The pressure to deliver products that resonate with users is immense, making competition more intense. The constant barrage of information has led to a dramatic reduction in consumer attention spans, now averaging just 8 seconds. As a result, companies face pressure to adapt swiftly to shifting customer behaviors and emerging trends.
Embracing innovation isn’t just about creating new products; it’s about reimagining processes, improving customer experiences, and fostering a culture that encourages creative thinking. Companies are leveraging cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence and data analytics, to gain deeper insights into consumer preferences and streamline operations.
One approach that has gained traction in recent years is pretotyping. But what exactly is pretotyping, and why is it becoming an essential tool in the innovation toolkit?
Understanding Pretotyping
Pretotyping is a term coined by Alberto Savoia, a former Engineering Director and Innovation Agitator at Google, and the man behind Google AdWords (now Google Ads).
Pretotyping combines the words “pre” and “prototype” to describe a method of validating ideas before investing significant resources into full-scale prototypes or product development. The core idea behind pretotyping is to test the fundamental concept of an idea as quickly and cheaply as possible to determine whether it has potential before committing to further development.
Unlike traditional prototyping, which involves creating a detailed model or version of the product, pretotyping focuses on testing the core hypothesis of a product idea. The goal is to determine whether there is enough interest or demand for the idea before expending substantial time and money. Pretotyping helps entrepreneurs and innovators avoid the costly mistakes of developing products that may not meet market needs or expectations.
Why should you care about Pretotyping?
The traditional product development cycle often involves extensive research, development, and testing phases. While this approach can be thorough, it is also time-consuming and expensive. Many established companies have fallen into the trap of investing heavily in a product only to discover later that it doesn’t resonate with their target audience. And it doesn’t just stop there. Many product updates and new features are sometimes completely unnecessary. It sounds cool at first, but then no one wants to pay for it in the end.
Pretotyping addresses this problem.
By allowing you to test your ideas quickly and cheaply. With this, you can gather valuable feedback and insights at an early stage, reducing the risk of investing in products that might not succeed. It’s a proactive approach that aligns with the principles of lean startup methodology, which emphasizes validated learning and iterative development.
It’s a method that heavily inspired pree.to and has helped our corporate innovation clients to act fast and base their decisions on real customer behavior and buying intent.
Pretotyping also offers several key benefits:
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Cost Efficiency: You save money and resources by focusing on testing the core concept rather than building a detailed prototype. This allows you to explore multiple ideas without significant financial risk.
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Faster Validation: Pretotyping enables you to test ideas quickly, allowing for more rapid feedback and iteration. This speed is crucial in today’s competitive market, where being the first to validate an idea can provide a significant advantage.
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Reduced Risk: By identifying potential issues and gathering user feedback early, pretotyping helps you avoid the pitfalls of developing products that may not meet market needs. This reduces the risk of costly failures and increases the likelihood of success.
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Enhanced Focus: Pretotyping encourages you to concentrate on the most critical aspects of your idea, rather than getting bogged down in details. This focus helps streamline the development process and ensures that you’re addressing the core needs of your target audience.
What are the different pretotyping techniques?
Pretotyping involves a variety of techniques that can be tailored to different types of products and industries. Use this as an inspiration for the type of market demand tests your new ideas need. This way, you’ll be able to gather real customer feedback without spending too much resources.
1. The Fake Door Test
This technique involves testing the interest or demand of a new idea, that doesn't yet exist, by creating a simulation of the experience. It can be done digitally through online ads and landing pages, where the level of interest is measured using different metrics and benchmarked accordingly. It can also be done physically, as seen in the example below.
Example:
McDonald's added McSpaghetti to the menu without actually preparing it. They wanted to gauge how many people would try and order it, and if they did, staff were instructed to inform customers it was unavailable and apologize, offering a complimentary burger as a gesture of goodwill. This approach gauges interest without the need for actual product preparation.
Image source: McDonald's Wiki
2. The Mechanical Turk
A technique used where you replace complex machinery with humans in “Wizard of Oz-like” setups.
Example:
An example of this is IBM’s speech-to-text. IBM wanted to test the market for a speech-to-text machine but was unsure of its potential demand. It was before the era of the Internet and widespread personal computing, IBM found itself in a prime position to explore the development of a speech-to-text machine, leveraging its expertise in computer technology and typewriters. To validate the concept, they conducted a pretotyping experiment: they set up a room with a computer, screen, and microphone but no keyboard, and told participants they were testing a new speech-to-text system. In reality, the setup was a dummy and a typist in an adjacent room manually transcribed the spoken words. This experiment allowed IBM to assess interest and gather feedback without building a working prototype.
Image source: CDS Marketing
3. Pinocchio
Using a ‘Dead’ non-functional dummy, and your imagination to test the core functionality and usage of your idea.
Example:
A great example of this is the Palm Pilot pretotype experiment. In the mid-1990s, Jeff Hawkins tested his idea for the Palm Pilot using a simple wooden block and a chopstick stylus to simulate the device’s functions. By carrying this mock-up and pretending it was a real PDA, he gathered crucial insights into its potential usefulness, confirming that he would use it regularly for tasks like managing contacts and scheduling. This early validation helped him justify the investment in a full prototype, leading to the Palm Pilot’s success and its influence on the design of future portable electronic devices.
Image source: Alberto Savoia, Medium, Palm Pilot Story
4. Impersonator
Impersonator is a pretotyping technique that involves making a new look, or ‘skin’, for an already existing product, and trying to sell it as your own.
Example:
As an example, in 2003, Tesla founders used a modified Lotus Roadster as a pretotype to showcase Tesla's envisioned all-electric roadster. Although not fully functional, this early model helped gauge interest. To confirm market demand, they asked interested individuals to place a $5,000 deposit to join a waiting list, effectively securing commitments and demonstrating real interest with minimal investment.
Image source: Wikipedia
5. One-night stand
This involves creating a local, one-time-only interactive service experience, where you deliver the whole service, but without the required infrastructure and resources needed for a more permanent solution.
Example:
Airbnb's founders turned their apartment into a makeshift bed-and-breakfast for a night, offering an air mattress and simple breakfast for $80 on a basic website they created. They were surprised when three guests quickly booked, earning them $240 that first night. This initial success demonstrated the potential demand for their concept, which has since grown into a company valued at over $10 billion.
Image source: Outlander VC
Conclusion
Pretotyping is a powerful approach that can revolutionize the way we develop and validate new ideas. By testing the fundamental concepts of a product quickly and cost-effectively, pretotyping helps innovators reduce risk, save resources, and accelerate the path to market success.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a product manager, or an established company, incorporating pretotyping into your development process can provide valuable insights and increase the likelihood of creating products that truly resonate with users.
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