Don’t prototype. Test what already exists.

Daniele Catalanotto
Aug 11, 2022


A community-inspired Service Design Principle to help you test your ideas even faster. 
Thanks to Lynnsey (Skliros) Schneider for the inspiration

You have a brilliant new idea for a service, product, or business! Awesome! If you thought of it, someone else indeed already thought of it and built it in some alternative way. That’s not bad news. It’s fantastic news! That means you can try the value of your idea by testing these existing products or services with the users you want to serve.

You’ll learn what’s valuable and what isn’t. And you learn if the few difference your original idea has could solve a pain that other existing services, products or businesses don’t.

This approach is smart because prototyping, even if done quickly, still takes time. And by testing the services or products of your competitors, you are not testing a rough idea but something that is already looking real as it is real.
Testing existing services is brilliant because you can learn from what others do better than you and didn’t expect. You can also learn what makes your service idea really different for people.
If you are working with people who want you to “just do what company X did”, you also have the opportunity to see how well company X’s solution tests and share that with the team.

So there is no need to wait. You can start your research right away, without having to build a prototype first

This idea gets even more interesting when you think about competition in a larger way.
A competitor doesn’t have to be a direct competitor. So, for example, the competition of a church is not always another church, but it can also be a meditation app like Headspace, which also gives meaning in life and a sense of community.

So let me ask you:

What’s a feature or experience you’d love to include in your service or product but that you didn’t have the time or money to test yet?

Don’t prototype it. Find competitors who have a similar feature or experience and test it with your users to learn if it has real value, how you can improve it and how to make it yours.

Footnotes
A big thank you to Lynnsey (Skliros) Schneider, who inspired this Service Design Principle by sharing valuable feedback on one of my posts on Linkedin.

Daniele's personal notes

  • This is the first draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • Once adapted, even more, this principle should be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"
  • As always feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.

Like
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 19, 2022

The second draft of this Service Design Principle

You have a brilliant new idea for a service, product, or business! Awesome! If you thought of it, someone else already thought of it and built it in some alternative way. That’s not bad news. It’s fantastic news! That means you can try the value of your idea by testing these existing services with the users you want to serve.

You’ll learn what’s valuable and what isn’t. You’ll discover if your original idea can solve a pain your competitors don’t.

This approach is smart because prototyping, even if done quickly, still takes time. So you save a lot of time prototyping.

When you test existing services, you learn a lot. You learn from what others do better than you and didn’t expect. You also discover what features of your service really matter to people.

So let me ask you:

What feature or experience would you love to include in your service but that you didn’t have the time or money to test yet? Don’t prototype. Test the services of the competitors that already exist.

Footnotes

A big thank you to Lynnsey (Skliros) Schneider, who inspired this Service Design Principle by sharing valuable feedback on one of my posts on Linkedin.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the second draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 51% compared to its first draft.
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 31, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

You have a brilliant new idea. If you thought of it, someone else already thought of it and built it in some alternative way. That’s not bad news. It’s fantastic news! You can test your idea by testing the existing services you’ll compete with.

You’ll learn what’s valuable and what isn’t. You’ll discover if your original idea can solve a pain your competitors don’t. This approach is smart because prototyping (1), even if done quickly, still takes time. So you save a lot of time prototyping.

So let me ask you:

What new stuff would you love to include in your service but haven’t yet had the time or money to test? What are the existing services that are similar enough that you could use to test your idea?

Footnotes

A big thank you to Lynnsey (Skliros) Schneider, who inspired this Service Design Principle by sharing valuable feedback on one of my posts on Linkedin.

(1) Prototyping is the art of making a first shitty draft that people can try out so that you can learn if your idea works before building it completely.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 25 % compared to the previous draft.