Chapter 11 - Review the Design: The Internal Review

Abstract

After finishing an iteration of the prototype, the prototype should be ready for the next step—the design review with the team and other internal stakeholders, including project management and development. This is the step where the work is internally reviewed before committing to a formal validation with a broader and usually more external audience. The reviewing audience should be informed of the prototyping objectives and criteria chosen as well as the characteristics and methods. After setting expectations, choosing the right disclosure method ensures that the recipients get the prototype in a useful form for evaluation. The prototype can then be disclosed without fear that it will be taken out of context by most viewers. Those who do misinterpret the prototype or misunderstand the expectations can be managed because the prototype audience, goal, and design rationale would have already been outlined. The results of the prototype disclosure are a new set of instructions to validate and iterate the prototype—the next step of the prototype process.