Phase 1: Prototype

Prototyping with Fab

Group

Subject

Your subject is "".

Teammates

    Tutor

    Your tutor is .

    Your appointment is on .

    Part 3 Rules Reminder

    Click here to review rules

    Before the meetings:

    • Know the subject of your appointment.
      You must have read the course modules and prepared the questions you wish to discuss with the tutor.

    • Know how to locate the progress of your team.
      Take the time to formulate the difficulties encountered and the positive points. Don't wait several weeks before reporting problems.

    • Organize a meeting.
      Except in exceptional cases, find yourself in the same place. A suitable place (quiet) with a good internet connection, for the smooth running of your interview.

    During meetings:

    • Your presence is mandatory at all meetings.
      Any absence must be justified to your tutor before the meeting in the Slack channel of your group.

    • Your camera must be on.
      The tutor is there to accompany you synchronously, not to talk to an avatar.

    • Behave like a professional.
      Adopt an employee posture in a company in all circumstances: holding in front of the camera, appropriate language, listening skills, correct clothing.

    • Lead this project in good spirit.
      Your participation in the meetings is mandatory and is part of the course. You are not a cruise passenger. Remember to react to the comments made to your group but also to interact with the other groups present.
      When the tutor gives the speech, everyone must speak!

    • Take advantage of your appointments collectively.
      You must divide up the roles: designate as many "scribes" as necessary for each meeting. It is mandatory to write a group interview report and post it in the group channel at the end of the meeting.

    Outside of meetings:

    • Collaborate with the tools at your disposal:

      • Slack:
        The group communication must be done on Slack in your group channel.
        → If you discuss elsewhere, your tutor cannot accompany you, it is a waste of time, resources and especially advice.
        → Make reports and post them on Slack to get feedback from your tutor.
        → Individual maluses will weight your final score according to your participation.

        Any student who is not on Slack at the beginning of Part 3 will be graded 0 for Part 3.

        Any student who does not participate in the Slack channel of their group will be graded 0 for Part 3.

      • Zoom:
        You can use Zoom in group at any time to chat in video and share your screens: type /zoom in your Slack group channel, a button will appear in the channel to join a Zoom room.

        When launching a Zoom room for the first time, you will have to validate your account by clicking on the "Authorize Zoom" link, then connect with SSO ("Sign in with SSO").
        → In the field "Your company domain", enter "em-lyon".
        → Finally, authenticate on the emlyon portal.

    • Be there for others.
      Reactivity towards your tutor and your collaborators on Slack is essential. Put yourself in the shoes of a professional who leads a project as a team.

    • Document
      You must constantly document what you are doing. Keep as much record as possible of the exchanges and work done so that you can analyze what worked in the project and what didn't.

    Definitions

    The goal of this phase is to define & materialize 2 relevant product proposals leads according to the subject given.

    Why start by prototyping?
    If talking about a project can be useful, there is nothing better than to materialize it. Prototyping quickly allows you to see the quality of an idea and/or the pain points for its realization. We don't expect from you an industrial prototype but rather a quick materialization that allows you to test your proposals. The “prototype phase” is a creative time based on the skills and explorations you have already made during the two previous parts of this course.

    This is a team activity!
    Although the work is collective, the evaluation will be individual ! and mainly based on your involvement in the project and in the group's dynamics

    Keep in mind that the purpose of this course is to prototype a product: your proposals must be manufactured on a real scale (1:1) with the tools available at the makers' labs

    At the end of this step you will choose with your tutor the most promising proposal of the 2 ideas. Be careful not to bias the choice: work in an equivalent way on the 2 proposals!

    This is a team activity!
    Although the work is collective, the evaluation will be individual ! and mainly based on your involvement in the project and in the group's dynamics

    Keep in mind that the purpose of this course is to prototype a product: your proposals must be manufactured on a real scale (1:1) with the means at your disposal and the software you have already seen in part 1 and 2 of the course.

    At the end of this step you will choose with your tutor the most promising proposal of the 2 ideas. Be careful not to bias the choice: work in an equivalent way on the 2 proposals!

    Based on your individual explorations (from Part 2) about the given subject, imagine 2 projects that try to answer this subject.

    Reminder: to formulate a great problem, refer to the methodological tips in Part 2 of the course.

    Basically, you already have a theme and a subject, that your tutor has picked for you. Now, you should find a problem within that subject, and two projects within that problem. Have a look at the diagram below for more insights 👇

    Explanation diagram

    You're free to imagine anything as long as your project remains a physical object: rather than targeting people directly affected by the United Nations goal, who might not have access to this product, you could provide tools/services to NGOs dealing with these topics.

    Remember that even if you are allowed to imagine anything, your prototype will have to be tested later, and for that you’ll need to go on the field and get feedback from your users. If your concept is too offbeat, you will not be able to find users to perform the tests.

    Here are the steps we will follow in order to define and prototype two relevant product proposals related to the topic:

    1. Define 2 proposals

    1. At the first meeting with the tutor the groups will begin by identifying a user related to the group's topic and identify at least one difficulty (pain-point) that he or she is experiencing. This analysis will be formulated as a problem.
    2. Once the problem has been formulated the groups will work together to define two proposed solutions to prototype. The proposals will have to meet the following criteria:
        • It provides a real solution to the problem formulated.
        • It can be easily tested with real end-users
        • End-users are identified and can be easily met
        • It can be prototyped at full scale
        • It can be manufactured with accessible technologies
    3. Groups will then describe their prototyping needs for each of the two proposals: materials and tools, resources, and task allocation within the group.
    4. At the end of the first meeting each team will present to the other groups the selected proposals and how they will be prototyped.

    For each of the two proposals the groups will need to describe the features, usage scenarios, benchmark, resources in the Documentation Notion before the next meeting.

    2. Prototype 2 proposals

    Both proposals will need to be materialized as prototypes before the second interview with the tutor. These first versions will then be used to do user testing.

    As we have already seen in the first two parts of the course these rudimentary versions of our prototypes are hypothetical representations of what the final product might be, we will then refine them based on what we learn from the user tests.

    Your prototypes must be physical objects: diagrams, images, drawings and 3D files etc. will not be considered as prototypes!

    Your prototypes must be physical objects: diagrams, images, drawings and 3D files etc. will not be sufficient as prototypes! You have to build it using Quick and Dirty methods

    1. Make a good prototype.
      • You have to know what you want to demonstrate or test with end-users. It can be the concept, a feature, the usability, etc.
      • A prototype is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it's not good!
      • Use rough materials, such as paper, cardboard, clay, lego or repurpose existing objects to build your prototype.
      • Don't spend too much time making your prototypes: go as simple and fast as possible but make sure they're sturdy enough to withstand the test phase.
    2. You have to add at least 3 pictures of each prototype to your Notion documentation.
    3. You have to post one short video showing your 2 prototypes in use on your Notion documentation and Slack Channel.

    By default, Notion offers the possibility to upload videos only less than 5 Megabyte. To remove the limitation, you must be registered with your emlyon email address and activate your education pro account, see the video just below 👇

    The whole group has to participate in the creation of the prototypes: with the design, manufacturing and documentation there is enough work for everyone!

    3. Select the best proposal

    Before the second meeting, each team will compare the two proposals and then select the one they feel is the most relevant according to the above criteria:

    At the next meeting you will discuss your choice with your tutor, and she / he will choose the proposal you will develop in the test phase.

    Assignment

    The link to your Notion documentation has to be submitted at least 24 hours before your appointment with your tutor, which is on .

    This submission is shared: your teammates and your tutor will also see this, and you can find the submission in your Progress Overview.

    You'll be working on the same Notion document for the upcoming weeks.

    Evaluation

    Proposals will be evaluated out of 20 in the following manner:

    • Contextualization of the two proposals: 5 points
      Problematization, definition of actors and context
    • Definition of the proposals: 5 points
      Usage scenario, features, relevance to the subject.
    • Quality of the prototypes: 6 points
      Quality of construction, materials, tools and resources used.
    • Communication: 4 points
      Organization within the group, participation on Slack

    Once the proposal is chosen, it will be time for the user tests!

    I'm ready