Yes, even absolute beginners can prototype an app. And learn a lot about product management, product design and user experience along the way. It is a low cost exercise that will greatly improve communication within your organization.
Intro: Why Organize an App Prototyping Workshop?
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled “No More LEGO® At Agile Workshops – I Am Tired Of Building Airports” expressing my annoyance with the common practice of exercises in workshops that use an inappropriate means in my eyes. I also promised to experiment with an alternative: Building app prototypes, utilizing one of the many prototyping apps in the market. And here is what I have learned over three workshops into this experiment.
Be careful with the selection process for user interviews: You might end up picking those that will support your vision – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy trap.
Beware of false positives in user interviews.
Never start writing a single line of code before an appropriate number of customers signed up. (For clarification: Customers are paying users.)
Never spend money on developing a prototype when you’re not working full-time on growing the user-base and increasing customer value.
Be patient and give your product the time it needs.
Always make branded t-shirts and wear them later regularly to preserve the recollection of the disaster. (See below.)
Building a valuable, useable and feasible product does not happen overnight. These are my four core learnings from focusing on customer value, looking back at the projects I have been pursuing over the years.
Lessons Learned #1: Customers Don’t Know What They Want. And You Cannot Just Ask Them.
It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.