Prototyping is a process that I am very much not used to as a student in college. None of my projects before this point had a type of project outline or process that was similar to that of prototyping. The entire process behind it along with the idea generation for the prototyping was something I had never dealt with before, so getting that experience in this class was invaluable. Learning how to prototype, and how much thought goes into the process really gives me an appreciation for the thought that goes into a new product before it launches every time. It is not an overnight project. It is something that must be carefully thought out and explained. If you forget one facet of your prototype, your product could fail instantly. That type of thinking has not been involved before with my projects here at the college. Although it was all entirely new to me, I loved every second of prototyping and this planning stage.
Going into the prototyping process, it was not a process that I knew much about or really for that matter understood. I knew what prototyping was, but I did not know how I could prototype and what was necessary in a prototyping sequence. One of the things that the business school does well is giving us group work for real world experience. We can flesh out our ideas and really know that idea well and present it coherently. However, it does not really show us how that idea could be in use in the real world. A group could come up with the most innovative idea out there, but instead of us thinking about how we could use it at the business school, we are graded on how different our idea was. The idea may not be applicable. That is what prototyping gives us. We now have to think of all facets of the business. Marketing classes especially fall into this category for not letting us prototype our ideas. Of course, it may be something as simple as a marketing campaign, but how would it be rolled out effectively and what would make people want to respond? That is where prototyping is most effective from what I’ve learned over the past few classes. Getting ideas down is one thing, but creating a product based off of those ideas is an entirely different animal. You have to get feedback in order to have the best project you can have. Feedback this early on in the project is huge when it comes to the final product. It is a set of fresh eyes and we can adjust the flaws before our grand presentation. We have a rough draft, and prototyping is just that. You are presenting a rough draft. That is what I personally loved so much about the prototyping phase. The feedback aspect so early on in the project is critical to the success of a project. For example, we are doing a re-vamped American Airlines app. If we had not received the feedback we got from the group during Tuesday’s class, we almost would have presented an incomplete product. That does not draw the consumer in. This feedback is so critical to the success of our project, and having that during Tuesday’s class is something I wish we could have for every marketing class in the business school.
For the more specific parts of prototyping phase, the most challenging parts of this phase were creating the prototype and storyboard. The creation of the prototype was very hard to accomplish because we had so many good ideas that we all wanted them to be included. Our idea became way too big for what we were doing, so we had to take it and narrow it down significantly so that the app could accomplish our HMW statement. This type of thinking for a prototype is also uncomfortable. It is causing us to get outside of our own comfort zone and think like our target market, rather than what we want. That is an incredibly hard proposition for our team, as we are not used to that thinking. Each facet you put into the product could either draw in your target market, or alienate them. Therefore, each decision has to be deliberate in nature, and nothing can just be thrown into your prototype. That was the biggest wake up call to me because you have to think about every part of the product, not just the big picture. For example, for the app we had to think about how many buttons people would want to press or not press. That is the simplest of decisions, but still critical because if it is too many clicks, then the consumer will more than likely ignore the product. The why and how of using the product is hugely important, and one part of prototyping I had not thought of before.
The good part about going into this prototyping phase was that each of us were generally on the same page when it came to the app idea. When we brainstormed, we all knew that it would be a technological change rather than a change to the airline in general. Airplanes are inherently not sustainable, so the way to make them more sustainable would be to encourage more sustainable behaviors from their customers. The way they act at airports was critical to our thought process, because when people fly they are not doing the most sustainable option to start with, so why make a hugely dramatic change? Having a group that is of a similar mindset and actually would help for more innovative ideas. The most innovative session we had all semester was when we were thinking of how to build a better American Airlines app last week. We had similar ideas on the technology side of the project, but we just had to figure out how to articulate it. Once we figured out how to articulate our ideas, the app came together and the prototype became what we wanted as a whole. Overall, despite the difficulty it gave me, I thoroughly enjoyed the prototyping process and wish it was more a part of the business school curriculum.