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Prototyping framework

Structuring your approach

Thursday, 15 May 2025
In Government innovation Innovation policy
20 min read

Pause point three

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Introduction to prototyping What actually is prototyping? Before you begin Doing the ground work Pause point one Prototyping: phase one Pause point two Prototyping: phase two Pause point three Evaluate and enterprise

You have decided to move forward to the final development of your idea. You feel you have sufficient information and insight in order to build a final blueprint or business plan for your idea.   

It may be beneficial to pilot your service in order to get more detailed feedback. You will however need to re-engage with the key decision-makers at this point to ensure that there is buy-in and support for taking your idea out of the prototyping stage.

When sharing your work with the decision-makers, ensure you have answers to the following questions:

  1. How has prototyping helped shape this product/service and ensure it is fit for purpose?
  2. What is the demonstrable value of this new product/service?
  3. How can it go from a prototype to a functioning product/service?
  4. Who are the partners, what is the cost, where is the revenue?

There will be a number of things you will need to demonstrate before building your business plan; the business planning tool in the next section should help you.

A process flowchart pinpointing "Pause point three", labelled "Decision-making", which serves as the final evaluation gate after the second prototyping phase, just before the learn and evaluate stage

Pause point three

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Image Description

This image illustrates the final checkpoint within the prototyping process. It visually tracks the completion of the second prototyping cycle, where live testing occurs, and stops before the final business case creation. The specific focus is on an orange marker labelled "Pause point three: Decision-making." This indicates a crucial juncture where teams must synthesise all prototype data to decide on the project's ultimate viability and next steps.

Previous section: Prototyping: phase two Next section: Evaluate and enterprise

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