Design and testing

‘That he not busy being born is busy dying,’ sung Bob Dylan. He who stops learning, perishes. And that applies to organisations too. Learning means doing things you’re uncomfortable with. Failure, getting up, and trying again. But also discovery, challenge and invention.

Iterating

Each platform, every product and all services are developed iteratively. But this requires that the internal organisation dares to test its offerings in the market. We often hear arguments against bringing products to market like ‘We have to protect our brand’ or ‘We must first develop an optimal product’.

Designing and testing means idea iteration remains the axis around which the idea is directly developed. This requires continually referring to the original idea and modifying it on the basis of the iterations, all in a real market setting. Experimentation is the only possibility to accept or reject the assumptions made when coming up with and developing the solution. An open mind is essential here. After all, you still don’t have any experience at all with the possible solutions, so how can you know which solution is the best one?

The starting point is a structured process. Success can never be guaranteed, but this approach does increase the chance of success. Step-by-step development gives you insight into the behaviour of users, meaning you learn and develop in a targeted way and are able to continually modify the next design. This prevents unnecessary investment and ensures you are always working specifically towards the end solution. Developing step-by-step and learning as much as possible at each step to move ever closer towards the end solution.