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Prototyping to Learn
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Prototypes are for learning, not for shipping.
The Idea
A prototype's job is to answer a question: will this work? Do users understand it? Is the interaction right? Treat it as disposable — the value is the learning, not the artefact.
Why It Matters
- Building to learn is cheaper than building to ship.
- Prototypes collapse weeks of debate into hours of direct evidence.
- Disposable prototypes avoid the trap of preserving something because you built it.
How to Apply
- State the question first. What do you want to know?
- Pick the cheapest medium that can answer it (sketch, click-through, Wizard-of-Oz).
- Test with real users on real tasks.
- Throw it away. Rebuild clean when you know what to build.
The Trap
Prototypes sliding into production. Once code is "good enough," shipping pressure mounts and you're stuck with throwaway code in the codebase forever. Keep a hard line.
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