The power of the prototype

At any networking event there is a healthy dose of “so, what do you do?” and last night at the Churchill Club was no different. The best reply that I saw though came from Scott Kilmartin from haul. If somebody asked me what Scott does I would have said something like “he makes satchel bags and laptop sleeves from old billboards, and cool watches from recycled and crushed cans,” and it would have been right but that’s not what Scott did – because he was standing right next to one of his customers. 

He reached into his Ben Rowe’s bag and pulled out one of their covers to show. 

haul The power of the prototype

Peter Williams did the same thing at The Hive earlier this year, pulling an Emue card from his pocket to demonstrate the concept. Many people fumble with their words trying to describe what they do, but if you have a prototype and can say “we make this” there is an instant understanding because you can look at it, touch it, play with it, and then ask the right questions to learn more. 

That’s the power of prototype. 

By Ross Hill - June 12th, 2009 at 9:59am with 1,020 views -

  • @sammartino made a very timely comment "stop typing and start prototyping".
  • Great observation Ross. And I thought you weren't paying attention.

    I always keep a Ben Rowe gimp on hand to bring out for promotional purposes at such events.

    http://twitter.com/riveting
  • Pulling out the iPhone works pretty well - Yabble has a mobile app and that gets the point across quickly, but if it is more complicated you could probably just have a series of screenshots in a Photos folder. Try it and see what works :)
  • @Jason: Pull out an iPhone and show them the website perhaps? I've been known to do this in the past
  • Very good point Ross. Do you think there is a 'physical' way to demonstrate online only products which is more effective than fumbling your words?
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