Pretotyping Jeremy Clark, Alberto Sevoia

Make Sure you are building the right IT before you build it Right an important, but often neglected, step in innovation

Pretotyping (as in Pretendotyping)

A pretotype is a mock-up of the intended product or service that can be

built in minutes, hours or days instead of weeks, months or years. The art

and science of pretotyping is aimed to help innovators:

Identify the core feature and core experience of the new potential

product.

Decide what core features can – and should – be mocked-up (or

dramatically simplified).

Use mock-ups to systematically test and collect feedback and usage data.

Analyze usage data to determine the next step.

Most New Products Fail

Nielsen: 1st year success vs. pre launch expectations

24,543 new products

80% failure (failed, disappointed, cancelled)

41% : Lack of data to validate that product addresses a real market need

False Positive

Webvan, late 90s

raised $122+M, Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital

Raised $375M in IPO, 1999

In total, raised over $1B

Bankruptcy July 2001

Motorola’s Iridium satellite phone system ($6B for 66 satellites)

Segway (~$180M in funding)

Google Wave real time messaging platform (~$20-30M)

“John Carter” by Disney (Cost $275M + $100M in marketing)

New Coke, Pepsi Clear (est. $50M).

False Positive

Gilat to Home

Modu

Queen’s

Better Place

False Negative

SMS

Twitter

Google

Xerox PARC

Do they want it?

Will they use it where they are? (Environment, context)

Will they adapt in order to use it? (Behavior, switching)

Will they use it if it looks like this? (Appearance)

Will they use it if it does/does not do X? (Functionality)

Will they buy it this way? (Channel)

Will they buy it if it costs more than X? (Price)

Pretotype:

Validate market appeal and actual usage of potential new product by

simulating its core experience with the smallest possible investment of time

and money

Close in spirit and practice to Eric Ries' Lean Startup Movement

and the practice of building the Minimum Viable Product (MVP),

pretotyping is

a way to test a product idea quickly and inexpensively

by

creating extremely simplified versions of that product

to

help validate the premise that "If we build it, they will use it.“

totyping ototyping differs from prePr

prototyping

answer questions related to

building the product:

Can we build it?

Will it work as expected?

How cheaply can we build it?

How fast can we make it?

pretotyping

answer questions about the

product's appeal and usage:

Would people be interested in it?

Will they use it as expected?

Will they continue to use it? ..

The Mechanical Turk (1770 - 1854 )

Automaton Chess Player

By courtier Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804)

to Empress Maria Theresa

Sapphire laser blade –

Ed Mlasvky, Milk and Honey and High-Tech

IBM Speech to Text “Pretendotyping”

Palm Pilot

GRiDPad,… too big

Jeff Hawkins: Pinocchio prototype - wood and paper Palm Pilot

Would I actually carry and use one?

Pocket size

…simulate core experience with minimal investment

Insight to most useful functions (calendar, address book, to-

do list, and note taker)

Fake Door

Testing customers’ responses to different phrases or words (using online ads

tied to specific search words)

Links placed on websites (the clicks on which can be counted)

Simple response forms (such as asking customers for an email address)

Examples:

Buy word (e.g. pretotype) and c if people click it

“Register 4 our medical device workshop”

Pretotyping

Pretotype:

Make sure you are building the right it before you build it right