Prototyping Q&A with Jennifer López

This extended question-and-answer content comes from an on-going experiment I started while writing a recent book about prototyping. That experiment involved asking the same specific questions about prototyping of people I know or know of, admire, wondered about, and otherwise respect. Both then and now I’m trying understand what prototypes and prototyping mean to design professionals and a wider orbit of people beyond the practice.

A few notes about Jennifer:
Jennifer López works as Vice President of Product Development and Head of the Innovation Lab at Capital One. In addition to her current leadership role she has a deep background in design as a startup founder, a strategy advisor, and a coach & teacher. She was recently spotlighted for her role as a Latino leader in business. I am grateful to her for sharing these prototyping perspectives.

Questions 1 and 2: “Prototype” has a literal definition and has lots of implications — what do you think it communicates well? Where is it a total miss?

Jennifer López: I think the term prototype can mean so many things to people. Some assume it’s rough and barely recognizable to the end product (also in some ways assumes an end product which it may not) others think of it as a series all leading to the final production grand finale. I will say my understanding of a prototype is any that takes an idea from the conceptual, in your head and brings it into reality in some way. That act of taking it out of the theory and into the practical is the lesson and the value of a prototype but we all get so seduced by the idea of magic, perfection, finished product that the prototype often holds so much unneeded weight. As a visual and conceptual thinker I can often imagine ideas and in a clear way for myself unpack what it might be in real life. I have found that the skills of conceptual and visual thinking are not gifts all people have, many folks are literal thinkers — this isn’t meant to be an insult, rather a product of how peoples minds work in such different ways. And we are all literal thinkers when digesting content and experiences which are very foreign to us. Prototypes are an equalizer for those folks who are literal thinkers or for whom the concept is quite foreign. We are all experiential thinkers.

Q3: How does prototyping show up differently in your personal versus professional life? (… or your recreational life or experimental life?)

JL: I feel quite fortunate to have a mindset which allows for prototyping in my entire life. And as a product manager I know how hard it is to deliver a final production ready product that I only do that when I absolutely need to, everything else ends it’s life as some version of a prototype. At work this might mean for me building a process to try something new and if it works well enough we keep it as such, other times I may prototype something in how my team operates, what process works for us, etc and then have someone on my team “operationalize it” or “productize it”. In my home life I prototype a lot of home renovations, and often is very very rough prototypes so I can experience a thing I want built or a layout of some sort. Because I can prototype almost anything physical I feel more comfortable with changing things in my home without it feeling like if I make a mistake it’s the end of the world. With home renovations there are always a 1000 issues to resolve, prototyping helps reduce that and helps me feel like a greater part of the process if I am not actively making/crafting the final product.

Q4: Thinking of a recent project in which intentionally you used a prototype — whether a challenge or a breeze — what were ways you knew if the prototype was going well or poorly?

JL: Having come back from a small vacation my boyfriend who isn’t a planner went along with my quick day planning done on the train to our destination. He was reticent to write everything out, or change it when written. I was nervous not to plan. We changed the plan many times but even having a small daily list of activities helped us discuss how much down time we wanted and how we would get between neighborhoods and what was open when and what required reservations. The plan helped us quickly get the big blocks/goals out of the way and then made daily decision making in the trip much easier. We stopped referring to the plan very early on but the plan grounded us.

Q5: What’s a go-to prototyping tool you use most regularly? (Please feel easy interpreting “tool” loosely — object, state of mind, constraint, whatever…)

JL: For home renovations projects Pinterest is my greatest tool since it helps envision a variety of ideas together.

For work google docs, slides and spreadsheets- they often get ideas out and ordered in some manner which is helpful to bring it to life.

For living the courage to experiment and build with whatever is around physically or theoretically. Having courage to look at life as something we make and can build ourselves.

Q6: What’s missing from the discussion of prototyping?

JL: It’s okay for something to just be a prototype which never makes it to production and sometimes you don’t need production quality, the incomplete prototype is enough.

Q7: What’s a change in how you think of prototyping *now* contrasted to how you may have thought/acted in the past?

JL: I used to think a prototype that didn’t lead you somewhere formally was a shame, like I hadn’t stuck with it enough or there was money still left on the table in some way. Now I really recognize that most things are good enough as a prototype and a prototype can be a complete thought or produce a complete thought without needing to get to comprehensive. 50% of the way is still 50% and it really is impossible to get to 100% on most things as they always feel short in some ways. Knowing when most of the value for you or it has been extracted is the greatest gift.

Buy the book, This Is a Prototype, here.

Read more about Jennifer and her role as a Latino leader in business.

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