Rapid prototyping

Everyone agreed to the spec. Everyone pictured something different.

You find that out on delivery day, or you find it out in week three with something people have actually clicked. We build working proof of concepts in weeks, on real data, so the decision to build properly rests on evidence instead of a document.

Software decisions get made in meetings about software that does not exist yet. Everyone nods at the document. Nobody is imagining the same screen.

A prototype ends that in an afternoon. Once people can click through it the feedback changes completely. You stop hearing "yes, that sounds right" and start hearing "no, we would never enter it that way, and this field is missing the thing we actually need."

The point isn't to build fast for the sake of it. It's to find out what you actually need before the expensive part starts, and to give you a real option to walk away.

What you get

A real thing, not a slide deck

Every proof of concept lands as software you can open and use.

Working software

Running on your data, or a realistic copy of it. Enough screens to walk a genuine job through end to end.

An honest verdict

What worked, what didn't, and what it would take to build properly. If the prototype shows the idea doesn't hold up, that's a successful outcome and we'll say so plainly.

Something you own

The code and the accounts are yours. If you take it to another developer or build on it in-house, nothing is locked to us.

How it runs

Weeks, and you see it the whole way

  1. A conversation about the actual job

    Not requirements gathering. We want to watch how the work happens now, including the spreadsheet someone keeps on the side that isn't in any process document.

  2. Build the narrow slice that proves the point

    One workflow, done properly, rather than every screen half-finished. The slice we pick is whichever part carries the most risk of being wrong.

  3. Put it in front of the people who'd use it

    Not the sponsor. The person doing the job at 7am. Their reaction is the result you paid for.

  4. Decide with evidence

    Build it out, change direction, or stop. All three are fine, and stopping after a small spend beats discovering the same thing a year in.

Worth knowing

What a prototype is not

A proof of concept cuts corners on purpose. It won't have the error handling, the permissions model, the audit trail or the edge cases that production needs. That's what makes it quick.

The risk is that it works well enough that someone wants to put it straight into daily use. We'll push back on that. Shipping a prototype as production software is how businesses end up with a system nobody can safely change.

It also isn't free. It's a real build with real hours behind it, just aimed at a decision instead of a deliverable.

And it needs your people. An hour of the right person's time in week one saves weeks of building the wrong thing. If nobody can be freed up for that, a prototype probably isn't the right move yet.

Things that started small

Several of these began as a narrow build to test whether the idea held up.

View all case studies →

Where to start

Tell us the idea and what you're unsure about. If a prototype is the right way to find out, we'll scope one. If the answer is already knowable without building anything, we'll tell you that instead and save you the money.

Related: building new products, and AI adoption and advisory if the thing you're testing involves AI.

Got an idea you can't settle in a meeting?

Let's build the smallest real version of it and settle the argument with something you can use.

Get in touch

Let’s talk about your business

Tell us what you’re working through and we’ll get back to you shortly.

Prefer email? hello@thetechyside.com.au