Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship pdfdrive com

PROTOTYPING
After outlining the process path and confirming soft proof, you probably
need a functional prototype. For digital services, this is your beta version.
Your objective in the prototype stage isn’t a feature-rich masterpiece but
something simplistic yet valuable and 
economically demandable
to the
marketmind. In the end, it must do what you claim.
First, expect a lot of prototyping actions to be learning, specifically 
just-in-
time (JIT) learning
. Just-in-time learning is learning based upon the challenge in
front of you. In essence, it’s jumping off a cliff and learning to fly on the way
down. You don’t learn PHP code unless the challenge in front of you: (A)
warrants PHP, and (B) you can learn it. More than half the build stage probably
involves learning something new. Expect it.
Second, build the right prototype.
Optimally, it should be 
reverse engineered from the solution you envision
.
Specifically, start at the end. Begin at the customer experience. Visualize
EXACTLY how you, as a customer, want your product to function, and then
move backward using the act, assess, adjust model. What actions are needed to
make your solution a reality? What skill sets are needed, and can they be learned,
hired, our outsourced? What challenges block the way? Focus only on the
required actions for the necessary features. Bells and whistles can come later, and
only if the marketmind signals for them.
“You Shall Not Pass!”
Pardon the Gandalf mention, but it needs to be said. The prototyping stage is
the “you shall not pass” part of execution, a perennial graveyard for
entrepreneurial dreams. Epitaphs read, “Here lies a great idea that never
happened” and “His vision was real; his execution was not.”
Because prototyping a product or a web service can take months, sometimes
years, of lonely, hind-to-the-grind work, the risk of giving up is high. Seriously, I
think prototyping is oddly similar to what happens to newlywed men: suddenly
every attractive woman is flirtatious. The prototype stage is the valley within the
desert of desertion
where entrepreneurs are clubbed with shiny-object syndrome
—every idea seems better (and easier) than the one they are working on. With no
feedback loop—zero sales, emails, or market resonance—for months, the

---

motivation cycle stalls and passion can quit us. This is normal. Expect a long and
lonely walk. Mud through it and let the marketmind light the way.

---