🔴 The 3 levels of value-driven prototyping
This month, I'm starting to share some of my most internal and effective tools for our VIP subscribers. We're starting with what should be an effective prototyping strategy and how to plan for it, step by step.
Prototyping is both central to any innovation project and a vast minefield of weird practices, half-baked principles and conflicting ideas. Mostly, the key mistake for innovators is trying to build a functional beta product as soon as possible because they think they know better, lack any skill at interacting with customers without said product, or simply don't know they should do otherwise.
From ambiguity to delivery...
Prototyping is often misunderstood as a quickly testing a solution for a customer, whereas in practice, good prototypes are not solutions; they are decision instruments. The job of any prototype is to progressively reduce economic uncertainty for both the team building the solution and the customer.
Here's the framework I've been using for many years, both for startups and corporate innovation teams. I keep it simple, linked to our innovation framework and structured across three cumulative levels, each anchored in: a clear economic question, explicit time and budget discipline, and learning outcomes that justify—or freeze—further investment.
