Pitch before Prototype
IE, putting the cart before the horse
This week in my studio, we begin pitching our year long product concepts. We have spent the past 6 months painstakingly picking apart and putting together a product concept, settling on the following problem statement:
How might we help people spend less time on their device screens, who want to engage more with people they know, so that they can feel like they have a good relationship with technology?
I started to get very excited about building prototypes. My dining room table is currently covered with wires, a soldering gun, a bread board, resistors, sensors, lamps, smart plugs, and a Raspberry Pi, among other things:
My team is playing with using induction boards in order to send a signal, which will also charge the mobile device. Participants in a group setting will be encouraged through the promise of fun group interactions to place their physical devices on the surfaces, in order to unlock the features.
Of course, all of this is great to hypothesis about, and even play with building, but in letting my excitement get ahead of me, we feel less than prepared for this upcoming pitch.
Lesson #1: If you can’t sell what you want to make, then you probably won’t be making it.
