3 prototyping hacks you can steal for your next workshop
Prototyping can be one of the most energizing parts of a workshop. The team finally gets to see their ideas come to life, and in service of the problem they set out to solve and the needs of people they aim to help.
But when it comes to orchestrating the exercise, there’s definitely a sweet spot between structure and freedom.
Today, I’m sharing my prototyping hacks to help your team create the best initial, simplified version of their design – one that’s ready to be tested, iterated on, and validated.
But first, here’s why nailing the prototyping process is so important:
Clearer visualization: Creating a visual representation of an idea is one of the best ways to make it more tangible, communicate the vision to others, and find alignment.
Faster iterative refinement and concept validation: By creating a basic version of your product, you can test fundamental desirability, quickly assess if the concept has potential, and determine if it does the job you intended it to do. As you receive feedback and uncover insights during the testing phase, you can make necessary adjustments and enhancements to create a better end product.
Deeper user insights: Early prototypes can be shared with potential users or stakeholders to gather valuable feedback. This input can help identify flaws, improve usability, and refine features before moving forward with more advanced development stages. Addressing these issues early on can save time, effort, and resources in the long run.
Reduced risk and improved efficiency: Addressing issues in the early stages of development can prevent costly and time-consuming fixes later on. Prototyping can help you identify and rectify potential problems while they’re still relatively easy and inexpensive to address. And that process helps mitigate risks associated with investing significant resources into a concept that might not work as intended (which is especially important when dealing with complex systems or new technologies).
The list could go on, but you get the picture.
So, how do we access all the goodness prototyping has to offer? By being smart about how we run the process and manage the experience.
Prototyping Hacks You Can Steal:
1. Start with a storyboard that includes the big elements of the prototype
Draw out the idea on a whiteboard as a team. You can also cut up or reuse pictures from earlier exercises and tape them up on the wall.
Facilitator’s tip: If you’re leading a remote session or using a virtual whiteboard, ask participants to send you photos from earlier exercises, then crop and drop them into your workspace for all to see.
From here, facilitate an alignment conversation with the team to make sure everyone agrees on the main events (the critical screens or moments in the experience, and what the customer should know / feel / or do at each step).
Be careful not to get caught in the weeds here. It’s not necessary to scrutinize the copy or decide where every element should go – that part comes later.
2. Go for high fidelity, but not perfection
This part of the process can be tricky – how do we know when we’ve pushed something just far enough, no more, no less?
When it comes to prototyping, the litmus test I use to gauge fidelity is this: Do we believe we can learn what we want to learn from this as it stands?
This mentality helps groups break free from perfecting or spiraling on details that aren’t relevant to what they set out to achieve.
Here’s what it looks like in action:
I typically take the team through a prioritization process first to make sure they’re aligned on what matters most.
We start by ranking the items in the storyboard in order of importance, giving each a number. The facilitator should really help drive this conversation, steering the team to align on the most important screens – the ones that will help answer the question / solve the problem / learn what we want to learn from users.
Then, assign different roles to the participants so they can work on the screens. I like to take the lead on this process, recommending people or asking for volunteers to take on a role. It helps to have this listed somewhere in the room for all to see so people are clear on their roles and responsibilities.
That might look like:
Maker / Designer: This person is responsible for making screens or slides to represent the concept. On a related note – and as a precursor to this step – it’s super important that the team has chosen to work with a tool they’re comfortable building their prototype with (e.g., Figma / Sketch / HTML). This is not the time to learn something new. Before the actual prototyping session, talk as a team about what you might be designing so that you can be sure to have people in the room who can bring a realistic prototype to life.
Writer: This person fleshes out what language will appear on the screens.
Asset collector: This person gathers pictures, images, and other assets. They may be sourced from an existing repository, via stock photography, or by downloading icons. Use what’s available at your fingertips!
Detail decider: This person makes the final call on placement of elements and details in the “finished” prototype, and helps streamline the work for the rest of the team so that they don’t have to wrestle through the details when they’re in make mode.
Facilitator’s tip: It’s okay if you don’t have time to get to every single screen – this is why you’ll want to start with the most important ones first to make the best use of your time together and ensure you get to something that represents the big idea.
3. When in doubt, ask yourself: Could I learn something by putting this prototype in front of a user / stakeholder / customer?
At the end of the day, your prototype just needs to be real enough that users will understand what they’re supposed to do (without added explanation), but not so final that every little detail is solved for.
Asking this question is also a good tool for pulling teams out of the weeds when they get focused on details that aren’t relevant to answering the question.
For example, maybe the team is ultimately trying to learn whether customers will be interested in a new offering you’ve come up with, yet they’re spiraling over a stock photo being used on the bottom portion of the page, or whether the button should say X or Y.
This is a great time to remind the group that what we’re actually interested in is whether the customer will understand the message above the button – that’s the thing we want to learn from!
In those moments, it’s your job as the facilitator to redirect the team and reassure them that the smaller details will get worked out later.
In Conclusion
Prototyping is a valuable practice because it empowers teams to quickly validate concepts, gather user feedback, reduce risk, and iteratively improve their ideas. It's an integral step in creating successful, well-designed, and user-friendly end products. And my hope is that these hacks make the actual prototyping process run smoother for you and the teams you lead!