Rapid prototyping
You know the process. You have the spreadsheets, paper forms or existing system. We turn that into a working prototype within days or weeks so your users can try it, tell us what needs changing and make a quick decision about what comes next.
Rapid prototyping works best when the business already understands a tight piece of work. You are changing how a known process runs, rather than trying to invent the process and the system at the same time.
It may be a paper form that needs to become digital. It may be a spreadsheet passed between several people, or an existing system that needs to work in a different way. You know the job well enough to recognise the right result when you see it.
Planning gets you only so far. The useful questions appear once someone can click, enter a real example and see the process move. Prototyping has become quick enough that building the narrow version can cost less than trying to settle every detail in meetings.
What it should prove
The prototype gives everyone the same thing to judge.
A user can take a real job through the process and show us where the system matches their work and where it gets in the way.
Missing fields, awkward steps and exceptions become obvious once the person doing the job has the system in front of them.
You can continue, change direction or stop after a small first spend. The decision comes from something your team has used.
We can separate what already works from the infrastructure, protection and polish still needed before the business relies on it.
How it runs
You take us through the job, why it needs to change and what a useful result would look like. Together we agree what the prototype needs to prove and keep the scope around the tight loop you already understand.
Spreadsheets, paper forms, sample documents and the old way of doing the work tell us more than a polished specification. We use the material your team already understands.
We usually build the first version with little extra input over a few days to a week. Then we sit down together, walk through it and put it in the hands of the people who know the process.
Your team can test the prototype and bring back useful feedback. You will know whether to polish it into a working system, change the idea or leave it there.
Worth knowing
A good first prototype can represent roughly three quarters of what a user will eventually see. They can follow the process, enter information and understand how the finished system should work.
Behind that screen, it may represent only a quarter of the work needed for production. The first version proves the process. It does not pretend the rest has already been done.
The back end, data protection, permissions, error handling and operating infrastructure still need proper work. There will also be edge cases and polish that only become clear once people use the first version.
We make that boundary clear before anyone relies on the prototype. If the idea passes the test, we can build those foundations and turn it into a system the business can use safely.
A working example
Ordered Australia was creating quotes and invoices in Word, converting them to PDF and moving spreadsheets between the customer, the supplier and their own team. The process worked, but larger and larger orders with hundreds of high-volume items made the amount of handling hard to sustain.
We took their documents and built the first working prototype in a week. It gave them one place to import the order, work with the supplier and customer, and produce the quote and invoice without losing a line between files.
The prototype proved the workflow in the first week. In the second week we moved past the prototype, polished the edges and put enough infrastructure behind it for the team to start using the system. One place now carries the order from import through to its documents, without the team copying the same lines between files.
Is it worth prototyping?
Prototyping has become quicker and cheaper, which means more ideas are worth testing than they were a few years ago. There is no useful blanket rule about which ideas qualify.
We start by looking at what the system could become and what it would be worth if it worked. If that long-term use does not hold up, a quick prototype is still money spent on the wrong destination. That conversation comes before the build.
Real systems we have built around the way each business works.
How Odaptic transitioned from a manual, high-touch survey and reporting process to a scalable, self-service custom platform, delivering enhanced visuals, seamless client impersonation, and significant cost reductions.
View the project
Delivered with Knight Solutions, custom Power BI reporting turned Project One’s Procore data into sales forecasts, project financial views and clearer management decisions.
View the project
We helped Knight Solutions automate project communication by syncing task data from ClickUp to Procore, enabling efficiency and better customer experiences.
View the projectTell us what needs to change and send the spreadsheets, forms or documents behind it. We will help you decide whether the idea is ready for a prototype and what the smallest useful version needs to prove.
If it is worth testing, you should have something real to react to quickly. If the long-term case does not stack up, we will tell you before either of us spends time building it. If the idea involves AI, our AI advisory service can help choose the right approach first.
Book a meeting or send the current spreadsheet, form or system. We will tell you whether a prototype is worthwhile and what the first version should cover.
