The document outlines a framework for lean hypothesis-driven prototyping in product development, focusing on validating ideas through customer and market insights. It emphasizes minimizing investment risks, speeding time to market, and generating measurable outcomes through various prototyping and testing methods. Additionally, it discusses the importance of aligning business, customer, and technical needs while brainstorming potential solutions to enhance product success.

1. Lean Hypothesis-Driven
Prototyping
SBD Digital Summit
Natalie Hollier
Product Strategy & Design Principal,
ThoughtWorks North America

2. A typical product development scenario …
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3. Problem-Solution Fit

4. Desirability
Feasibility Viability
What do people need
and want?
What can be
financially viable?
What is technically
and organizationally
feasible?
Innovation
Business Model &
Financial Needs:
________________
________________
________________
Customer Needs:
________________
________________
________________
Technical &
Operational Needs:
________________
________________
________________
Product Innovation Agenda

5. Think of a new opportunity
you are currently working on
___________________

6. What would it cost
if it fails?
Investment dollars spent $ ________
Unrealized anticipated revenue $ _________
Lost time to market (weeks/months/years) _________
Impact to Brand in relation to Competitors (eg. lost market share) $ _________
Low team morale à Lost productivity (eg. per person x hours) $_________
Personal reputation à Missed promotion/opportunities (eg. pay rise) $_______

7. Why might it fail?
Customer
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
4. ____________________
5. ____________________
Business/Revenue
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
4. ____________________
5. ____________________
Tech/Operations
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
4. ____________________
5. ____________________

8. MINIMIZE INVESTMENT RISK
IDENTIFY & RESPOND TO UNKNOWNS
REDUCE WASTED EFFORT
SPEED TIME TO MARKET
ACCELERATE PROBLEM-SOLUTION FIT
Lean Product Development
+ +

9. [Our service/product] was designed to achieve [these goals].
We have observed that [product/service] is not meeting [these goals] which is
causing [this adverse effect/business issue] to our business.
How might we improve [product/service] so that our customers are more
successful as determined by [these measurable criteria]?
Business Problem/Opportunity Statement

10. Brainstorm Solution Hypotheses
Come up with at least 3 different possible solutions
We believe that [doing this / building this feature / creating this experience]
For [these people/personas]
Will achieve [this outcome]
We will know this to be true when we see [this feedback / quantitative measure /
qualitative insight]
1.
2.
3.

11. Prototyping = smallest experiment to learn

12. Brainstorm Lean Experiments
1 2 3
Hypothesis or
Assumption
to test
Intended User
or Audience
Type of
Experiment to
run
Measure of
Success (and
Failure)
Minimum Viable Product
Experiments
1. Customer Emails
2. Customer Interviews
3. Undercover Competitor Studies
4. Landing Page or Signup button
5. 404 or Coming Soon pages
6. Explainer Video
7. Crowdfunding in advance
8. Clickable UX Prototype
9. A/B Test
10. Single Feature Product
11. Wizard of Oz manual backend
12. Piecemeal existing solutions

13. Market Test = in the real world, with real customers

14. More from our Practitioners
• https://info.thoughtworks.com/ebook-actionable-innovation.html
• www.leanproductguide.com
• www.leanpub.com/tothepoint - A recipe for creating lean products
• Lean Enterprise: Adopting Continuous Delivery, DevOps and Lean Startup at Scale (O’Reilly)
• Understanding Design Thinking, Lean & Agile (O’Reilly)

15. THANKS
Natalie Hollier
Product Strategy & Design Principal,
ThoughtWorks North America
nhollier@thoughtworks.com
SBD Digital Summit