“Can you draw it please?” — Customer prototyping as requirements gathering

THIS IS A SUPERPOWER TO GET INFORMATION FROM A BRAIN INTO YOUR BRAIN

Next time you are getting requirements from your customer, ask them to draw it. Say to them — “What do you think the screen looks like?”, get them to draw it. Their mental model placed on a piece of paper for you to interpret.

You can choose when you want to do this, but it works very well at the tail end of a day of workshops.

1. Split the room into pairs.
2. Give each pair a stack of materials — index cards, large butchers paper, scissors, tape, sharpies, sticky notes.
3. Get each pair to spend the next hour drawing what they want the feature to look like.
4. After an hour, get each group to share their prototype to the rest of the room.
5. Use this to capture missed requirements.
6. Finally, use all the inputs into your own prototype to present back the next day for feedback.

ANYONE CAN DRAW

This can be used for any new system or service you are designing. It’s a powerful method to get thoughts out of people’s heads and into yours.