How we can help teams to overcome their struggles to prototype
In my last tip, I talked about why teams struggle with prototyping. Let's look at how we as prototypers can help teams to overcome these struggles:
We don't know enough: Make it clear, that prototyping is about learning and that we don't need to know everything to start building. Make it clear that we can start with what we already know and that we will figure out the rest later. What I like to do in this situations is to just build a first version of the prototype very quickly with the things we DO know. In this process I fill a lot of gaps, leave things open and make suggestions. Looking at a first prototype, it's often much easier for teams to figure out all the "unknowns" (through better discussions and feedback).
The fear of failure: Try to take the fear away in building the prototype somehow appealing (often with "good-enough" design). The prototype needs to give the team the feeling that they can be successful. If you give the team something "messy" (very bad design, inconsistencies, errors, dead-ends etc.) you amplify their "fear of failure". That's not what you want.
Difficulties to decide: If the team struggles to take decisions, do it for them. Take the decision on you and build the prototype how it makes sense to you. It's a prototype, we can change everything, anytime. Often, it helps the team to understand what's right and what's wrong when they see it in the prototype. Most of the time the decision becomes much easier when looking at something concrete.
We are not used to doing it: Give the team the feeling that building something is the easiest thing in the world. Hide all the complexity, show fast progress and include things which makes the team proud and happy. This will help the team to prototype more often and get used to it. To the point they can't think without prototypes anymore.
Expert-Mentality: Ask very concrete questions: What's the headline here? What do we show on this page? What happens when the user clicks here? When asking these questions, it often becomes obvious to everyone that we don't know enough and that we need to learn (more).
It's not easy to get these things right. But it's a very good feeling to help people overcome their struggles.