003 | Suddenly prototyping is the most in-demand AI skill

EDITION 003 | More Room to Think (Archives) | Formentor Labs​
​READ TIME: 6 minutes

🗓️ New this week

Prototyping is the most in-demand AI skill right now.

This all feels like it happened overnight, doesn't it?

Vibe code platforms that can design, build and publish functional code from prompts are exploding.

Vercel, Lovable, Cursor seem to be dominant but the classics are catching up. Figma Make and Adobe are launching features to take designs into code.

Our ability to build something is suddenly more efficient than our ability to promote it.

With tools like these a talented developer can compress the build time from weeks to hours and have a working version online.

Even more unbelievable - marketers are learning to do it.

*Record scratch*

But wait -- why?

Make a little room to think Now is a perfect moment to take a breath. 8 seconds in, pause, 8 seconds out.

🔬 This week's topic

Developing a prototype for our idea

THE PREMISE

You've heard of a science prototype, sure. A wonky device that looks taped together -- built to be tested in the environment.

So what is a marketing prototype? It's similar -- it's a design we can use to test offers in the market.

Typically we'd use one of these surfaces:

• a landing page
• an email
• an ad
• a product feature

Prototypes are unique in that they're low-cost, low-risk, affordable demonstrations of an idea.

Leadership cost/benefit decisions will compare the cost of a problem to the cost of its proposed solution.

What better way to demonstrate our ideas than with a real prototype generating real responses from the market? (We call that 'signal' by the way).

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO GROWING IDEAS

A prototype sells your idea in the language that leaders understand best: metrics, confidence and speed.

A prototype is effective when it:

• measurably validates demand signal = metrics
• predictably influences customer behaviour = confidence
• quickly improves in iterations = speed

I also firmly, spiritually in my bones believe the best prototypes are ugly.
Readers, repeat after me:

The two early stages of a marketing prototype - the sketch and the frames - provide the most value to our organization.

Team alignment on an early napkin sketch could spare the organization weeks of wasted effort down the line. This. Happens. Often.

HOW WE CAN USE IT THIS WEEK

• Save your vibes - I know we're aching to fire up Lovable and vibe code something shiny and impressive. We're going to resist that. Skipping straight to "polished and shiny" only does one thing - creates a new shiny object to distract us.
• Get out the crayons instead - we're more likely to secure alignment and get people supporting our idea if we bring them onside early in the process. Nothing says "ground floor" like a napkin sketch. When enough people start nodding along to the ugly version of an idea, we can move to the slick-looking ones.
• Upload a sketch to Claude Design - the lowest barrier to entry is Claude Design. We're already paying for it if we have any paid Claude subscription. Upload the company's brand guidelines to make designs feel homegrown. Explain the idea, describe our goals, our problem and the placement (email/web etc.) and we start to generate versions of a real-world prototype.
• Accompany a brief - just as important as the visuals, is the story. Sharing a compelling narrative is critical to explaining the results of a prototype. I have an experiment brief template available in my downloads section to kickstart that storytelling process.

I'm always interested in the success and the failures of the members of this community. Please share your designs and stories after building your prototype, too.

Happy experimenting,
Rhys

Pssssst, hey

These are the early editions of Room to Think.
I could use any support to nurture my growing audience:

• Forward this to the author of your favourite marketing newsletter. Collabs are how newsletters grow.
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Did you learn something from this newsletter? Did you put it into practice? I'm dying to hear how it went. Please email letstalk@formentor.ca and share your thoughts.