Prototyping or Piloting?


“You can only understand a complex problem once you start to solve it” -Jan Rotmans

For the 6th workshop in our effort to address complex challenges, we were joined again by Jerry Koh of the MaRS Solutions Lab to learn about Prototyping.

You might ask: Isn’t that just another word for piloting?

Good question!  No it is not.

One of the biggest take aways from this session was the key differences between prototyping and piloting.  Prototyping is all about achieving targeted learning around how to realize outcomes, testing at a small scale and iterating to scale interventions and change systems.

One of the most succinct ways understanding prototyping is as a learning device.

So, in designing a prototype, our teams were ask themselves: what am I trying to learn? Then: is my solution desirable, feasible, viable and impactful?  Our teams began the day sharing their visions for New Brunswick and are now going through a process of experimenting to get there.

What experiments would you run to help you realize your vision for New Brunswick?  

Jake Wildman-Sisk