At City Innovation Labs, we’re often asked, “Why Should We Build a Prototype?” Here are the top four reasons why any organization should build a digital prototype.
1. Shared Understanding & Excitement:
One of the most important functions that a prototype serves is as a strategic communication tool for casting a vision and inspiring ideas.
We work with large organizations that are often very siloed. Digital prototypes allow groups we’re working with to brainstorm ideas and overall vision to many within the company. This creates excitement at all levels within the team.
2. Speed To Market:
Prototypes are fast! We’ll turn an idea into a prototype often in less than a month! Typical IT or digital projects will drag on for months or years with little to show for it. In contrast, a large amount of progress is made week to week when producing a prototype. Thus, achieving business goals becomes simple and quick.
3. Engagement:
Engagement and buy-in are often some of the most challenging things to achieve when tackling a project within a large organization. Moreover, building a prototype allows many people within the company to be roped into the process and have a voice.
This has a tremendously positive impact on and long term support from the people involved and can often be the difference between success or failure of a project.
4. Success Rate & Return on Investment:
To conclude, digital initiatives are risky! Often, we see enterprises focus on building the wrong thing “the right way” vs. “building the right thing.” Furthermore, producing a prototype allows us to validate that we’re creating something that will be useful for the organization and achieve the desired business objectives.
We get a lot of excuses for why organizations can’t or don’t want to build a prototype. Look out for the next article in this series in which I dive into a few excuses we often hear.
Want to Check Out a Prototype? Click Here to get in touch and we’ll walk you through many of our prototype examples.
Check out why we started building prototypes in our origin story.
