When Speed Changes Everything: AI Prototyping in 20 Minutes
The Speed Problem in Design
My team was designing a new workflow for users to explore BWICs (bond auction packages in the fixed income world). Each BWIC contains 3-25+ bonds, and we needed an interface for browsing details, viewing bonds, tracking market activity, accessing notes, and determining client interest.
We spent days in abstract discussions, debating approaches without making progress. The problem wasn’t lack of ideas—it was that exploring each idea felt too expensive in time and effort.
What Changes When Prototyping Takes 20 Minutes
Instead of continuing slow deliberation, I used AI to generate working prototypes rapidly. Here’s what happened when speed became the variable:
The Process
I opened VS Code with Copilot and provided:
- A screenshot of our existing app
- Three wireframe files
- A detailed description of our goals
In one 20-minute session, Copilot generated five complete approaches:
- BWIC List Page - Overview of available bond auctions
- BWIC Detail Page - Deep dive into specific auctions
- Quick View Page - Streamlined interface for rapid browsing
- Expandable List View - Inline expansion of BWIC details
- Modal Overlay Version - Quick view as modal overlay
The Speed Advantage
From Debate to Exploration: When prototyping is this fast, you stop debating three options and start building five. Why argue about “what ifs” when you can see them all?
Risk-Free Experimentation: Twenty minutes for prototyping - less than 3 minutes per page - means wild ideas become viable. Speed removes the fear of “wasting time” on unconventional approaches.
Immediate Feedback Loops: The team reached consensus within minutes of seeing working prototypes. Visual evaluation replaced abstract discussion.
Domain Intelligence at Speed: Copilot understood fixed income context, generating realistic bond categories, yield spreads, ratings, CUSIPs, and analyst notes—no manual data creation needed.
The Compound Effect of Speed
When prototyping becomes nearly instant:
Decision paralysis disappears. Instead of agonizing over the “right” choice, you build multiple options and let the best one emerge.
Creative exploration expands. Fast iteration encourages experimentation with ideas you’d normally dismiss as too risky or time-consuming.
Team alignment accelerates. Concrete prototypes eliminate miscommunication and abstract disagreements.
Context switching costs drop. Twenty minutes doesn’t require calendar blocks or context switching—it fits into any workflow gap.
Why Speed Matters More Than Perfection
This wasn’t about production code quality—it was about creating visual aids for decision-making. The AI-generated code was thrown away immediately after serving its purpose.
But that throwaway code solved days of indecision in minutes. The speed itself became the solution.
The New Prototyping Paradigm
Traditional prototyping: expensive, deliberate, precious. AI-powered prototyping: cheap, experimental, disposable.
When the cost of trying an idea drops to nearly zero, everything changes. You stop optimizing for the perfect choice and start optimizing for the fastest path to clarity.
Speed doesn’t just change how you prototype—it changes how you think about design decisions entirely.