The prototyping step of the process has been a super engaging way to bring our ideas to life. I appreciated the part that Kelley describes as “getting things done,” as it felt like we were finally getting somewhere once we started constructing our physical prototypes of our idea — kind of a long time coming! I appreciate that Professor Luchs encouraged us to start early and prototype as soon as we could. Our first round of feedback from another group was incredibly helpful, especially for our physical prototype, and I’m sure that the feedback we’re going to get from the class tomorrow will be just as helpful in fine-tuning our idea. Kelley’s opinion on this, “make mistakes — and discoveries — as soon as possible,” cannot only be applied to our innovation class and design thinking, but any type of work project in general. I have had a few final group projects, especially in the block, where we get an assignment and then turn it in two months later, with no meetings or check ins to make sure we’re on the right track. How will we ever succeed if we do not know we’re making early mistakes? For example, my final marketing grade was a 79% on a final paper my group worked tirelessly on. But, because we were not allowed to meet with our teacher before we turned the project in, we had no idea we were making “mistakes.”
Additionally, I found Kelley’s idea of “prototyping as a state of mind” (Kelley) as particularly resonating. I feel this way, because my group tried to prototype tonight, and our ideas were simply not flowing. Because we were outside of our normal class time, and we were all rushing to get a final product in, I felt like we weren’t in the right “state of mind” to use this prototype as more than something to turn in, but as a “mode of discovery” (Kelley) where we can continue to improve upon our idea. After a few minutes of talking about our macro ideas, our group got more into the prototyping mindset, and we were able to be far more productive after getting our heads in the right places to finish our product, and finish it well.
However, I don’t necessarily agree with Kelley’s assertion that “You can prototype just about anything—a new product or service, or a special promotion.” I feel like there are particular promotions or services that you truly have no way of knowing how they’re going to go until you actually enact the service itself. I guess here we could fix the definition of a prototype to include a “trial run” catchall. However, if a grocery store runs a coupon, they cannot “prototype” the changes in sales associated with this promotion, they simply have to run the coupon and see how it changes their sales. However, that being said, I feel that prototyping is a valuable step in any idea formation, because once you begin to flesh out the nooks and crannies of your idea, you run into new problems and learn how to make your idea bigger and better.
I’ve enjoyed this step the most, as I think its been a great way to see each person’s strengths and weaknesses in the design process. My group is balanced really well in abstract thinkers, craftier artists, good writers, etc. — its really been a pleasure seeing what different skills everyone brings to the table.