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I'm technical, I build stuff myself, so take my opinion with a pinch of salt. If you have built a non-technical throw-away prototype (paper, wireframe, ...), a

I'm technical, I build stuff myself, so take my opinion with a pinch of salt. If you have built a non-technical throw-away prototype (paper, wireframe, ...), at some point you may find your testing is limited. IMO, a technical THROW-AWAY prototype is ok to be outsourced, because it'll take all the short cuts it can, and when you are done testing you want to change at least 50% of it anyway, so throwing away and starting from scratch is the right answer. That said, I don't know if there are any agencies that do this. But you could probably find a freelancer that enjoys this type of work. You definitely need a tech co-founder when you build the real thing, though.

maxcameron 14y ago
You make a great point. But I'm trying to think about why you'd be building a throw-away prototype. Either you'd want to prove a technical challenge, or you'd want to make sure you're building something that a customer wants to buy. I can't really see the logic in outsourcing the first use-case, I mean that's the core tech of your startup, and I don't know many agencies out there that specialize in that type of heavy lifting. But from the cust-dev perspective, where do you see lightweight prototypes (powerpoint, paper, wireframes, omnigraffle, etc) falling short?