User-centered prototypes-insights from a design thinking workshop series

The survival of companies is increasingly dependent on their innovative strength. Technology-driven change reinforces this effect and goes hand in hand with constantly changing customer needs, new technologies, and growing competition. The involvement of users in the development process creates demand-driven innovations, which are seen as the key to success in remaining competitive. The use of innovation methods supports employees in changing their perspectives and developing new solutions. Design thinking is a systemic approach that focuses on human-centered innovation and aims to create solutions that convince users while being market and product-oriented. While ideas form the cornerstone for new systems, prototypes bring the generated ideas to life. I shed light on this previously under-researched phenomenon and examine how prototypes are used in a collaborative development with users. In particular, I examine the characteristics required for their use as communication tools to maximize feedback. I take a case study approach and use data from 2020-2022 of 16 student teams with 95 participants who applied the design thinking process to solve industrial challenges at a German university. The results show that the characteristics of the prototypes depend on the type of innovation. The more complex the technology, the more the prototype needs to interact with the customer to receive qualitative feedback. I contribute to the literature by showing and specifying the importance of prototypes in design thinking. The parameters of " complexity" and "interaction" form the starting point for the proposed prototype matrix.