Rapid Prototyping : Lowering the Barriers to Entry in Building Digital Platforms

The Challenges

1. Lack of Up-Front Funding

In the case of small businesses and start-up’s with a small amount of seed funding, the biggest challenge faced is the price point and up-front capital required to to take their idea to market. Unfortunately the costs involved in custom developing quality digital platforms can be significant and if an investor is unable to monetise the platform and realise their investment in a realistic term, the cost is simply not worth the risk. You may argue that this can be done more economically by looking at outsourcing the development to India, the US or Eastern Europe, or potentially even looking at off-the-shelf solutions. These are both valid points but in the land of custom development, they do not always apply and be aware that they also come with their own risks.

2. Concern Around Lack of Business Buy-In

In medium to large businesses, an element which seems to be endemic in executive teams and those on the coal-face of decision making in this regard, is the differing levels of appetite to introduce digital platforms. Even where the business case calls for it, members of these teams, based on their history within the business, their frame of reference and their levels of exposure to digital transformation, are often divided on whether there is a real need, all risks considered, to offer their customers a new digital channel on which to engage. This is compounded by the concern members have around the level of involvement that they will be given in forging the platform, taking in to account their opinions and accommodating their departments’ operational requirements in the platform. 

3. Concern Around User Adoption

The final major challenge is concern expressed from within the business around the expected level of user adoption and the potential back-lash based on the experience delivered. This is something which is very difficult to ascertain prior to launching any platform and although some research can be done prior to the fact, the success of the platform only really becomes evident when placed in the hands of the end-user.

Why Rapid Prototyping Can Be A Solution

Rapid Prototyping involves the use software packages like Balsmiq, AdobeXD, Sketch, Axure RP, InVision and so the list goes on, to create, at a far more economical price point and in a fraction of the time, an imitated working model of your desired platform (shown visually below). This process involves getting to understand the user and platform requirements, building out the architecture, data model and user flow diagrams, conceptualising and designing the user interface based on brand requirements as well as the principles of UI (User Interface) design best practice. Finally, it involves creating user actions, click hot-spots and linked journeys to emulate actions that users’ would take on the platform.

Very importantly and not to be misunderstood, this does not mean that you have a solution with which to go to market. What it does however provide is an imitated model of your platform with which to move forward.

1. Breaking Down the Funding Requirement

In the case of small or start-up businesses, rapid prototyping has been used to conceive the user-interface and design components for the end-product, to be used as a demo of the intended final solution which can be used in presentations and road-shows for the purpose of raising further finance. This provides a more engaging, tactile and compelling experience, far more likely to win over a would-be investor. It is also not wasted resources, as the costs attributed to conceptual work and design would be incurred in the full development process.

2. Engendering Business Buy-In

In the case of larger business’s needing to establish internal buy-in, this is an excellent way in which to show the result of all fact-finding and work-shopping efforts, as well as the accommodation or justified exclusion of opinions and requirements expressed by those, as part of the process. This allow the business to decide on whether they feel what has come out of the prototyping process is compelling, as well as operationally and technically sound, prior to spending the majority share of the budget, earmarked for programming.

In addition, this process proves incredibly valuable to internal IT teams who will need to carry out integration components, as well as operational teams who may potentially need to enhance their ability to cater to this new platform (e.g. call-centres), providing them with a working model of the end solution off which to base their planning.

Invariably, the evolution of this process begins to show how the solution is able to improve business efficiency’s and in many cases make the lives of those who originally expressed concern, significantly easier. Alternately, if the business does not feel that the solution is worth continuing, then the risk has been significantly mitigated in terms of time and expense incurred in getting to this juncture, where a more educated decision can be taken as a result of analysis and testing.

3. Mitigating Concern Around User Adoption

On the part of user adoption and user experience, a prototype gives you the ability to collect feedback from the end-user prior to a single line of code having been written, by being able to run sample groups through task oriented exercises. Depending on the time availability, this feedback can be incorporated and used to update flows, UI elements and even large functional components to optimise the customer experience.

Does it Make Sense for You?

The decision around whether prototyping is suited to your need is very much dependent on the challenges raised above. In some cases, it can simply add an unnecessary obstacle in to your ability to expedite the process of getting your idea out in to the market place.

Having said this, my experience leads me to believe that if any of the above challenges are present, then it is in your best interest to consider using this valuable, cost-effective and timely method to de-risk your potential development.