Imagine and Interrogate with a Prototype

Why?

It’s wise to imagine how your idea will actually work very early - right down to the nuts and bolts. This allows you to see the resources that need to be in place and ask yourself how confident you are that this is feasible. You can uncover simple things such as ways people will access your idea, or things you have taken for granted.

We use a range of different tools in our workshops, but we often signpost to NESTA's Prototype Testing Plan. For this exercise you could use this in combination with the Strategyzer's Test Card to really focus your thinking.

We encourage people to be creative and build models, testing out ideas in simulation forms. Ask other team members take on roles to help. They can be 'customers', or other partners. give them explicit permission to give you constructive feedback 

How?

1. Use the NESTA's Prototype and Testing Plan to guide the ‘build’ of your service. This might be a doodle or it could be built out of lego or household items you have lying round. What’s important is that it helps you to imagine what is required to make this real as a service your customer can move through with ease;

The places: Do you need your own office? Storage?

The people: Who needs to be doing what in front of and behind the scenes?

The parts: What equipment and materials are relied on to keep the flow?

The pathways: How people find out about it or get referred in the first place?

2. Walkthrough your model from the perspective of a customer and really try to hear it anew “John finds out about the recruitment service from a tv advert …he calls the number from screen and has an hour call with Joanna from the team who asks him questions about his skills in a different way than he’s experienced”…. Tweak your model as you spot gaps or barriers through the eyes of your customer and walkthrough again. Is it simpler? Does it meet their needs? What if there were 100 ‘Johns’ accessing at once?

3. Make a list of all the resources (people, places, parts and pathways) that your model has confirmed need to be in place. Categorise Red, Amber or Green.

RED: I’m guessing here - I have no idea if this is feasible

AMBER: I’m pretty sure this resource is available to me.

GREEN: I know for a fact that this resource is in place or accessible for me

4. Choose which of the key assumptions you need to test from the red or amber category. Choose one or two that are vital to implementation of your idea. Sometimes it will prompt something as simple as a question. It may be that you need to observe behaviour, or design a small scale survey. Mostly in our experience huge insights arise from purposeful question and conversation.  Be bold, create a prototype, share it with people and listen closely.