What is pretotyping?
Pretotyping helps you find out whether people want an idea before you spend time and money building it.
Created by Alberto Savoia at Google
Test the idea before you build it.
Most ideas begin with a conversation, a survey or a prototype. Pretotyping starts earlier. You create the smallest believable version of the idea and see what people actually do.
A prototype helps you work out whether something can be built. A pretotype helps you decide whether it should be built at all.
A click, booking, sign-up or payment gives you behavioural evidence. Alberto Savoia calls this YODA: Your Own DAta. You use that evidence to decide whether to Stop, Pivot or Proceed.
Pretotyping vs prototypingPretotyping in two minutes
Leslie Barry explains the question Pretotyping answers, why it comes before prototyping, and what useful evidence looks like.
From the free Learn Pretotyping series.
Run the smallest test that can change the decision.
Agree on the pass mark before the test, then let the evidence guide the next decision.
- 01
Start with one idea
Who is it for, and what do you believe they'll do?
- 02
Find the riskiest belief
Start with the assumption that could stop the idea.
- 03
Say it with numbers
Set the behaviour and pass mark before the test.
- 04
Choose a method
Use the smallest believable stand-in for the finished product.
- 05
Run it with real people
Use what they do to Stop, Pivot or Proceed.
You don't need to build much.
A Pretotyping method stands in for the finished product. Pick the one that gets you behavioural evidence with the least time and money.
Fake Door
Offer the idea and measure who tries to get it.
Mechanical Turk
Put a person behind the technology before you automate it.
Pinocchio
Use a non-working version and see whether the behaviour is real.
Read the original Pretotyping book.
Alberto Savoia has made the 10th-anniversary edition of Pretotype Itavailable as a free PDF. It is the best place to learn the principles from the person who created the method.
Get the free bookLearn Pretotyping free.
The free course takes you through Pretotyping step by step. If you would rather start with examples, you can see how other ideas were tested first.
Have an idea you want to test?
Use Rapidly to turn one idea into a hypothesis, a Pretotyping experiment and a clear pass mark.