The Power of the Prototyping Mindset
How embodied questions can get you unstuck
There are a lot of different definitions of a prototype, but I really like the way Scott Witthoft defines it in a recent podcast episode I listened to. Scott, a designer and educator who recently published a book with colleagues at the Stanford d.school called This is a Prototype, says that a prototype is an “embodied question.” Both parts of this framing are really important. Embracing them can change the way that you see the world and make you more creative and curious.
What is an embodied question?
The key part of something being embodied is that it has concrete form. In other words, it is reduced from an abstract concept into something with a shape. This is the exact opposite of an idea which exists only in your head in an abstract form.
While we may think of embodied objects as physical objects, we can stretch the definition slightly to include something that is embodied in another form such as written text, a sketch, or a conversation. The most important thing is to get it out of your head. The process of translating it into another form allows you to separate it from yourself and give you the perspective to be able to assess and offer constructive critique.
The question half of the definition is also critically important since a true prototype is not a solution to a problem. Instead, it is something that helps to answer a particular question.
This framing turns off the voice in our head long enough to lower our inhibitions and get us moving. By shifting the focus from the pressure of developing a solution to simply asking a question, we put ourselves in a position to step forward by falling instead of needing to climb over a fence. It helps us to explore the space of potential solutions without needing to make any commitments that this is the solution.
So What?
This is all well and good, but what are the benefits of developing a prototyping mindset? A few of the many advantages include helping us to embrace divergent thinking, promoting creativity and curiosity, and getting us unstuck.
Prototyping will help you embrace divergent thinking
Because a prototype is fundamentally a question and not a solution, it is naturally aligned with an open mode of thinking. This framing encourages wide-ranging and meandering thought. The orientation here toward brainstorming widely without narrowing down options helps to quell the inner critic in all of us that thinks about all the reasons why it won’t work instead of allowing ourselves to suspend reality for a few moments and break out of our mental ruts.
Prototyping encourages creativity and curiosity
Creating something concrete does a lot to get the creative juices flowing. Comedians are one of my favorite examples of prototypers. They’re always honing their craft, tweaking the delivery or timing of a joke to get it to flow just right and land with an audience. They also provide a great example of how a prototype is not necessarily a physical artifact, but something like a performance or a joke can fit the bill as well and be the impetus we need to give an abstract thought shape.
Prototyping will help you get unstuck
Adopting a prototyping mindset also helps to keep you moving forward. If we’re honest with ourselves, it is easy to drift into analysis paralysis. Once we’re in this cycle, it’s so easy to just sit and endlessly split hairs, edit, and critique ourselves.
Pushing yourself to just put it down on paper and hit send is liberating. It’s one of the reasons that I write this newsletter each week. It won’t be perfect, but it never would be. Much better to spend the time iterating and testing things out rather than sitting on it and following the path of diminishing returns.
Putting it all together
Remember: The right answer to the wrong question is the wrong answer. It is critical to develop a way to ask the right questions. Embracing a prototyping mindset is a great step to do just that.
The Book Nook
On a whim I picked up Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men a few months ago when I saw it on sale. I had watched the movie several years ago and really enjoyed it, but had never read the book. I have been recently working my way through McCarthy’s works (most recently The Road and All the Pretty Horses prior to this one) and am always inspired by his storytelling.
No Country for Old Men is a haunting story with deep lessons about greed and the way that we so often double down on our mistakes and instead of repenting. It is a reminder to be pursue contentedness above wealth and cherish the people around you.
The Professor Is In
This past week in E79 practicum the students were investigating first-order RC circuits.
One particularly clever experiment they do in the lab is to measure the parasitic capacitance in a solderless breadboard between adjacent rows by exciting the system and plotting its step and frequency response. These types of simple experiments really do a nice job highlighting the broad applicability of the things they are learning! As an instructor it is rewarding to see the students begin to connect the dots and see the convergence of theory and experiment as the semester progresses.
Leisure Line
Last night I enjoyed having some of the students from my E155 class over for pizza and a campfire. We had a great time making pizza and endured the chilly winter weather (at least for us thin-skinned Southern Californians) to spend some time talking over the fire. I am thankful for the chance to get to interact with such thoughtful young people!
Still Life
We’re working on building up a fiber-coupled system in the lab and it was a perfect opportunity this past week to show off one of my favorite optical phenomena – speckle!
This photo shows a speckle pattern that is created by laser light coupled though a multimode fiber. Multimode fibers are also a great way to give students a physical intuition for the linear algebra that can sometime be challenging to visualize in the abstract.
I've wanted to develop a writing habit that supports my research efforts. This mindset is really helpful and I've been working to write about anything more regularly. Thanks for the inspiration!