At some point in the future, you’ll probably need to help someone understand something you want to do. For example, you may need to pitch an idea to someone.

A great way to think about this is to build a demo—the closest approximation to your idea that you can make with a few resources and a short amount of time—and to show them:

In the summer of 2001, Apple hired three software developers to build a web browser for its new operating system, Mac OS X. Ken Kocienda and Lisa Melton joined first, and thought they could use open source technology to speed things up. After a brief analysis, they tried getting Mozilla running on OS X, but the process was so tricky that Ken and Lisa spent six weeks on it and it still didn’t work.

When Richard Williamson joined them, he seemed puzzled and asked, “How long have you guys been working on this project?” “Six weeks,” they answered. Ken and Lisa figured Richard didn’t understand the complexity of the problem, and briefed him on what they’d been doing. Richard went off to work, and Ken and Lisa figured they’d let him have at least a week to settle in. 

Two days later, Richard called Ken and Lisa to look over a demo—a working browser on Mac OS X; it could load web pages, go back to a previous page, and click links. Ken and Lisa were stumped. How did Richard do that so quickly? 

• With the demo, Richard was focused on getting a browser running on a Mac as quickly as possible to evaluate its potential. 
• Richard’s goal was to produce three key results—clicking links, loading web pages, and going back to previous web pages. The demo did just three things, nothing more.
• Richard didn’t defer to what Ken and Lisa were doing, or what he thought they would prefer. While Ken and Lisa had chosen Mozilla over other open source alternatives, Richard didn’t think it would be feasible and tried one of the solutions they decided against. The saying goes, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

In Ken’s book, Creative Selection, he describes the experience felt as if Richard had, “set a crystal ball down on the table, waved his hand over it, and showed us a vision for the future of our web browser project, one that pointed the way to make the vision real.” Richard’s demo was a prototype for the future. They presented the demo to their bosses, who all approved. The team harnessed the early momentum and built Safari, the first browser for Mac used by over a billion people around the world today.

This post first appeared in—and inspired the creation of—my newsletter, Three Thought Starters.