In AgeTech, user needs are nuanced and the stakes are high. A poorly designed experience can frustrate users, erode trust, or even pose safety risks. At the same time, startups face the usual pressures: limited time, tight funding, and fierce competition.
Rapid prototyping introduces a lean, focused approach that helps transform lots of ideas into testable experiments with measurable outcomes. It allows you to test assumptions with real users, de-risk software development, and align on a strategic vision for your next milestone.
We spoke to friend of thoughtbot, Tiffany Shubert, a Managing Partner, Shubert Consulting, who uses rapid prototyping constantly in her work. She shared: “One of the biggest wins in AgeTech is learning how to truly engage older adults in the design process. This requires a deep and probably different understanding of your target audience. A consistent mistake in AgeTech is the assumption everyone age 65+ is the same. This is simply not the case, and you need to identify the qualities and characteristics of your target user and you can validate those assumptions with your prototyping. prototyping gives teams the tools to co-design with intention and the humility to listen. You’ll uncover patterns you’d never see just testing with your own family or assuming all 60+-year-olds behave the same.”
Worthwhile prototyping goals for AgeTech startups
We’ve seen prototyping help startups achieve a number of important milestones. Here are some key goals and outcomes you can pursue through rapid prototyping:
- Engaging older adults and synthesizing feedback: Figuring out how to involve older adults, and successfully gather and synthesize their feedback is a major win. Co-designing with your target audience is a skill you’ll continually rely on.
- Clarifying usability and testing accessibility features upfront: AgeTech products often require larger tap targets, voice control options, or offline support. Identifying and validating these needs early lets you get it right the first time, rather than scrambling post-launch to fix usability issues.
- Confirming user value and outcome potential before major investment: Building software is expensive. Anything you can do beforehand to learn and validate assumptions saves time and money, and reduces the risk of costly rework. You’ll gain clarity on where to focus, such as your MVP.
- Standing out to investors and making a compelling case: It’s always been challenging to differentiate and attract funding, but today’s climate is especially competitive. Rapid prototyping enables real-world experiments and generates proof points that resonate with investors. Imagine being able to say 95% of your target users completed key actions and reported positive outcomes.
How thoughtbot rapidly prototypes
User Interviews
User interviews lay the foundation for rapid prototyping by clarifying your audience’s needs, pain points, and behaviors. Interviews help validate assumptions, refine ideas, and prioritize features, ensuring early prototypes are user-centered and grounded in real-world input. Here’s a helpful blog on leading better user interviews and another on their benefits.
Product Design Sprint
A design sprint is a structured, time-boxed process that allows teams to explore ideas, build prototypes, and test them with users, typically within 1–2 weeks. It compresses months of work into a focused, collaborative sprint, speeding up decision-making and reducing uncertainty.
For startups, design sprints foster cross-functional alignment, creativity, and innovation, under real-world constraints. This format is ideal for AgeTech founders who want to explore bold ideas while staying grounded in user needs.
Get creative: consider low-code prototypes
Once you have a concept to test, the next step is choosing how to bring it to life. The fidelity of your prototype should reflect your time frame and the type of interaction required. Low-code platforms are worth considering. Low-code allows you to quickly build functional, interactive versions of your product with minimal (or no) coding. Tiffany Shubert, and her research teams have had success building quick prototypes using Claude AI, and remarked on it’s ability to deliver empathic messaging.
These tools empower non-technical team members to participate in the development process and speed up iteration based on user feedback. Remember, a prototype is a learning tool. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be good enough to learn from.
Feeling pushback from stakeholders about taking time to prototype? Tiffany shared that she once conducted user testing in the middle of a development lab; a highly visible location for the broader team. This allowed them to hear feedback and observe interactions firsthand throughout the day, helping persuade the larger group of the value of prototyping. When facing resistance to findings, some team members need to see things for themselves—so having recordings and transcripts as a backup to your synthesis can be incredibly powerful.
From idea to tangible impact
At thoughtbot, we help AgeTech founders move from concept to clarity quickly, without compromising quality. Whether you’re validating a new care model, improving medication adherence, or fostering community among older adults, we use rapid prototyping to uncover where you can make real-world impact with your MVP. If you have an idea you want to explore, or want to team up on your own prototype, please reach out.