Creative agency Appsky presented a product development workshop, From Napkin to Prototype, at Lincoln Startup Week in mid-November. Appsky Senior Business Development Manager Nick Adler and CTO Spencer Robinson shared a step-by-step process to turn an idea into an actual tech product.
A prototype is a preliminary model or version of a product that’s built to test a concept, process or design. It’s a tangible or digital representation of an idea, which allows designers, engineers and stakeholders to evaluate and refine the product before full-scale production or implementation. Prototypes can take various forms depending on the nature of the project.
Keep reading to learn more about how to build a prototype following Lean methodology — regardless of whether you consider yourself “technical” or a “product person”.
Lean methodology prototyping according to Appsky
Define the problem. What is the pain point you’re trying to solve for? Interview your potential customers to better understand what they’re struggling with. Use real world data and examples to further define the problem.
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Determine user types. Based on your learnings, create customer archetypes (or personas) to categorize the different types of potential customers. Which customer archetype would be willing to use your product first and why? The number one consideration at this stage should be which of these segments you can access the most easily in order to generate the most revenue with the least amount of effort.
Brainstorm potential solutions. Start by conducting a competitive analysis to understand things like how saturated the current market is, what competitors in the space are doing and where gaps still exist in customer satisfaction. Based on your learnings, decide what form the solution should take. Is it a product? Or should it be a service or add-on to an existing product?
Establish a core value proposition. Now it’s time to craft a core value proposition that clearly and concisely communicates your unique competitive advantage to your customer archetypes.
Address your assumptions. What assumptions have you made throughout this process so far? Develop methods to test these assumptions to either confirm or dispel them.
Create a prototype. Based on everything you’ve learned through this process, define the required features of your product. Start building using no-code or low-code tools like Bubble. Stop building when you’ve created something that will provide value to the group of customers who are most likely to pay and easiest to reach. At this stage your goal is to create an MVP (minimum viable product) rather than a fully refined product. This is a starting point to iterate from based on customer feedback.
Have questions or want to learn more about the prototyping process or product development? You can meet members of the Appsky team at Tech Training Wheels Office Hours following 1 Million Cups Omaha every Wednesday, 9-11a.m., at The Ashton in Millwork Commons.
