. Before writing any code, they draw the screens on paper and ask five neighbors to 'use' them with their finger.…
A team wants to create a book-sharing app for neighbors. Before writing any code, they draw the screens on paper and ask five neighbors to 'use' them with their finger. Explain what they can validate in this way (navigation, clarity, interest) and what things they will not be able to validate until they have the real app.
You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.
Prototyping services
Examples: a taco shop that wants to offer home delivery can act out the delivery among friends (actors), take orders by WhatsApp by hand as if there were a system (manual simulation), or deliver for one week in just two blocks (pilot).
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…
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.
A company spent a year and all its savings manufacturing 5 000 units of a kitchen gadget without showing it to anyone beforehand, and barely sold any. Analyse what…
A company spent a year and all its savings manufacturing 5 000 units of a kitchen gadget without showing it to anyone beforehand, and barely sold any. Analyse what process errors it made and what it would have found out with three successive cheap prototypes.
Iterating and deciding with data
A quantitative criterion helps you decide: for example, "if at least 15 out of 20 people buy the sample at $\$30$, we move on to the next phase; if not, we rethink or cancel." Setting it before the test keeps you from fooling yourself.
Back to the beginning: the phone case company would have spent a few pesos on cardboard and an afternoon with users, instead of producing 10,000 pieces with the volume button covered.
An entrepreneurial team wants to launch an anti-theft backpack with a biometric lock and cut-resistant fabric onto the market. They have 2,000 pesos and 6 weeks before…
An entrepreneurial team wants to launch an anti-theft backpack with a biometric lock and cut-resistant fabric onto the market. They have 2,000 pesos and 6 weeks before pitching the project to an investor panel. One of the partners suggests directly commissioning a factory for a finished functional prototype for 1,800 pesos. Critically evaluate this proposal in terms of resource allocation and business risk, and design an alternative three-stage consecutive prototyping plan (specifying the type and fidelity level of the prototype, the learning objective, and the success metric for each phase) that optimizes the available budget.
A startup is simultaneously developing two projects: a mobile app for hospital shift management and an ultralight ergonomic wheelchair. The CTO suggests applying an…
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.
A traditional bakery is considering investing 9,000 pesos in machinery to produce sugar-free wholemeal pastries, but fears that its regular clientele might reject the…
A traditional bakery is considering investing 9,000 pesos in machinery to produce sugar-free wholemeal pastries, but fears that its regular clientele might reject the product due to taste or a price premium. Design a phased, very low-cost prototyping plan in three stages to validate real demand before undertaking the investment. For each phase, you must specify: the hypothesis being tested, the chosen prototyping artifact or experiment, and the exact quantitative criterion that would justify advancing to the next phase or canceling the project.