Prototyping
With so many (and often free!) prototyping and ecommerce platforms out there, it’s easier than ever to get your idea in front of an audience and gauge customer interest. Here’s a list of some of my favorite tools that I use for faster development at every step of the process, from basic market research to prototyping and deployment.
Scroll to the bottom if you just want a tl;dr summary.
Market research surveys
Often, even before you make a working prototype, a quick survey can be the most cost effective way of testing for traction. Figure out whether your potential customers actually want what you’re describing, have them rate certain features (include UI/UX designs if you can!), and ask about pricing for your product or service. Of course surveys have plenty of shortcomings, such as response bias or inaccurate answers, but it’s a great way to validate the different aspects of your idea before moving on to more expensive or time-consuming options.
You can create surveys using Surveymonkey, Google forms, or Typeform, which are all free or have a free trial period. Surveys can be distributed to your target audience through Facebook advertising, and you can limit people by location, age, or even their professional industry. If you’re interested in checking out more of facebook’s ad targeting options, I’d recommend checking out this infographic.
Other options for distributing surveys or asking general questions include Twitter or Linkedin, although these may require a bit more nuance to get accurate answers. Twitter does allow you to poll your followers, but answers are limited to 4 choices and are not tied to any identifying data, so only use it for very specific questions!
Graphic design
Not all of us are blessed with artistic talent or have put in the time to develop such skills, but there are plenty of tools that can help supplement a lack of artistic experience to help you build stunning graphics for your project.
You can use AI-powered tools like BrandMark or LogoAI that generate logos for you, or find existing vector art on sites like Pixabay, FlatIcon, thenounproject, and iconfinder. Canva is another great tool that combines the convenience of vector graphics with customizable design templates. Most of the content on these sites is free to use commercially, with attribution to the original artists, but be sure to check the license for each image. For slide decks, a quick google search will pull hundreds of free to use templates.
If you do want to create your own graphics, Affinity Illustrator is my go-to program. It is relatively simple to learn for basic designs, and provides essentially all the features of Adobe Illustrator at a much lower cost (one time cost of $20-$50 vs $20.99 per month). Both have plenty of beginner tutorials if you’re looking to create basic logos, layouts, or other vector graphics. There are also free vector design tools floating around, but I’ve never found one that provides enough functionality and is user-friendly. If you have thoughts, let me know!
Prototyping
Market research or initial designs can often kill ideas before you need to spend additional time or capital, but if you’re ready to create that initial prototype, there are many UI/UX design tools that can allow you to showcase your designs and intended features.
Figma and Sketch are quite similar in their capabilities, although only Figma is available as a web app. Both allow you to create layouts of what your app or website would look like, and even exported directly to HTML/CSS with the help of Anima Launchpad for interactive demos.
If you haven’t used Figma or Sketch before and are not looking to create high-fidelity prototypes, consider using Powerpoint, Google Slides, or Keynote. Each of these programs allow you to create clickable text boxes, icons, or images that link to other slides, allowing you to create a lightweight, but still interactive prototype.
If you need a more robust app prototype, Google acquired a no-code app building company called AppSheet last year, and I recently found out that it’s been integrated into Google Cloud. This means that you can use Google Sheets as a backend to store data, making it incredibly simple to edit, build, and deploy a fully-functional app with no code.
Outsourcing
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, the easiest way to create a prototype is to find someone with more expertise to do it for you. Thankfully, finding experts has never been easier with the rise of gig work platforms like Taskrabbit, Fiverr, or Upwork.
I’m a big fan of outsourcing but also not an expert, so for this section, I’ll slack off outsource and link you to The Balance, which has a much more detailed breakdown of the different gig work platforms and has a ton of over fantastic resources for small businesses.
Marketplace Platforms
If you have a prototype ready, think about launching it on platforms specifically designed to streamline ecommerce for small businesses.
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that allows you to offer pre-orders for your product (or other perks for supporting your business), which is a great way to advertise and get feedback for your product. Kickstarter funds are only released if you hit self-imposed goals though, so take time to create a captivating campaign and be realistic about what you are able to offer at each reward level. If you are looking for a more flexible crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo has an option that allows you to collect funding and provide rewards as backers join in.
And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that Etsy is an easy way to create your own online shop to sell hand-made goods or other craft products. Their templates allow you to focus on the branding and products, not website design and maintenance. Another great company in this space that I recently came across is West Tenth, which also makes it incredibly easy to launch an online store, but focuses on services and goods that can be delivered locally.
Alternatively, launching your own online store as its own website can also be easy using platforms like Squarespace, Wix, or Wordpress. I like Squarespace and use it for my personal website, but choose the one that best fits your technical capabilities and budget. Each platform has different pricing, which is usually a monthly fee plus a percentage of any profits from sales that occur on your webpage. Squarespace (and possibly the other websites, although I haven’t looked) also provide a free domain name for a year but don’t forget to either cancel or add the cost to your budget for when the trial period ends!
Data dashboard creation
As a bioinformatics person, I love tools that help me deploy beautiful data dashboards, so I had to write a whole section on it. Tableau Public has a lot of gorgeous templates for displaying smaller datasets, and does not require any coding experience that can be shared via social media or embedded into websites. However, Tableau Public, as the name implies, makes all raw data publicly available, so be sure to check for any sensitive information before publishing anything to their platform.
Jupyter notebooks are also a great way to share graphs, but if you are a python user looking for more customizable, deployable dashboards, give Streamlit a try. Although Streamlit is a relatively new company, their interactive widgets/components are incredibly intuitive to incorporate into python scripts, even for beginners. It might take a minute to load, but check out this Streamlit app that categorizes Pubmed publications, which my sister built as a side project. I helped out a little, given that she just started learning python less than a year ago, but it really points to how powerful and simple of a tool Streamlit is. If you’re an R user, you can use RShiny but an even better idea is to become a python developer and use streamlit (no this is not sponsored I just really like it).
Final comments
These tools generally aren’t meant for growth and scaling, only for a quick prototyping and getting your product in front of users as quickly as possible, so you can kill or validate your idea as quickly as possible to avoid wasting time/money/effort. I would also recommend checking out ProductHunt’s Ship Program, which contains a bunch more companies and resources like the ones listed into a streamlined package.
If there are other sections/companies you’d like to add or just have questions/comments, feel free to reach me at brenda{dot}miao@gmail.com!
From idea to prototype: the tl;dr version
Kill or validate your idea as quickly as possible to avoid wasting time/money/effort. Never start from scratch when there are so many tools and resources available. These are some of my favorites and is by no means a comprehensive list. If you want to add to this list, send me a message at brenda{dot}miao@gmail.com!
Market research surveys
Create surveys
Surveymonkey
Google forms
Typeform
Distribute surveys
Facebook advertising (infographic)
Twitter
Linkedin
Graphic design
AI generated logos
BrandMark
LogoAI
Free vector art
Pixabay
FlatIcon
Thenounproject
Iconfinder
Misc
Canva
Affinity Illustrator (a cheaper alternative to Adobe Illustrator)
Interactive prototypes
Webapps
Figma
Sketch (desktop app only)
Anima Launchpad
Low-fidelity prototypes
Powerpoint
Google Slides
Keynote
Mobile apps
AppSheet/Google Sheets
Outsourcing
Taskrabbit
Fiverr
Upwork
The Balance has a much more detailed breakdown of the different gig work platforms and has a ton of over fantastic resources for small businesses.
Marketplace Platforms
Crowdfunding
Kickstarter
Indiegogo
Online stores
Etsy
West Tenth
Squarespace
Wix
Wordpress
Data dashboard creation
Tableau Public
Streamlit (Python)
RShiny (R)