When do we build software prototypes in Business Design?
We already know what software prototyping in Business Design is and why we need it. But when are we actually doing it? If you are familiar with Business Design, you already know that we we usually have four core phases in our Business Design Process: Discover -> Design -> Validate -> Decide.
When I first started with prototyping in Business Design Sprints, we prototyped almost exclusively in the Validate-Phase (to validate our most critical assumptions in our Business Models). That's still the phase where we prototype the most, but over the years we learned that prototyping helps us to do more. Especially in the Design-Phase, it helps teams in the following ways:
...to get very early feedback on our idea
...to be able to communicate our new idea to others (e.g. in a Sponsor Sneak Preview)
...to align our "mental models" about our new idea within the team
...to create motivation & spark excitement within the team
...to be able to speak on a more detailed level about our idea within the team
That's why we often built first prototypes (e.g. landing pages) right after the Design Workshop ended. Over-night, with the first result on the following day.