Front-Loaded Prototype
Updated 2026-08-16
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
A concept from Alberto Savoia, who distinguishes a pretotype from a prototype. A pretotype is a cheap stand-in, such as a landing page, a fake button, or a crowdfunding page, used to test whether people really want the thing before any real product is built. The key qualification is that the test must observe behavior rather than stated opinion, since what people say they want diverges systematically from what they will pay for. The purpose is to falsify the demand assumption at the lowest possible cost.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Assumption naming: write the demand hypothesis as a single testable claim. - Cheap stand-in: choose the least expensive artifact that can expose real behavior. - Behavior reading: measure clicks, signups, or payments rather than survey opinions.
Anchor fast decisions
Building a full product commits large resources before any evidence about demand exists, so a wrong assumption is discovered only after the cost is sunk. A pretotype reverses the order by making the demand claim testable at near-zero cost. Observed behavior carries information that stated preference does not, because intention is cheap to express and action is not, so the test discriminates between real and polite interest.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- testing.googleblog.comhttps://testing.googleblog.com/2011/08/pretotyping-different-type-of-testing.htmlverified
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