10 steps to effective creative prototyping for ad agencies

This article was first published in The Guardian on August 6th, 2013

The digital industry is moving faster than ever. Work needs to be shown, rather than talked about. Agencies need to walk-the-walk and not just talk-the-talk when it comes to showing clients concepts. Working prototypes are far more accurate, compelling and tangible than slides in a PowerPoint presentation.

Productivity is key, and companies cannot afford to waste time or resources. Tight and closely monitored budgets, quick turnarounds and return of investment, and stronger competition in the industry are undeniable realities.

Prototyping is becoming a necessity and the only way forward for agencies. However, its practice is still difficult to grasp and implement across multidisciplinary teams. In this context, creative technologists and tech savvy designers are the ones that will make the difference, but only if they can work together closely, effectively and extremely fast

The following guide is the outcome of R/GA's fast-paced, highly collaborative projects, where multi-disciplinary teams lead by technology; design and production push the boundaries of the digital creation and delivery process. Here are 10 effective steps to get your team rolling.

1. Small, core teams
Get the smallest team possible. Move away from bloated teams, and remove any role that is not vital to get the job done. Try to get the best people given the project, and make sure the resources allocated are always hands-on, so everyone is actively contributing to deliverables.

2. Get everybody on-board from day one
Make sure all team members start together from day one. By ensuring all disciplines are on-board from the beginning and get everybody on the same page right at the start, everyone knows what it is all about.

3. Get a higher tech over design resources ratio
Get a higher ratio of developers compared to the designers. 2-to-1 or even 3-to-1 will encourage developers to be more creative, and designers to be busier. Design variations and small changes can be done directly in code, saving you and the team lots of time and money. Having more developers than designers will make the project move a lot faster, while also encouraging them to collaborate closer.

4. Feedback at all time
Encourage all disciplines and every team member to give feedback at all times, on a daily basis, and on every piece of work produced. It is a mistake to think that one discipline should not give feedback about the work produced by another. Having everybody play and commenting on everybody's work will promote the sense of team effort and team ownership, and it will help give the project a healthier communication strategy.

5. Everything is presented where it will live
A common mistake is to present deliverables to the client on a completely different platform than the final end medium. Traditionally, wireframes, diagrams and designs are presented on various papers and presentations. These will never look, or feel like the final deliverable, whether it is on a website, a computer, a billboard or a mobile device. If you are presenting wireframes, do so on a web site. If you are presenting a mobile design, do it on a mobile phone. This is extremely important, because is the only way to get decisions right. You should never allow a decision to be made on a delivery presented in the wrong environment.

6. Iterative fast-paced productivity
Enforce extremely quick iterative development. If delivery of one specific iteration is longer than a week, break it into smaller pieces of work. If you get your team rolling on weekly iterations, you will maximize the efficiency of it. Plan the next sprint on the last day of the previous one, and start afresh every week, with everybody knowing what is expected of them. Encourage quick and dirty prototypes from everybody in the team at the beginning, including all disciplines. Encourage the team to produce as many prototypes as possible during the first couple iterations. However, make sure that the team progressively moves towards a more refined approach along the iterations, to guarantee a polished and high quality delivery towards the end.

7. Get the client involved
The most successful projects tend to be the ones where the clients are fully involved. If you involve the client from the beginning and collaborate with them in an honest and transparent way, you will have better results. Let the team to be part of the weekly reviews with the client, let them present and explain their work, encourage an open and transparent conversation with your client.

8. Always move forward, never get stuck
Make sure everybody is always moving, and always producing work. If there are barricades, or if someone is having problems with a particular piece of work, try to move them to different tasks if possible. You need to make sure your team is always being productive to keep an energetic pace and a high morale.

9. Single creative voice
Although you will be promoting close collaboration, team creativeness and open feedback and conversation, ensure that there is a solid unique creative voice across the project, especially on client reviews, deliveries or presentations. Keep a solid and consistent direction.

10. Deliver the journey, not only the end result
One of the most interesting things we have discovered is that if you keep track of the creative process along the project and document it, you can then not only present an end result, but you can present the whole journey. If your client is on-board with a creative fast-paced prototyping approach, you will realize that when you present your weekly iteration reviews or make the final delivery of your project, if you can take the client through the journey your team did, and explain the creative process over time, the client will get a much better understanding of the end result, making it much more satisfactory for everybody.