A coworker introduced me to the idea of Pretotyping. Although Pretotyping sounds like “Prototyping” it’s quite different. Pretotyping is where you test out your ideas and theories for a product or service in the cheapest and quickest way possible. As the name of one of the pretotyping book’s state:

“Building the right it before you build it right”.

The Pretotyping manifesto brings together some simple, yet powerful ideas which encourage pretotyping and innovation in general. I found the manifesto to be a little muddled and and I found it easier to separate it into these two groups:

Preferred Ideas

Innovators beat ideas

Pretotypes beat productypes

Building beats talking

Simplicity beats features

Now beats later

Commitment beats committees

Data beats opinions

Uncommon Sense

Don’t finish what you started

Failure is an option

Scarcity brings clarity

The more the messier

Reinvent the wheel

Play with fire

Here are some free books to you get started:

  1. Pretotype It
  2. Pretotyping @ Work

Some of these ideas can help you to innovate. Others can help you think differently about what you build, whether you need to build it and if so, how to build it right.