How Prototyping changed my life
Two years ago, me and my familiy (my wife Katja and my two kids, 5 and 3 years old) felt like we needed a change. We were kind of fed up with the city we lived in (Munich) and wanted to explore something new. But moving cities can be pretty scary because there are a lot of uncertainties involved:
How will the kids react?
Do we actually like the new city and the people there?
In which area of the new city do we actually want to live in?
How are the prices to live there?
...
After thinking about which cities seemed interesting to us, we quickly settled on Leipzig. A city nobody of us has ever been before nor did we know a single person there (no family or friends whatsoever). This made it even more scary. What did we do?
WE BUILT A PROTOTYPE!
We booked an AirBnb in a district which sounded interesting to us and lived there for one week. We did all the stuff we normally do: We went to playgrounds with the kids, to restaurants & cafes and walked around the city a much as we could. We also talked to a lot of people and even looked at some apartments to get a feeling for living & pricing. We also talked a lot with our kids how it would be for them to move to this new city.
This little prototype changed everything for us. All the uncertainties and fears disappeared and we fell in love with the city and the people. The whole idea was not scary anymore at all. We became excited and really fell in love with the idea to make that move. The question was not „shall we do it?“ anymore, the question quickly became „when are we doing it?“.
A few month later we moved. After two years, we are still super happy with our decision.
This is how impactful prototyping can be. It can make all the difference. It can change lives. Prototypes not only can reduce risks & uncertainties. It can spark trust, identification, excitement and love. Prototyping is that impactful, it’s that BIG!
When we build prototypes in Business Design Sprints, we often see exactly that happening with our teams.