More On Prototypes
I’ve been demoing and letting various stakeholders use the prototype I recently built. A few more thoughts have emerged through this process.
Leave the prototype with them.
This may seem counter-intuitive, to the traditional notion of stakeholder signoff often used in software development, but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that people will be able to completely express all of their thoughts during a time-constrained demo. While similar patterns and ideas have been emerging from the people that have seen it, I think it’s important to provide a way for them to access the prototype so they can take a second look. However, be sure and follow up with them to capture any additional feedback they may have.
Show the prototype to people that aren’t your stakeholders.
Just because someone isn’t a business stakeholder or an intended user of the prototype doesn’t mean they can’t provide valuable feedback. I’ve received some very useful feedback from people that aren’t directly impacted by this particular project.
Remember, it’s a prototype and not yet a product.
I think it’s fairly common to feel a sense of completion when you initially finish building a prototype. We should clearly express to our stakeholders, and ourselves, the intent of a prototype: to demonstrate what a product might feel like when implemented and, through the use of a lightweight design artifact, provide a mechanism for us to quickly incorporate stakeholder feedback. Prototypes are meant to change.
For some other opinions on this topic, here are a couple of resources I’ve noticed the past few days:
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