(first published Dec. 20, 2018 on Entrepreneur.com)
I spend a lot of time working as a designer with tech companies and entrepreneurs. Here's a funny thing I've noticed. Everyone wants to prototype -- to create a fast and just-real-enough version of their new product -- to ensure they're building the right thing, but no one has the time.
So, they do things like build the product and sneak in cheeky prototypes on the side to inform product iteration (and, if the initial launch premise is wrong, product revolution). Almost surreptitiously. Kind of like they're having an affair with the prototype.
As a designer, I'm always looking for workarounds that signal what people need, and the "affair-with-prototype" is a classic one. It signals that designers, entrepreneurs and product managers know the value of prototyping (validating the desirability and viability of a new product), but have time and budget constraints that prevent them from taking that step… <read more>