Don't fall in love with your first ideas

Benson Garner
July 31, 2014
#
 min read
topics
Business Models
Business Model Innovation
Business Strategy
Technology

The most important thing to remember when starting a new corporate venture or startup business is not to fall in love with your first ideas. What you really want to do in the beginning is to rapidly explore different alternatives. Don't spend time agonizing over the perfect solution and don't expect to get everything right all up front. Use the Business Model Canvas to explore several alternative business model prototypes for your idea. But what actually is prototyping? 

Prototyping (pro•to•typ•ing):
The practice of building quick, inexpensive, and rough study models to learn about the desirability, feasibility and viability of alternative solutions.”

Prototyping is common in the design professions for physical artifacts but you can also apply the practice to your business idea. Use the activity of making quick and rough study models by rapidly sketching out several canvases. Focus on a different theme for each prototype. Explore business models that are scalable, have recurring revenues, lock customers in, that include strategic partners, or that use different channels.

To unlock the power of prototyping, resist the temptation of spending time and energy refining towards one direction only. Rather, use the principles described here to explore multiple directions with the same amount of time and energy. You will learn more and discover better business models as you quickly explore radically different directions for the same idea with the following prototyping techniques.

10 prototyping principles

1. Make it visual and tangible

These kinds of prototypes spark conversations and learning. Don’t regress into the land of blah blah blah.

2. Embrace a beginner’s mind

Prototype “what can’t be done.” Explore with a fresh mind-set. Don’t let existing knowledge get in the way of exploration.

3. Don’t fall in love with first ideas — create alternatives

Refining your idea(s) too early prevents you from creating and exploring alternatives. Don’t fall in love too quickly. 

4. Feel comfortable in a “liquid state”

Early in the process the right direction is unclear. It’s a liquid state. Don’t panic and solidify things too early.

5. Learn faster by failing early, often and cheaply

Fear of failure holds people back from exploring. Overcome that with a culture of rough and quick prototyping that keeps failure cheap and leads to faster learning.

6. Track learnings, insights, and progress

Keep track of all your alternative prototypes, learnings, and insights. You might use earlier ideas and insights later in the process.

7. Start with low fidelity, iterate, and refine

Refined prototypes are hard to throw away. Keep them rough, quick, and cheap. Refine with increasing knowledge about what works and what doesn’t.

8. Use creativity techniques

Use creativity techniques to explore ground-breaking prototypes. Dare to break out of how things are usually done in your company or industry.

9. Expose your work early — seek criticism

Seek feedback early and often before refining. Don’t take negative feedback personally. It’s worth gold to improve your prototype.

10. Create “Shrek models”

Shrek models are extreme or outrageous prototypes that you are unlikely to build. Use them to spark debate and learning.

Additional tips

  • Spend a maximum of 5 to 15 minutes on sketching out your early prototypes
  • Always use a visible timer and stick to a predefined time frame
  • Don’t discuss too long which one of several possible directions to prototype. Prototype several of them quickly and then compare
  • Remember constantly that prototyping is an exploratory tool. Don’t spend time on the details of a prototype that is likely to change radically anyway

Get "10 Prototyping Principles" and a whole lot more in our new book, Value Proposition Design!

Be sure to practice prototyping business models before ever testing and building real products and services. This will help you explore alternative business model possibilities so that you uncover the best opportunities. We've all experienced spending time and money on a project only to realize later that there was a better approach. Use prototyping to minimize the risk of committing to inferior options.

Also make sure that you test your business model and value proposition prototypes with customers and stakeholders as quickly as possible to inform subsequent prototypes (topic for a future post). Prototyping and testing is a continuous back and forth until you reach market success.

Have you experienced the power of prototyping business models and value propositions? Is this a standard practice in your organization? We'd love to hear about it!

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About the speakers

Benson Garner
Business design consultant

Benson is a business design consultant and a member of the Strategyzer content team. He helps companies of every shape and size, big, small, and everything in between to design or even redesign their business models and their value propositions. And at Strategyzer he also helps to create content for the Strategyzer workshops, the online course, Strategyzer blog, webinars. He is a contributor to our book: Value Proposition design. 

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Benson Garner
July 31, 2014
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Don't fall in love with your first ideas
Insights

Don't fall in love with your first ideas

July 31, 2014
#
 min read
topics
Business Models
Business Model Innovation
Business Strategy
Technology

The most important thing to remember when starting a new corporate venture or startup business is not to fall in love with your first ideas. What you really want to do in the beginning is to rapidly explore different alternatives. Don't spend time agonizing over the perfect solution and don't expect to get everything right all up front. Use the Business Model Canvas to explore several alternative business model prototypes for your idea. But what actually is prototyping? 

Prototyping (pro•to•typ•ing):
The practice of building quick, inexpensive, and rough study models to learn about the desirability, feasibility and viability of alternative solutions.”

Prototyping is common in the design professions for physical artifacts but you can also apply the practice to your business idea. Use the activity of making quick and rough study models by rapidly sketching out several canvases. Focus on a different theme for each prototype. Explore business models that are scalable, have recurring revenues, lock customers in, that include strategic partners, or that use different channels.

To unlock the power of prototyping, resist the temptation of spending time and energy refining towards one direction only. Rather, use the principles described here to explore multiple directions with the same amount of time and energy. You will learn more and discover better business models as you quickly explore radically different directions for the same idea with the following prototyping techniques.

10 prototyping principles

1. Make it visual and tangible

These kinds of prototypes spark conversations and learning. Don’t regress into the land of blah blah blah.

2. Embrace a beginner’s mind

Prototype “what can’t be done.” Explore with a fresh mind-set. Don’t let existing knowledge get in the way of exploration.

3. Don’t fall in love with first ideas — create alternatives

Refining your idea(s) too early prevents you from creating and exploring alternatives. Don’t fall in love too quickly. 

4. Feel comfortable in a “liquid state”

Early in the process the right direction is unclear. It’s a liquid state. Don’t panic and solidify things too early.

5. Learn faster by failing early, often and cheaply

Fear of failure holds people back from exploring. Overcome that with a culture of rough and quick prototyping that keeps failure cheap and leads to faster learning.

6. Track learnings, insights, and progress

Keep track of all your alternative prototypes, learnings, and insights. You might use earlier ideas and insights later in the process.

7. Start with low fidelity, iterate, and refine

Refined prototypes are hard to throw away. Keep them rough, quick, and cheap. Refine with increasing knowledge about what works and what doesn’t.

8. Use creativity techniques

Use creativity techniques to explore ground-breaking prototypes. Dare to break out of how things are usually done in your company or industry.

9. Expose your work early — seek criticism

Seek feedback early and often before refining. Don’t take negative feedback personally. It’s worth gold to improve your prototype.

10. Create “Shrek models”

Shrek models are extreme or outrageous prototypes that you are unlikely to build. Use them to spark debate and learning.

Additional tips

  • Spend a maximum of 5 to 15 minutes on sketching out your early prototypes
  • Always use a visible timer and stick to a predefined time frame
  • Don’t discuss too long which one of several possible directions to prototype. Prototype several of them quickly and then compare
  • Remember constantly that prototyping is an exploratory tool. Don’t spend time on the details of a prototype that is likely to change radically anyway

Get "10 Prototyping Principles" and a whole lot more in our new book, Value Proposition Design!

Be sure to practice prototyping business models before ever testing and building real products and services. This will help you explore alternative business model possibilities so that you uncover the best opportunities. We've all experienced spending time and money on a project only to realize later that there was a better approach. Use prototyping to minimize the risk of committing to inferior options.

Also make sure that you test your business model and value proposition prototypes with customers and stakeholders as quickly as possible to inform subsequent prototypes (topic for a future post). Prototyping and testing is a continuous back and forth until you reach market success.

Have you experienced the power of prototyping business models and value propositions? Is this a standard practice in your organization? We'd love to hear about it!

related reads
Books
Value Proposition Design
Don't fall in love with your first ideas

The most important thing to remember when starting a new corporate venture or startup business is not to fall in love with your first ideas. What you really want to do in the beginning is to rapidly explore different alternatives. Don't spend time agonizing over the perfect solution and don't expect to get everything right all up front. Use the Business Model Canvas to explore several alternative business model prototypes for your idea. But what actually is prototyping? 

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Whether you’re looking for more information or you’re ready to start a project, we’re ready to help.
Thanks for your interest in our solutions. We will be in touch with you soon.