[Groxx]

Very much yes.

There's little reason to try to go straight for the final product when you don't know exactly how to get there, and that's frequently the case. Build toys to learn what you need efficiently, toss them, and then build the real thing. Trying to shoot for the final product while also changing direction multiple times along the way tends to create code with multiple conflicting goals subtly encoded in it, and it'll just confuse you and others later.

[RangerScience]

Came across the idea of "probe" (awhile ago) as a name for this.