"Do you think people will want to participate?" ...I was in a meeting with my favorite community organization, Chicago Cares, as we were questioning whether people would participate in an activity we were planning.
We had sketched the user journey to identify all touch-points with the attendees who we hoped to attract to our event. However, we were unsure whether our initial hook was compelling.
So - remembering the mantra "prototype/fail early and often" - in the middle of the meeting I dialed a friend who fit our target audience profile. As my team listened on speakerphone, I invited my friend to our hypothetical event, and she loved it: "Yeah, I would totally come!" I then revealed that this was a prototype, and I asked my friend for feedback on how to improve the hook and make the event more compelling.
This on-the-spot partial prototype saved a lot of time conjecturing, forced us to articulate what was in our heads, and provided immediate feedback.