What is Pretotyping and
why does it work?

We’re glad you asked. Because in our experience, Pretotyping is a
fast track to successful innovation cultures and better results.

Learn more

Pretotyping asks what should we build?

What could we build?

A person holding a Monopoly game token with other game pieces in the background.
An orange outline of a fork and knife crossed over a circle.
Orange inflatable pool with a small platform inside, set on grass in a backyard.

Validate with customer data

How will we build it?

Human-centered design & design thinking

Book titled 'Prototype It' with the subtitle 'How to make sure you are building The Right It before you build It right', featuring images of a mobile app and a device on the cover, celebrating its 10th anniversary, authored by Alberto Savoia.

Pretotyping is the missing step
before prototyping, saving
organisations millions and fast
tracking winning ideas.

Lean / agile

Created at Google.

Perfected at Stanford.

Trusted globally.

THE CHALLENGE

Pretotyping tests what customers
actually do (not what they say)

Pretotyping is a proven experimentation method that tests ideas early and quickly, so you know what to shelve and what to build. It was created by Alberto Savoia – an Exponentially adviser and supporter – and is used by Lego, P&G, IKEA and many more leading organisations.
‍
Pretotyping is not about customer surveys, focus groups or voting. Instead, it follows a scientific method to test ideas by:
‍
1. Creating a hypothesis
2. Running an experiment to test it with real customer data
3. Designing another experiment to test a revised hypothesis
4. Repeating until you have enough data to know the idea will/won’t work

Flowchart illustrating a scientific process with steps: Idea, Lean Canvas, Hypothesis, Select Experiment, Design Experiment, Execute Experiment, ending in a circle.

Experiments that you run during this process involve getting the idea into the market without building it. You might run ads, create a landing page, send an email campaign, or mock up a physical product – in other words, cost-efficient activities that gather real data about what customers will do (not what they say they’ll do or what you think).

Pretotyping is a rigorous process that de-risks innovation by allowing you to discover which ideas will work and which ones will fail, before you invest in building them. 

PRETOTYPING RESOURCES

Learn about Pretotyping via
articles, guides and training

An orange background with white contour lines resembling a topographic map, featuring the words 'innovation' in black on a white background and 'guide' in orange on a black background.
Graphic with orange background and white curvy lines, featuring the words 'prototyping' and 'training' in bold black and orange text.
Title slide of a presentation with the text "articles and case studies" on an orange background with white contour lines.

PRETOTYPING COMMUNITY

Join our Pretotyping community

Join our Pretotyping community, Fast Track, where innovators from around the world connect to share ideas, ask questions and learn from each other.

We also share the latest news and thought leadership on innovation and Pretotyping.

Join the community

"We can pick out ideas that we know have a better chance of success, and we are able to reduce so much wasted investment. Think about all the costs that go into executing projects that don’t end up delivering the outcomes that you wanted. We’ve struggled with this over the years, and this is exactly why rapid experimentation is the answer."

A middle-aged man with gray hair and a beard, wearing a suit and tie, posing for a professional headshot against a gray background.

Professor Ian Anderson

Deputy Vice Chancellor, Australian National University

A group of five people in a business meeting around a long conference table with laptops, documents, and electronic devices in an office setting.

Education

People sitting in a room, writing or using tablets, attending a meeting or class.
A busy conference room with people working and discussing, some seated at tables with laptops and a woman presenting standing.

"The Pretotyping course and rapid experimentation saved our organisation $200,000 before lunchtime on day 2! This should be BAU in every leading organisation."

A man with a beard wearing a suit and tie, standing outdoors with trees in the background.

Dan Roesler

Executive Manager and Customer Assets, PEXA

Digital conveyancing

Set your organisation up to
test ideas before you invest.
And grow, exponentially.

Get in touch