When I discover a new product that solves a meaningful problem for me in a really elegant way, I’m often tempted to imagine that the creator came up with the idea in a flash of brilliance and then executed it flawlessly on first try. It’s a nice thought, because if it were true, I could keep playing Temple Run all day while waiting for my own moment of inspiration to arrive.

The reality, of course, is that great ideas, and great products, are a result of considerable effort. The products we build are experiments, and their success depends in no small part on our ability to test and validate our assumptions and quickly iterate and refine our ideas.

Last month, I spoke about this topic at One More Thing – an iOS design and development conference in Melbourne, Australia. The talk covered key approaches to prototyping iOS apps, underlining the value of low-fidelity deliverables and highlighting some of my favorites tools.

Videos of all the conference talks are available for only $39 from the One More Thing website, and cover a wide range of relevant and interesting topics. Jamiee Newberry, a UX strategy and design consultant, spoke about great ways to think about the personality and tone of your apps and how to write better copy. Lex Friedman, a senior writer for Macworld, explained how to stand out from the crowd with your press release. And Karl von Randow, developer of Camera+, gave an inspiring talk on the nature of our industry, and how successful the energy of beginning can be.

Those are just a few highlights of an excellent event. If you’re interested, head on over to onemorething.com.au to check out the full 2013 lineup and the videos. You can also check out a slightly pared down version of my deck below: