Leading Libraries Series: Leading for Innovation
Prototyping and experimentation
Resource list
Web accessible articles
Some good ideas on service experience prototyping – 6 tips for prototyping service design experiences, from the IDEO team
A different take on the Experiment phase of innovation – using small experiments to test your ideas in a 'live setting'. 'Safe-to-fail experiments' created for NHS Improvement. Their website of Quality, service improvement and redesign (QSIR) tools is a fantastic
resource – although it is based on a more traditional approach to service improvement, the techniques, templates and models on offer are very comprehensive – good if you have a specific need not covered elsewhere.
A great case study about community innovation in several London Boroughs – focussed on childhood obesity but with some great ideas on how to construct safe-to-fail experiments and on prototyping ideas in communities. Healthy High Streets – an Innovation Unit exemplar project.
A useful short blog on why storytelling works so well in innovation approaches – 'Why innovation needs storytelling' by
Lauren Parater for Medium
More on how stories can support any stage of your innovation approach – an informative review of 'Once upon an innovation', 'Storytelling for innovation: a guidebook for entrepreneurs and changemakers' by Madanmohan Rao at Yourstory
Some lovely examples of the use of stories and story telling in community innovation – good for getting your creativity flowing! Living Well resources from the team at
the Living Well programme.
Videos
A brief introduction to the idea of prototyping and why it is important – Why should you prototype?, from the team at IDEO
A longer and more comprehensive guide to help you design your own prototyping approach – 'Tips for How to Prototype a Service', from the team at IDEO U, featuring Ilya
Propokoff
A quick and practical guide to the use of a 'paper-protyping' in your collaboration workshops, 'Design Thinking – paper prototypes' from CreativeCharlie
A more detailed video on the use of storyboarding in the design process 'How to storyboard for design', with Dr Chris Parker at Design eLearning Tutorials
Some great insights about storytelling – from research with a range of innovators – 'What 75 innovation leaders say about the power of storytelling'. The video is from
Untold Content, a company who specialise in offering storytelling skills to companies – so it has a little 'marketing' in it, but it is the most useful guide to the importance of storytelling we have found.
A short video on the use of 'safe-to-fail' experiments – applied to any complex systems environment – great tips on how to be pragmatic and playful as you go. Jennifer Garvey Berger's 'Complexity toolbox 3: Safe to fail experiments'
Recommended books
Not a print book but a comprehensive summary about how prototyping is used in public and community settings – 'Prototyping public services' from
NESTA and The Innovation Unit
A comprehensive guide to using storytelling to communicate innovation ideas – 'Once upon an innovation', Jean Storlie and Mimi Sherlock, Beaver's Pond
Press, 2020. The book focusses on private sector companies but has a range of useful techniques and tips that can be applied to any innovation effort.
Module materials
Slide pack: Prototyping and experimentation
Reflective exercises:
Templates:
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You have reached the end of this section and come to the end of this module. Congratulations on completing the e-learning.
This is the fourth of a set of four Leading for Innovation modules within the Leading Libraries Series.
To choose one of the other modules in the Leading for Innovation set click on the links below:
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