Prototyping

Purpose

Explain prototyping as the anchor of our technical approach.

Scope

Covers the basics of prototyping, and what it looks like in action at Countable.

Prototyping Basics

Prototyping is the essence of our approach. Do quick experiments with minimal planning. A prototype is the ultimate plan.

Start with a “low fidelity” prototype which does nothing except that absolute minimum it could do in order to be useful at all for the domain problem, and skip anything else possible. Skip any graphic design at this point and stick with a wireframed UI.

All work should initially be treated with the intention to throw it away, until you start experimenting with real usage, and you should invest nothing in things like code quality and scalability. This doesn’t mean you should make a mess, it means you should keep it simple and leave things out when in doubt.

Get A Prototype in Front of Real Users ASAP

  1. Get a prototype in front of real users ASAP. All that matters is the absolutely most core functions work reasonably well, and it’s easy to understand. So put effort into clear design and the most basic feature set. Not into scalability, code quality, or anything else.
  2. If you receive a positive market response, THEN refactor and clean up your code and add tests, and move to a larger user base, step 4.
  3. If you need to pivot, you’ll have no remorse or attachment to your crappy implementation. You’re back to step 1, and can keep whatever parts are still useful.
  4. Now, if your larger user base is engaged and growing, you can work on scalability and final architecture.

It’s more important to execute quickly and not feel attached to our implementation until it proves its worth in the market.