The Pinocchio Method

12 Mar

Definition:

Create a non-operational version of your product and ask your potential market to use their imagination to pretend that it actually works to see if and/or how they would use it.

Example:

One of the most famous pretotypes is Jeff Hawkins original Palm Pilot idea. He created a wooden version of the Palm Pilot to test two key hypotheses:

Would I carry something with this form factor (i.e. pocket-sized) around?
What would I use it for?

He learned that the form factor was just right and that he would use it primarily for the calendar, address book and simple note-taking. From here, he asked others to try it out and see how and/or if it would work - we know how that one turned out!

For a more detailed explainer on the Palm Pilot example, here’s some insights from Alberto Savoia himself:

Looking for another example?

Don’t worry - we’ve got you covered! Here's an example of a useful failure from Leslie Barry, thanks to the Pinocchio pretotype:

In the real world, we often have a great idea for a physical product and fret over how it would work, how to make it, how to scale it, etc. If you find yourself doing this, stop.

Think about how you could use simple objects around you to simulate how you would use them to solve the problem rather than how you build it. Before the Apple Watch dominated fitness apps, a friend and I wanted to build an app on the Pebble Watch to track exercises and workouts in the gym. Instead of building the tech, we drew the watch face on paper, stuck it on the watch and 'used' it during workouts. What a pain! We had it so wrong in the beginning. Simple things like twisting your arm to tap a button for the next set while holding weights in your hands are impossible but not obvious when you're in a room brainstorming.

Learning like this accelerated our solutions to the point that we knew precisely what to build before we started. (It became an app, 121Gym, which died a few months later when Apple arrived on the scene. Timing matters!)