What is the best way to document your product prototyping iterations?

1 Why document your prototyping iterations?

Documenting your prototyping iterations is not only a good practice for your own learning and improvement, but also a valuable way to communicate your progress and insights to your stakeholders, such as customers, investors, or team members. This can help you capture your assumptions, hypotheses, and learnings from each iteration, as well as compare and contrast different prototypes and their outcomes. Additionally, documenting your prototyping iterations can enable you to identify and prioritize the most critical features and issues to address, showcase your evidence-based decision making and user feedback, and create a portfolio of your product innovation journey.

2 What to document in your prototyping iterations?

The elements to document in each prototyping iteration vary depending on the project goals, scope, and context. Generally, it's beneficial to document the purpose and objective of each iteration, the prototype type and tools used, the user testing methods and participants, the key findings from each iteration, and any changes or improvements that should be made. Additionally, documenting the next steps for each iteration is important for progressing with your project.

3 How to document your prototyping iterations?

No matter what your preferences, resources, and tools are, there are numerous ways to document your prototyping iterations. For instance, you could use a prototyping journal or template to record your notes, sketches, photos, and videos of each iteration. Alternatively, you could opt for a digital tool or platform such as Google Docs, Miro, or Figma to create and share your prototypes and documentation online. Additionally, you could create a storyboard or presentation to tell the story of your prototyping iterations and emphasize the main learnings and outcomes. Finally, you could use a prototype showcase or demo day to display and pitch your prototypes and documentation to stakeholders. The most essential factor is to select a method that fits your needs and to document your prototyping iterations consistently and clearly.

4 How to improve your prototyping documentation?

As you document your prototyping iterations, you may want to consider some tips and best practices to improve your prototyping documentation. This could include using a simple and structured format to organize your documentation, as well as clear and concise language to explain the process and results. Utilizing visuals and multimedia can help illustrate and enhance the documentation, while feedback and reflection can be used to review and refine it. Additionally, metrics and evidence can support and validate the documentation. By following these tips, you can make your prototyping documentation more effective and impactful.

5 How to use your prototyping documentation?

Finally, you may be curious about how to use your prototyping documentation for your product innovation project. Your prototyping documentation can be used for a variety of purposes, such as informing and influencing product design and development decisions, educating and engaging customers and users about the product value proposition and benefits, attracting and convincing investors and partners about the product potential and viability, collaborating and aligning team members and stakeholders about the product vision and goals, as well as learning and iterating the product innovation process and skills. By using your prototyping documentation, you can maximize the impact of your prototyping efforts and outcomes on your product innovation project.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?