017: IDEO – If A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a prototype is worth a thousand meetings” – Saying at IDEO

View the original tweet here.

This was drawn by Jason Liw. You can check out his Behance portfolio at the link.

If you don’t know what IDEO is, it’s an amazing company! Watch this video and be enlightened. IDEO is one of the most influential design companies in the world. A lot of products you might have used in the past, first started off as an idea at IDEO. (I’m looking at you, computer mouse.) With their innovative, easy going company culture and flat company structure, this company is one of the pioneers in Design Thinking. Imagine a company that makes money by just redesigning everyday objects or services, for the benefit of the consumer.

The saying featured in the comic is very much the essence of IDEO’s business practices. If you have more time, you can watch this 20 minute video with an example of a product that they transformed into something more user friendly. Through out the video, you can see how they practice what they preach.

I think this maxim of prototyping should always be on any entrepreneur’s mind. Don’t just think along the lines of prototyping while getting a new product into the market. Prototyping and product testing is an ongoing process. Testing a product with users, or A/B testing a sales page for the product, or even testing a new market for an old product are all valid forms of prototyping. And all of them are definitely worth more than just a bunch of meetings, trying to predict what to do next. Data helps to drive business, and one very good way to get data is to prototype and test a.s.a.p.

How can you prototype an aspect of your business? Think about that and let me know in the comments below.