From low to high fidelity, prototypes are the inexpensive solution forms for discussing ideas effectively, whether you are a designer or not.
We have all been there, discussing an idea about a feature with different stakeholders is always a challenging task. While trying to pitch the idea, there are always misunderstandings need to be solved within the group you are presenting.
Bringing everyone on the same page and managing a discussion is a hard job because every discipline has its own perspective and thus, different approaches to the problem. Engineers think like an engineer, managers think like a manager, and designers think like a designer. Even we are establishing mechanisms to work together and understand each other well, there will be always grey areas that need to be described explicitly. Writing Confluence pages to draft, communicating over issue cards, talking over Slack threads, and making Zoom calls can help. However while talking on the abstract concepts, it’s easy to lose the connection between things and forget them. That’s why we see the same questions are asked over and over again, by different colleagues in different times, even if they had been answered many times before. In order to glue all discussions and align things, there is another well established vessel that could help us: The prototype.
Each one of us knows how applications work and it’s easy to see the flaws or improvement points. Making prototypes as a primary vessel to connect all the dots around, to hold the discussion sound, and to keep the story in track, help us to achieve healthy conversations, to the point, and even faster.