These are the slides from a talk I gave at our local Refresh meetup. Learn more here: http://refreshthetriangle.org/posts/rapid_prototyping_and_customer_development/

1. Rapid Prototyping &
Customer Development
John W. Long
http://wiseheartdesign.com

2. What is good
design?

3. “A startup is a business
formed to search for a
repeatable and scalable
business model”
Steve Blank, Lean Startup Guru

4. “Good design is a process
whereby I help my clients
engage their customers to
build a successful product.”
My Definition

5. Customer Development
An iterative process of finding
customers and leveraging
feedback to build a targeted
product that will sell.

6. How It’s Done
1. An idea
2. An assertion
3. An experiment
4. Customer feedback

7. This is Agile
for Business

8. Rapid Prototyping
Aids product development by giving
you something to talk about before a
product is actually complete

9. 5 Practical Tools

10. 1. Whiteboards

12. Whiteboards
1. Great for brainstorming with
customers
2. Great for illustrating flow
3. Lightweight
4. Hard to take with you

13. 2. Wireframes

14. Paper Prototypes

15. Balsamiq Mockups

18. Wireframes
1. Moderately lightweight
2. Capture more detail
3. Easy to showoff to
customers and stakeholders
4. Anyone can build them

19. 3. Hi-Fi Mockups

23. Hi-Fi Mockups
1. One step from HTML
2. Help establish look & feel
(also tone)
3. Typically require professional
design help
4. Most potential for error

24. Hi-Fi Mockups
1. One step from HTML
2. Help establish look & feel
(also tone)
3. Typically require professional
design help
4. Most potential for error

25. 4. HTML Prototypes

29. Serve: A Rapid Prototyping Framework

30. http://github.com/jlong/serve

31. HTML Prototypes
1. Allow you to test flow
2. Can be improved over time
3. Great for client and customer
conversations
4. Can be leveraged for actual
application (1/4 the effort; makes
estimating a cinch)

32. HTML Prototypes
1. Allow you to test flow
2. Can be improved over time
3. Great for client and customer
conversations
4. Can be leveraged for actual
application (1/4 the effort; makes
estimating a cinch)

33. 5. Functional Prototypes

34. Functional Prototypes
1. Great for refining algorithms, user
interactions, gestures, anything that is
complex
2. Also great for client and customer
conversations
3. Don’t need to be written in/for target
language or platform
4. May also be leveraged for the actual
application

35. Rapid Prototyping &
Customer Development
In Real Life

36. Our Goal:
Build the smallest thing
possible that will validate
or invalidate our core idea

37. First Things First
What’s the most important
part of the application to get
right to test our core idea?

38. Think Big.
Build Small.

39. Identify the heart of
the app and start there

40. Show it to your
customers.

41. What do you think
about this?
Should we remove
anything?
How can we make
this better?
Would you actually pay
money for this? How much?

42. Layer on Functionality.
Iterate.

43. Build & Rebuild
Don’t be afraid to throw
things away. This is about
maximizing learning.

44. “Tracer bullets don’t
always hit their target...
That’s the point.”
Dave Thomas & Andy Hunt, The Pragmatic Programmer

45. “Prototyping is a learning
experience. Its value lies not
in the code you produce, but
in the lessons you learn.”
Dave Thomas & Andy Hunt, The Pragmatic Programmer

46. One More Time
1. An idea
2. An assertion
3. An experiment
4. Customer feedback

47. Questions & Comments
‣ WiseheartDesign.com
‣ LeanStartupPrimer.com/more
‣ GitHub.com/jlong/serve