Don't Waste Your Time: Secrets of Minimum Viable Prototyping

Don’t Waste Your Time: Secrets of Minimum Viable PrototypingUXPA 2015 Unconference @PhilipLikens

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Thank you all.

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Thank you Lean Startup for the idea of proportional investment…

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…and the Minimum Viable Product.

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But sometimes you just need a prototype.

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Sabre Labs makes a lot of prototypes.

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And we’ve made a lot of mistakes.

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“A prototype is worth a thousand meetings.”

-Ron Burgundy

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Yes.

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…And if the average meeting is an hour long…

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…then I can spend 999 hours on my pixel-perfect-printed-but-still-paper prototype and still be in the black?

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No.

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Don’t wast your time.

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Building the wrong type of prototype

Don’t waste your time…

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Fidelity.

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We all know, Low fidelity prototype = Higher level feedback

High fidelity prototype = Nit-picky pixel-shifting

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Feedback matters…

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And so does fidelity…

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But our framing wrong.

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Type of PrototypesConceptual prototypeWork through a design–for designers and developers, prototypes act as a way to work through your design…

Technical prototypeGauge technical feasibility–designers want to do X, but can engineering do it? Do we have the resources? Is it worth the effort?

Vision prototypeAs a common communication platform–using them to get everyone on the same page…

Consensus prototypeSell your idea internally–using them to sell your design solution to internal stake holders…

Demo As a marketing tool–while similar to number 3, this is for an external audience.

Todd Zaki Warfel / Joe Lamantia

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Pick methods based on outcome.

Secret 1:

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CommunicationConceptual prototypeWork through a design–for designers and developers, prototypes act as a way to work through your design…

Technical prototypeGauge technical feasibility–designers want to do X, but can engineering do it? Do we have the resources? Is it worth the effort?

Vision prototypeAs a common communication platform–using them to get everyone on the same page…

Consensus prototypeSell your idea internally–using them to sell your design solution to internal stake holders…

Demo As a marketing tool–while similar to number 3, this is for an external audience.

Evolve / Test

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So let’s say you do choose the right prototype for the outcome…

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“Building” beyond the minimumDon’t waste your time…

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Sometimes you can use paper.

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Sometimes you need to use code.

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For example.

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Sabre Product

Product we all Love

Auth Auth

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The integration is the thing

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Make the one thing that matters high(er) fidelity.

Secret 2:

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Sabre Product

Product we all Love

Auth Auth

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Sabre Product

Product we all Love

Auth AuthScreenshot with button

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Outcomes.

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Vision: How could these products interact

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Technical: Viability of the integration

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If you’re setting vision, build only what you need to tell your story (happy path).

Secret 3:

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Sabre Product

Product we all Love

Auth AuthScreenshot with button

Error States Sign Up

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That’s the minimum to tell the story.

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If you’re testing feasibility, apply some rigor.

Secret 4:

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Applying rigor in the all the wrong places

Don’t waste your time…

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We often say in the lab “working code wins.”

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We didn’t build out the whole integration.

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We thought they had an awesome API.

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We fixed a bug in their API.

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And learned this integration may not be as smooth as we thought.

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And that’s good enough for now.

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So that’s technical rigor. What about design rigor?

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Ensure what you’re designing is possible.

Secret 5:

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This may mean you dig through technical documentation.

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APIs

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Design constraints

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Or you sketch wireframes at actual size.

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Going back to our example…

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From a design perspective.

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The goals of the other company had changed since I had looked.

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And no one else had looked.

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Time and time again

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Applying “just enough” rigor has saved my…

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Reputation.

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Finally,

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The most important secret to Minimum Viable Prototyping

is simply to have…

–Meghan Trainor

“…all the right junk in all the right places.”

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Thank you for being a part of my Minimum Viable (conference)

Presentation.

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Do the Minimum: • Make the one thing that matters high(er) fidelity. • If you’re setting vision, build only what you need

to tell your story (happy path). Be sure it’s Viable: • If you’re testing feasibility, apply some rigor. • Ensure what you’re designing is possible. Choose the right type of Prototype: • Pick methods based on outcome.