Conceptualizing+the+Opportunity+II+-+Prototyping+101

Prototyping 101
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 <>

Topic overview
Today's class will introduce the art of prototyping, which is the art and practice of conducting experiments to answer questions you have about your product concept. Prototyping can take many different forms and can occur in many stages of the product development cycle. Early prototypes, for example, might be simple sketches on a whiteboard or a storyboard that shows drawings of how a customer might use your product or service. At later stages, you might build complex technical prototypes to evaluate the feasibility of two different approaches to solving a technical problem. The product conceptualization and design stages are where teams make the most common and effective use of prototyping techniques.

By the end of class today, you should:
 * Understand the role(s) of prototyping in the product conceptualization phase
 * Be able to match different prototyping techniques to the different types of questions and problems that need to be addressed
 * Have practiced putting together a prototyping strategy to explore and refine a proposed product solution

Preparation for class:
The Art of Innovation, by Tom Kelly, explains the ethos of exploratory product development and the role that prototyping plays in that process better than any of the other texts we use in this course. You would be well served to read the whole book, but prior to class today, you need to read at least chapter 6 of the book, which has a heavy focus on prototyping.
 * [KL01] Tom Kelly with Jonathan Littman, The Art of Innovation. ISBN: 0-385-49984-1

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