newsletter · July 2026
Mark Pincus wants AI to be a failure machine
He's right. Mine generated 46 ideas for real companies in week one and killed more than half of them.
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Notes
On AI, evidence, and what's worth building.
Short notes from Leslie Barry on AI, pretotyping, and what changes when teams test ideas with real customers before they build. Honest, useful, and never a pitch.
All notes
ai innovation July 2026
Another Inflection Point
I handed a curated AI service a PDF and it spun up two live sites in an afternoon: a few months of work in about six hours. Here's the experiment, and the real prototype hiding inside it.
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ai innovation May 2026
The AI unlock is people
Where AI fits, what teams actually need, and the rhythm that makes it stick.
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newsletter Apr 2026
AI Makes Building Faster. Pretotyping Tells You What to Build.
What I told a room of 40 people at VicRoads, and why it matters more now than ever. Plus: the SMS story, platform updates, and the AI tool that changed how I work.
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ai innovation Mar 2026
I Rebuilt It in 71 Hours. That's the Problem.
AI made building almost free. But it didn't solve the real problem: knowing whether any of it matters to the people using it.
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ai innovation Mar 2026
My AI Lied to Me. Multiple Times.
Three AI fabrication incidents in two weeks revealed a dangerous pattern: when AI doesn't know the answer, it makes one up, confidently. Here's how I built accountability systems to catch it.
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ai innovation Feb 2026
Phase 1: Rebuilding a Platform With AI
A non-technical founder rebuilt an entire platform with AI in six weeks. 798 commits, 20x faster database, a full rebrand, and the dev team transition that followed.
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ai innovation Feb 2026
I Gave AI Real Access to My Business. Here's Why.
About 90 days ago, I handed operational work to an AI agent: CRM, email, infrastructure, analytics. Here's what happened, what it cost, and what changed.
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ai innovation Dec 2025
Faster, smarter experiments helped Tabcorp unlock retail innovation (and rethink how they work)
When Tabcorp set out to reinvent its approach to innovation, they weren’t looking for a shiny new tool, they were searching for a better way to think....
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pretotyping Oct 2025
Pretotyping vs Prototyping: Should We Build It vs Can We Build It?
Pretotyping tests whether customers want an idea before you prototype it. Learn the difference between pretotyping and prototyping, when to use each, and examples from real teams.
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pretotyping Oct 2025
The Two Adams and the Pretotyping Problem
What happens when you put two prototypers and a pretotyper in a room? A conversation that clarifies why most innovation efforts get the sequence wrong.
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interviews Sept 2025
AI as Facilitator: How Voice‑mode ChatGPT Ran a High‑quality Case Study Interview
What if the AI ran the interview? I'll be honest, when Patrick and I sat down to record a case study interview, I didn't think ChatGPT would be...
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pretotyping Sept 2025
From ideas to evidence: building an Innovation Engine in a regulated enterprise
From ideas to evidence - building an Innovation Engine in a regulated enterprise.
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pretotyping Sept 2025
Reece: Becoming a pretotyping powerhouse
A Century of Innovating Reece is an Australian success story that has been innovating since its humble beginnings. Founded over 100 years ago...
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pretotyping Sept 2025
Slingshot Accelerator: embedding rapid experimentation in corporate startup accelerators
At first glance, accelerators and corporate innovation seem to be on different sides of the innovation spectrum. Slingshot Accelerator aims to bring t...
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tools resources Sept 2025
AI + Experimentation Resources
Experimentation Tools Directory: 10 Essential Tools for Innovation Teams covering the complete experimentation lifecycle.
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ai innovation Sept 2025
Is Experimentation Dead in the Age of AI?
AI accelerates the build, but only experimentation tells you what customers actually want.
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methodology Sept 2025
12 experiments in 3 weeks. Here's what happens when teams prioritise velocity over perfection
A financial services team went from zero experimentation to 12 experiments in 3 weeks, engaging 500+ customers.
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ai innovation Sept 2025
AI-Powered Customer Interviews: What Happens When AI Runs Them
We tested AI customer interviews with voice AI inside a regulated enterprise. The result changed how we capture customer stories. See the full case study and method.
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methodology Sept 2025
Why Your Idea Systems Are Just Popularity Contests
Idea votes are just opinions. See why Pretotyping beats popularity, and how to integrate experiments into your system.
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ai innovation July 2025
Embracing failure makes success even sweeter, right?
Embracing failure makes success even sweeter, right?...
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pretotyping July 2025
Finding and filtering winning ideas
When it comes to innovating, it all starts with ideas. If you’re looking for the next big product or service to excite your customers, you ne...
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ai innovation July 2025
Google Glass: Epic fail or epic pretotype?
Google Glass is still widely considered one of the great failures of the tech world. Even years after being pulled from the market, it’s still the pro...
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methodology July 2025
Agile + Scrum + Pretotyping: the holy trinity of innovation?
Agile, Scrum, and Pretotyping - the holy trinity of innovation explained.
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ai innovation June 2025
Is AI a feature or a business?
Is AI a feature or a business?...
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ai innovation June 2025
5 reasons why you may use the iPad Pro less. One year ago I wrote about moving from the Macbook Air to the iPad Pro
Thanks, [Brendan Duong](https://medium.com/u/2bc8699d28b9) for asking how it’s going one year later. All the apps I mentioned in the initial article...
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pretotyping June 2025
How can you be sure an idea will work and customers will pay for it?
Why so much failure? Thirty thousand new consumer products launch annually, and 95% of them fail. This stark statistic means that out of thos...
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interviews June 2025
How Pretotyping Works with the Lean Startup Approach
If the Lean Startup offers a systematic and scientific approach to the development of new businesses, then Pretotyping serves to underpin, advance and...
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pretotyping June 2025
Is your Innovation Process Built for Speed?
Speed in innovation is vital for results; it enables companies to focus quickly on emerging consumer trends and can drive costs down and quality up....
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pretotyping June 2025
Skin in The Game Part II: How to use the Skin In the Game Caliper
Using an actual skin caliper as a visual aid, I explain how to assign skin in the game points to market data....
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pretotyping June 2025
The innovation experiment year 4
It’s year four of my experiment to figure out how to apply startup and scale-up techniques, tools, and tactics to corporate innovation After s...
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pretotyping June 2025
This is why Pretotyping is Part of the Corporate Innovator's Toolkit
Innovation is a crucial component in the ongoing success of any business. A PwC survey reveals that 97% of CEOs agree that innovation is a top priorit...
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pretotyping June 2025
An Intro to Pretotyping Part II: Smart Beans
In this video, I continue my introduction to pretotyping with another one of my favorite examples: The Pinocchio pretotype for smart speakers. How can...
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pretotyping June 2025
An Intro to Pretotyping: The Palm Pilot Examples
In this video, I introduce you to the concept and practice of pretotyping using one of my (and my students') favorite example: The Palm Pilot PDA. In...
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pretotyping June 2025
Corporate Innovator Podcast
If you are interested in a first-hand account and hard data of how well pretotyping works for all types of products and companies, listen to this podc...
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pretotyping June 2025
Exponentially: the story so far…(feat: small Italian cigars)
Exponentially has just turned three, and while the last few years have felt like a wild ride - running over 1000 pretotypes, training over 800 pretoty...
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pretotyping June 2025
Pinocchio and the beans
The Pinocchio Pretotype is one of the simplest and most revealing pretotyping techniques. In this video, Alberto Savoia shows us how he pretotyped a s...
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interviews June 2025
Pretotyping to Build the Right It with Alberto Savoia
Alberto Savoia had a successful career as Chief Technology Officer in major companies such as Sun Microsystems, SunLabs, and was Google’s first Engine...
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pretotyping June 2025
Remotely Interesting: Design sprints x pretotyping
Check out Remotely Interesting’s video on mashing up design sprints with pretotyping. [Watch Remotely Interesting](https://us02web.zoom.us/webi...
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pretotyping June 2025
Skin In the Game for Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Innovators
Skin In the Game. Why and how entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators should get some skin in the game from the market before putting too much of the...
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pretotyping June 2025
Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar
As Google's first engineering director, Alberto Savoia led the team that launched Google's revolutionary AdWords project. After founding two startups,...
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ai innovation June 2025
The Law of Market Failure
Failure bites. Bite back! Know your enemy. To fight failure and win, you need to first understand why most failures happen. In this video, I will intr...
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pretotyping June 2025
Why it's a bad idea to invest in good ideas
Every inventor, innovator, entrepreneur believes that their idea is a "good idea". And yet, most new products, services, and companies fail in the mar...
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pretotyping June 2025
YODA beats OPD
You need DATA not OPINIONS to decide whether or not to invest in a new business or product idea. But not all data is created equal. In this video, I w...
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pretotyping June 2025
How do you pretotype a pretotyping course?
We launched our [online Pretotyping Course](https://learnpretotyping.exponentially.com/) six weeks ago, on Monday, August 31, 2020. It’s been a hit. O...
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case studies June 2025
How to innovate like Tesla (for $0 in 24 hours)
Elon Musk is a master pretotyper. He knows how to test ideas with real customers in the market before he builds anything, so that by the time Te...
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pretotyping June 2025
The formula for pretotyping success…
To design a successful pretotype, one of the most important things is to establish your XYZ hypothesis. This is where we "say it with numbers," w...
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pretotyping June 2025
Your data is irrelevant. Time to use the Force.
Market research rots faster than bananas. This is especially true in a year marked by a global pandemic, recessions, market uncertainty, and worldwide...
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pretotyping Apr 2025
PEXA-typing: embedding pretotyping company-wide (in under a year)
PEXA case study - embedding pretotyping company-wide in under a year.
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pretotyping Apr 2025
AGL: Successfully pretotyping at scale
AGL’s Experimentation Team is leading the way when it comes to pretotyping. The team is led by AGL’s Experimentation Manager Richard Guy, who was trai...
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pretotyping Feb 2025
Caltex Spark
Caltex Spark accelerator case study - rapid experimentation with pretotyping.
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pretotyping Feb 2025
HCF
Facilitated by Slingshot, HCF Catalyst is Australia’s leading health-technology scaleup accelerator. Exponentially worked with HCF and its matched sta...
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pretotyping Feb 2025
Lion
Exponentially worked with Lion - one of the region’s most innovative food and beverage companies - as part of an accelerator facilitated by Slingshot,...
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pretotyping Feb 2025
Qantas
As part of Slingshot and Qantas’ AVRO Accelerator, Exponentially ran a workshop to give companies the skills to incorporate rapid experimentation and...
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pretotyping Feb 2025
Racing Victoria
In 2018, we worked with Racing Victoria to answer the question: How do we create the next major event for Racing Victoria? The company needed to test...
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pretotyping Feb 2025
RACQ
RACQ case study - rapid experimentation and pretotyping.
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pretotyping Feb 2025
RACV: Using pretotyping to run a Rapid Innovation Sprint
RACV case study - using pretotyping to run a Rapid Innovation Sprint.
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interviews Feb 2025
The Australian National University: experimenting with experimentation
The Australian National University case study - experimenting with experimentation.
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pretotyping Apr 2023
Revealing Unknown Knowns
Revealing Unknown Knowns...
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pretotyping Mar 2023
Free for now but not forever
Free for now but not forever...
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pretotyping Feb 2023
Combinatorial Innovation: two birds, one creative stone
Combinatorial Innovation: two birds, one creative stone...
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ai innovation Dec 2022
Predictions, AI and the 10X experiment challenge
Predictions, AI and the 10X experiment challenge...
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ai innovation Nov 2022
The AI's have landed, and they're here to stay
The AI's have landed, and they're here to stay Are you ready to take advantage?...
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pretotyping Oct 2022
A virtual checkmark worth $8: would you pay it?
A virtual checkmark worth $8: would you pay it? Why 'Twitter Blue' is both perfect and te...
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pretotyping Sept 2022
Could TikTok become the next Shopify?
Could TikTok become the next Shopify? Learn more about how TikTok is pretotyping their way...
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newsletter Aug 2022
5 Years of Exponentially
Exponentially just turned five: reflecting on navigating the pandemic, going digital, and a full brand refresh.
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pretotyping Aug 2022
When to Just Walk Out on an experiment
When to Just Walk Out on an experiment and why they needed to Just Walk Out on this v...
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methodology Aug 2022
The Imposter Method
Definition Use an existing product or service as a starting point for your new product. Most new products or services are not completely new...
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methodology July 2022
The MVP Method
Definition: Create a first iteration of your product with the absolute minimum set of features that would make it valuable and useful, at le...
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pretotyping July 2022
Pretotyping Showdown: returning to the office vs. working from home
Pretotyping Showdown: returning to the office vs. working from home...
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pretotyping July 2022
Pretotyping: Scaling innovation through rapid experimentation
Pretotyping through rapid experimentation means everything when it comes to innovation because it’s the quickest and cheapest way to get results. Tha...
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interviews July 2022
Pretotyping and Rapid Experimentation with Leslie Barry
Join us for a chat with Untap Strategy and Leslie Barry, Chief Executive Officer at Exponentially. We will be talking about Pretotyping, a method...
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interviews June 2022
Reid Hoffman pretotyping NFTs using AI with imposter syndrome
Reid Hoffman pretotyping NFTs using AI with imposter syndrome...
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pretotyping May 2022
Q&A with the Community
Brilliant questions from our community on the ins and outs of pretotyping and experimentation, with answers.
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pretotyping May 2022
Infiltrating LinkedIn to get skin in the game
June 2022: Infiltrating LinkedIn to get skin in the game Need to find where the best data for the validation of your product or service is? Jus...
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pretotyping Apr 2022
The snack pretotype
The snack pretotype...
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pretotyping Mar 2022
Making BBQ better
Making BBQ better GE's FirstBuild is taking innovation to new heights with their new indoor smoker - check it out!...
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interviews Feb 2022
BYO bottle with this experiment from Coca-Cola
BYO bottle with this experiment from Coca-Cola |M...
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methodology Feb 2022
Pretotyping and Lean: a match made in heaven
How pretotyping flips the Lean 'Build, Measure, Learn' cycle to 'Learn, Measure, Build' for better innovation outcomes.
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pretotyping Jan 2022
Meet Francis, an MIT startup pretotype
Meet Francis, an MIT startup pretotype |MC_PREV...
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pretotyping Jan 2022
Your customers lie to you. Here's how to get the truth.
Surveys lie. Pretotyping shows real behaviour, not guesses. Escape Thoughtland and get reliable data to validate ideas before you build.
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interviews Jan 2022
"We're all habit monsters." - An interview with Tim Vang
Tim Vang shares how Pretotyping breaks habits, shifts mindsets, and works at any scale. See why $3 tests can change everything.
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case studies Dec 2021
Burger King goes vegan
Burger King goes vegan...
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methodology Dec 2021
Series wrap up: Pretotyping, the bridge to creating better innovation
No matter your method - Lean, Agile, HCD - Pretotyping strengthens it. Discover how to plug it in and make innovation smarter, faster, and cheaper.
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methodology Nov 2021
Human-Centred Design x Pretotyping: prioritising data to find solutions
How pretotyping strengthens human-centred design by providing data-driven validation of ideas generated from fieldwork.
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pretotyping Nov 2021
We’ve got BIG plans for 2022!
We’ve got BIG plans for 2022!...
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pretotyping Oct 2021
Set yourself up for success in 2022!
Set yourself up for success in 2022!...
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methodology Oct 2021
Pretotyping: the key to using Amazon's innovation method when you're NOT Amazon
Amazon's 'Working Backwards' method works for Amazon, but for everyone else, pretotyping fills the critical gap between idea and build.
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pretotyping Aug 2021
Why you need self doubt in your life
Why you need self doubt in your life...
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interviews Aug 2021
'Invite self doubt into your life': an interview with Daniel Rivenbark
Walmart's Daniel Rivenbark shares how Pretotyping helps teams act on data, not hype. Learn his tips and start innovating with clarity.
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interviews July 2021
'Be Willing to be Embarrassed' - an interview with Farzad Darouian
Farzad Darouian discusses his innovative Amazon bookmark gift card idea, his passion for pretotyping, and bridging the gap between specialisations.
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pretotyping June 2021
Happy New (Financial) Year!
Happy New (Financial) Year!...
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interviews June 2021
Innovation and Soccer Stadiums: an interview with Patrick Copeland
Patrick Copeland discusses his role in the birth of pretotyping, differences between Amazon and Google culture, and why innovation needs confidence.
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pretotyping May 2021
New month, new us – we’ve had a makeover!
New month, new us – we’ve had a makeover!...
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pretotyping Apr 2021
Helping PEXA and AGL improve their innovation
Helping PEXA and AGL improve their innovation...
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pretotyping Mar 2021
Innovation: Pretotyping does it better
Innovation: Pretotyping does it better...
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pretotyping Mar 2021
Experimental Voices Clubhouse Conference
On March 22nd from 10am AEDT, experts from around the globe will be coming together for 24 hours as a part of the Experimental Voices Clubhouse Conf...
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pretotyping Feb 2021
Pretotyping is all around us; can you spot it?
Pretotyping is all around us; can you spot it?...
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pretotyping Jan 2021
How are you upgrading your innovation process in 2021?
How are you upgrading your innovation process in 2021?...
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pretotyping Dec 2020
Ready to innovate in 2021?
Ready to innovate in 2021?...
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pretotyping Nov 2020
Exponential learnings from 2020
Exponential learnings from 2020...
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ai innovation Oct 2020
Tesla, data, and an epic pretotyping fail…
Tesla, data, and an epic pretotyping fail…...
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pretotyping Sept 2020
What does pretotyping success look like?
What does pretotyping success look like?...
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pretotyping Aug 2020
Exponentially is three today!
Exponentially is three today! We’re so excited to share our third birthday with you. It’s been a wild ride over the last three y...
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pretotyping Aug 2020
Exponentially turns three!
Exponentially turns three!...
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pretotyping July 2020
Pretotyping Online has launched!
Pretotyping Online has launched! We have some exciting news. Our flagship [ Learn Pretotyping Online course...
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pretotyping June 2020
We have a question for you.
We have a question for you. Does this innovation process look familiar to you? Hits a little too close to home, perhaps? If so,...
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pretotyping June 2020
We’ve got a question for you.
We’ve got a question for you....
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ai innovation June 2020
Win by failing like Google
Win by failing like Google. Learn how to use pretotyping to test your ideas by figuring out if you should build your idea, vs whether you can bu...
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pretotyping May 2020
Ready for new ways to innovate?
Ready for new ways to innovate? It’s been a busy few months and we’re excited to share what’s coming up in June. Don’t forget,...
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pretotyping Nov 2019
Pretotyping Breakfast in Melbourne
Learn how to design a Pretotype Experiment to test your ideas by figuring out if you should build your idea vs whether you can build it.We'll teach yo...
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pretotyping Oct 2019
Talk: Pretotype to Grow
A morning with a Global Leadership Strategy Team....
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pretotyping Aug 2019
Pretotyping Breakfast in Sydney
Learn how to design a Pretotype Experiment to test your ideas by figuring out if you should build your idea vs whether you can build it. We'll teach...
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ai innovation Aug 2019
Talk: Immunity to Failure
A morning with the global leadership team of the leading skincare brands in Asia-Pacific....
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pretotyping Aug 2019
Pretotyping Workshop: Break Out Melbourne 2019
During Break Out Melbourne 2019, you’ll be transported to a world where you can explore the power of playful chaos to think big. Play is the bedrock...
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interviews Aug 2019
Breakfast with Industrie&Co: Win by Failing like Google
Learn how to design a Pretotype Experiment to test your ideas by figuring out if you SHOULD build your idea vs whether you CAN build it. We'll answer...
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interviews Aug 2019
Interview with Alberto Savoia @Stanford University
We'll be sharing some insights on what we've learned working with customers in the real world, and I'm taking the opportunity to ask him those tricky...
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ai innovation June 2019
Talk: Immunity to Failure
A morning with 400 people with one of the leading skincare brands in Asia-Pacific....
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pretotyping Jan 2019
Pretotyping Global Summit : San Francisco, Las Vegas and LA
In October 2018 we Pretotyped the concept of a 'Pretotyping Global Summit 2019'. The Skin In The Game was to get 5 clients and partners to cover thei...
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pretotyping Oct 2018
Corporate Traveller at QANTAS: An innovative prize
Corporate Traveller is giving five businesses the exclusive opportunity to send two staff members to an intimate full-day innovation workshop, to acce...
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case studies Oct 2018
ProductTank: Hack your pipeline like Google
Learn how to drive better results from your innovation investments at this ProductTank event, presented by Leslie Barry and other innovation experts....
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