Overview
Method category: Generative product research
Analog/Digital involves selling a physical version of a product before building a digital version, particularly when creating the physical form first is more practical.
How to Use This in GLIDR
Within GLIDR's framework, the process involves:
- Plan phase: Outline why and how you'll create a physical product
- Research phase: Describe this plan and connect ideas about your product and expected learnings
- Run phase: Create and distribute the product to test users, gathering feedback
- Analyze phase: Determine how learnings from the analog version inform digital development
In Brief
This technique decouples risks around physical product delivery from digital components. It works best for software and information-based products that historically had physical forms, or when the final product should remain independent from computers or smartphones.
Questions It Helps Answer
- What is the most usable way to gather or deliver an information-based service/product?
- How does the current analog process work?
- What are the biggest risks around the physical form?
Key Applications
- Internet of Things: Design physical objects before adding distributed software
- Enterprise software: Map existing processes using analog formats before digitizing
- Non-digital users: Create paper-based or event-based versions before digital launch
Benefits
- Greater flexibility before committing to large digital development projects
- User feedback based on tactile responses and actual interaction patterns
- Understanding design criteria and economics of physical forms first
How To
- Confirm the riskiest assumption involves Value Proposition, Key Resources, or Costs
- Formulate a hypothesis requiring a physical product version for testing
- Recruit users/customers
- Validate your hypothesis
Interpreting Results
"Digital is not good for its own sake." Ensure added features provide useful benefits while managing increased product complexity.
Potential Biases
- Over-engineering: Physical solutions sometimes outperform complex software
- Over-focusing on technology: Test business models first if technology is proven low-risk
Field Tips
"A minimum viable product is not always a smaller/cheaper version of your final product." — Steve Blank