Rapid prototyping is an essential part of product design and an increasingly successful means of reducing risk. But how does rapid prototyping relate to services?
Pilots are more commonly associated with the development of services than prototypes. Pilots, however, often run after a period of observation, development and blueprinting and, as such, don’t always provide the level of experimentation that might lead to greater innovation. In contrast, rapid prototypes allow organisations to “fail fast”.
By getting a service up and running we can see straight away what the key issues might be and fix them in real time. With some pilots, long periods of research may not provide enough information to roll out a completely effective service. Rapid prototypes avoid this wasted time and test assumptions quickly.
Rapid prototyping is developing quickly in service design. Taken to extremes it can be played as a game, with projects like Global Service Jam pitting teams against each other to create services over 48-hour periods.
For a clear, quirky look at rapid prototyping take a look at this short video on our Tumblr.
From Products to Services
Marketing Services Development
