Macadamian Blog

Part 7: Winning Prototypes

This is the final in a series of posts on Prototypes by Mary Piontkowski and Martin Larochelle. Read the introductory post, Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, Step 5

Keep a Relentless Focus

Even if your development team is made up of superstars, they’ll need you to keep the big picture in mind and the project on track. The project manager or development leader needs to set the tone to ensure the vision is carried out in implementation. Every team member carrying out the prototype should be comfortable with an environment where people:

Make quick decisions. When faced with a dilemma, make a decision quickly. Help others determine whether a decision is crucial enough to spend time on and only ask first if it really matters.

Donʼt get lost in the details. Your prototype will not be using production code so donʼt worry about access control, password protection, data integrity, etc.

Keep yourself in check. If you are blocked on something even for a couple hours, stakeholders need to know so that you can decide together whether it is worth the time or effort.

Commit new code to the common code base often. Ideally, you should be adding new code multiple times per day.

Reach out and ask for help. Itʼs worth 5 minutes of a colleague’s time if it’ll save you a couple of hours.

Break the Rules. Normal product development rules donʼt apply to prototypes if youʼre working with throwaway code. You wonʼt need production-level quality and reliability, so make sure your team members aren’t developing state machines when a series of “if” statements would do just fine.

Take the quickest solution that gets you closer to the prototype goal.

Your Winning Prototype
By developing a strategy, choosing the right style of prototype, assembling a solid team, and breaking the rules when it counts, it really is possible to build an attractive and successful prototype. At Macadamian, weʼve helped customers of all sizes create stunning prototypes and gain the internal or external buy-in needed for new projects. If youʼre thinking about creating a prototype, or are struggling to get one off the ground, contact us!

Further Reading
Winning Prototypes: How to Capture Hearts & Minds of Stakeholders
A whitepaper by Martin Larochelle, Mary Pionkowski, and Didier Thizy.