Prototyping consulting is the work of building the smallest version of an idea that could prove it wrong, putting it in front of people who might plausibly buy it, and changing the plan when they do not. It is not production design, and it is not a usability lab. Vivaldi has built storyboard and testable prototypes and put them in front of real customers for Pfizer, NHS Wales, Inteleos and CapIntel.
- Since 1999demand, innovation and service design
- 200+published case studies
- 10 officeson four continents
- 5xWirtschaftsWoche Best of Consulting, Strategy and Innovation
When companies bring us in
Prototyping and concept testing is usually bought by a product leader, innovation lead or experience owner who has a funded concept, a board date and no evidence that anyone outside the building wants it. The trigger is almost always one of these.
- A concept that has only ever been reviewed internally. Everyone who has seen it already knows the strategy, so nobody in the room has reacted to it the way a customer would.
- Two credible directions and a quarter of argument. Both options still look defensible, the debate has not moved, and no new information has entered it.
- A prototype that got approved and taught nobody anything. The walkthrough went well, the objections were about the polish, and the underlying question is still open.
- An engineering estimate that just arrived. The build is affordable only if the concept is right, and the concept has never been tested at a price.
- Research that described the market but did not choose. The study came back full of themes and short of a recommendation anyone can fund.
Why most prototyping produces agreement rather than evidence
The standard program runs backwards. A team decides what to build, builds a polished version of it, shows it to stakeholders, and reads the absence of objections as validation. Everybody leaves more certain and no better informed.
Three things go wrong, and they are usually all present at once.
- The prototype is too finished. Fidelity buys agreement, not truth. People respond to a polished artifact by critiquing the polish, because that is the only thing in front of them that looks changeable. A rougher version gets you the argument you actually need.
- Nobody wrote down what would count as failure. If no result would have stopped the project, the test was theater. The condition that would make the concept wrong has to be written before anything is shown, not reconstructed afterward from whatever came back.
- The wrong people are in the room. Internal reviewers know the strategy and reason from it. A customer arrives with a problem and no context. Only one of those two is a market signal.
The useful question is never whether people like the prototype. It is whether seeing it changes what someone would do next, and whether the team agreed in advance what answer would make them stop.
What our prototyping consulting services include
Five pieces of work, usually in this order. One boundary first, because it is the easiest one to blur: our business experimentation practice designs the smallest test that could disprove an assumption your business plan depends on, while this page is about the artifact and the reaction to it, building a version of the thing itself and finding out what happens when a customer meets it.
1. Naming the assumption the concept depends on
Every concept rests on a handful of beliefs, and one of them is usually load bearing.
- A written list of what the idea depends on, separated into demand, comprehension, behavior and willingness to pay
- A judgment on which of those are both uncertain and fatal if wrong, which is a much shorter list than teams expect
- The result that would make the concept wrong, written down before anything is built
2. Choosing the lowest fidelity that still gets a real reaction
Fidelity is a cost, not a virtue. The right level is the lowest one that still provokes a genuine response.
- Storyboards and use cases where the question is whether the idea makes sense to someone hearing it cold
- Clickable and interactive versions where the question is whether a person can see themselves in the flow
- A deliberate decision not to build higher than the question requires, because extra polish moves the conversation onto the visual design
3. Building the prototype as something to argue with
A prototype that can only be admired has no job. We build the version that makes the disagreement surface early.
- The concept expressed the way it would be sold, including the price, the trade-off and the thing it replaces
- More than one route kept live wherever the choice is genuinely open, because a lone concept almost always passes
- A build scoped to the decision in front of you rather than to the roadmap behind it
4. Concept testing with people who could actually buy
Concept testing works when the people reacting have the problem the concept claims to solve, and it fails when the sample is chosen for convenience.
- Testing with the customers, clinicians, advisors or buyers the concept is actually for, in market rather than in a conference room
- A structured evaluation covering comprehension, interest, value, feasibility and the areas the concept needs to improve
- People who decline included on purpose, since non-buyers explain the ceiling better than enthusiasts explain the opportunity
5. Turning the result into a build, revise or stop decision
A finding nobody records is a finding the company will pay to produce again.
- A reading against the threshold that was set before the test, with the near miss interpreted the way it was agreed, not renegotiated afterward
- A prioritized view of what should be built first and what has been taken off the list
- A handover that carries the reasoning into development, not only the file
Not sure which part of the concept to prototype first?
Start with a working session with one of our partners. We will take the concept you already have, name the belief it depends on most, and size the cheapest prototype that would get a real reaction to it.
How a prototyping and concept testing engagement works
- Frame the risk. We take the concept as written and pull out what it depends on, in your team’s own words, then agree which single belief gets tested first and what result would count as a failure.
- Build at the fidelity the question needs. Storyboards, use cases or a clickable version, built only as far as the question requires, with more than one route alive where the direction is still open.
- Put it in front of customers. Sessions with people who have the problem, structured so that what they do is recorded separately from what they say about it.
- Decide and record. A build, revise or stop recommendation with the evidence attached, and a written account of what was assumed, what was shown and what changed, so your teams can run the next round without us.
Why companies choose Vivaldi for prototyping and concept testing
Most firms selling this work come from one of two places. A design studio makes the artifact beautifully and treats approval as the finish line. A research house measures reactions and hands back themes. Both are useful, and neither one tells you whether to fund the thing.
We come at it from demand. Our work starts with what customers are trying to get done, which is why the assumptions we put at the top of the list tend to be commercial ones: whether the need is real, whether the concept is understood without a presenter in the room, whether anyone would choose it over what they do today. That framing is the same one behind our argument for designing around what customers are trying to get done rather than around the flow a company already has.
We are also clear about where we stop. We are a strategy firm. We build prototypes to settle a question, not to hand you production assets, and we do not run a usability lab or a participant recruitment panel. When the decision is made and the risk moves into the build, that is a different piece of work and we say so.
How to evaluate a prototyping consultant
Worth putting to every firm on your list, including us.
- Ask what result would have killed the last concept they tested. A firm that has never returned a negative finding is selling reassurance. Ask for the specific example and listen to how concrete it is.
- Ask how they choose fidelity. If the answer is always high fidelity, you are buying design production with a research label attached to it.
- Ask who they put the prototype in front of. Testing with people who already know your brand and your category inflates every number that ends up in the board pack.
- Ask what happens between the test and the roadmap. Findings that land as a deck after the build has started change nothing. The output should be a decision with a date on it.
- Ask what your team can run without them. Concept testing is a repeatable method. If nothing stays behind, the second concept costs exactly what the first one did.
Prototyping consulting vs a design studio vs a usability lab?
| Criterion | Prototyping and concept testing | Design studio | Usability lab |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it answers | Whether the concept is worth building at all | What the thing should look and feel like | Whether people can complete a task in what already exists |
| When it fits | Before the build is funded, while the direction is still open | Once the direction is settled | After an interface has been built |
| What you get back | A build, revise or stop decision with the evidence attached | Production-ready design | A list of friction points to fix |
| Can it return a no | Yes, against a threshold agreed before the test | Rarely, because the commission assumes the thing exists | Only about the execution, never about the idea |
| Who runs it | Strategy, design and the commercial owner together | Design | Research and product |
Related work
Prototyping rarely sits on its own. These are the pieces either side of it, and what each one answers that this page does not.
- User insights and research for the question that comes before a prototype exists: what people are actually trying to get done.
- Customer experience design when the concept being tested is an end-to-end experience rather than a single product.
- Interaction design when what needs working out is the behavior of a system rather than whether the idea holds.
- User interface design once the direction is settled and the remaining risk sits in the execution.
- Digital product creation for what happens after a concept survives testing and has to be built and launched.
- Business experimentation when the risk is in the business assumption the plan rests on rather than in the artifact a customer sees.
- Experimentation and ventures for the portfolio question: how much to spend finding out, which bets are held as a set, and when each one stops.
- Service design is the practice this sits inside, where the question is what the service does for the person using it and what has to be true inside the company for that to happen every time.
This work sits inside our Marketing Strategy and Acceleration practice at Vivaldi, the strategy firm behind the Demand Landscape and the Interaction Field. For the related problem of getting an innovation to mean something to a customer, see the most important job nobody owns.
Prototyping consulting in the US and worldwide
Vivaldi is headquartered in New York, with a second US office in Los Angeles and teams in London, Zürich, Singapore and five other cities on four continents. The method travels and the reaction does not. What a concept has to overcome to be understood, what it is compared against, and what people already do instead all shift by market, which is why a concept that tests well in one country regularly stalls in the next on price, habit or channel. Where something is meant to launch in several markets, we test it first in the market where the comparison is hardest.
Start with the belief your concept cannot survive being wrong about
In one working session we will take the concept you are already committed to, name the assumption it depends on most, and size the cheapest prototype that would get a real customer reaction to it. You leave knowing what to build first and what answer would make you stop.