Mindset #3: Prototype Everything

One of the most important business methods I learned this semester in my redemptive entrepreneurship class is the process of prototyping. Prototyping is the process that businesses conduct with their target markets to properly gather information about their needs, wants, pain points, and overall thoughts on the business’s products or services. Prototyping specifically involves listening to the customer as if you are wrong in your assumptions to best figure out the answer on how to reach them. I experienced this firsthand in my Lean Launchpad class when my team was tasked with conducting various interviews with prospects of all different backgrounds that fit into our target market to better understand how we could deliver value to them should our theoretical business become a reality. At the beginning of the semester, I was not optimistic about engaging in this activity because I did not believe it would prove to be beneficial in gathering solid insight for our business, but I was wrong because I broke the main rule of prototyping by believing my team’s ideas were right from the start. As it turned out, we were very wrong in some of our assumptions which would have been detrimental to our business if we had implemented them in our business. Due to my team’s efforts in prototyping, we were able to correctly draw conclusions and identify how to best serve our prospects with our business. Prototyping is an extremely helpful and insightful process when starting a business due to the fact that it allows a business to properly identify its customer’s pain points and make the necessary adjustments to ensure the customer’s needs are met.