longer think, or design, in single frames or snapshots—trying to convey the full richness of interactive user experiences like these through flat words and images would be an exercise in futility. So what do we do? Instead of getting the client to imagine what we’re talking about, we put it in their hands, with rapidly built functional prototypes that demonstrate our ideas in more powerful, dynamic ways.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia came to Organic with an RFP for Marthapedia, their ultimate online-research destination. While the traditional approach would have been to focus on selling our concept before beginning creative work, we recognized that in this case the two were inseparable—that a certain amount of creative work would be required in order to get the contract signed. We began with two intense weeks of on-the-street research into how people currently use the company’s content—how they clip it, mark it up, and pull it into their lives—and came up with unique ideas for extending Marthapedia’s usability and making it more functionally relevant. To communicate how it would actually look and work online, we then built a high-fidelity, functional prototype. Not only did this help us win the pitch and arrive at a statement of work, but the prototype also continued to provide a model for the early stages of the project itself.

In earlier years, without a specific method for building prototypes, we had to force their production through the same resource-intensive, relatively

slow-moving process used for actual client work. Now, as prototyping has become more central to our work and to our sales process, we have created a more rapid and fluid approach with a sharpened focus on specific goals, such as getting technology involved early in the creative process to validate and push our thinking. Rather than driving to complete polished pieces, we seek to create a format for internal exploration and experimentation en route to a working prototype.

Previously, much of the challenge in prototyping lay in overcoming internal political and logistical hurdles: the six to 10 people required to complete a prototype represented a sizeable commitment even for an agency as large as Organic, and could seem like an unnecessary extravagance. Now we understand both the necessity of prototype building to support and sell today’s more complex design solutions, and the increased flexibility in resourcing and management that makes it more feasible. Armed with broader skill sets and more powerful tools, we can complete prototypes with a team half the size of what was previously required—a much easier sell for internal resource managers. Hand-selected personnel— designers, developers, musicians, filmmakers—can gather around a single screen to work more quickly, producing more detailed output than ever before.

The result, a fully functional prototype with interaction and movement, brings the client much closer to the actual experience that we’re trying to sell: the visceral reaction to the speed of

motion; to the sound and feel of the build; to the way the prototype reacts to a user’s input and the emotional response it elicits. Such things can be executed in any number of different ways, and our success in selling the concept depends on convincing—and showing—the client that we can deliver exactly the right version to reflect and support their brand.

Beyond helping us define our thinking and sell it more effectively, prototypes offer another compelling advantage: They’re a great tool for our clients to use internally, to socialize our proposals once we’re no longer around to explain and answer questions. We don’t have to rely on the storytelling or presentation skills of people on the client side; the prototype makes it simple for anyone to have a real, firsthand experience of the proposed project. And it often gets them excited enough to broaden the scope of their own thinking. Far from an extravagance, in fact, I’d argue that prototypes are becoming an indispensable sales tool, and prototyping an essential skill set for any digital marketing agency.

The increased importance of prototypes in communicating and selling our ideas also reflects another important development over the past two to three years: the critical role played by newcomers we like to call “digital natives.”

how the Latest Breed
of Creatives Are Changing
the Game
Although everyone at agen-
cies like Organic does their
best to keep pace with the
ever-changing digital market-