PoC vs MVP vs Prototype: When to Use Each

A good beginning is half the task, they say. And all the concepts we’re going to discuss today - PoC vs Prototype vs MVP - are about preparing and giving a good kickoff to your Startup.

These terms are relevant for companies that are at the Concept, Pre-Seed and Seed stages so if you can find yourself on that list - welcome aboard!

Despite these concepts aren’t new to the Startup community, they’re still often misunderstood and misused. That’s why in this article we will:

• outline the difference between PoC, MVP and Prototype;
• explain when and why you should use each of these concepts;
• tell you how to get the most out of them for the benefit of your Product.

Let’s begin with taking a look at tie-ins between these concepts.

🔗 Understanding a PoC vs Prototype vs MVP Linkage

Before we review the details of each concept, let’s make an important stop and outline a few substantial ideas. Despite some of them may seem familiar, it’s important to lay out the whole picture so we don’t get confused later:

• A PoC, a Prototype or an MVP aren’t different forms of your Product. Actually, only the MVP refers directly to your end-Product.
• However, they refer to different stages in Product development. That’s why the most reasonable sequence to follow is a PoC ➡️ a Prototype ➡️ an MVP.
• What is another noticeable difference between a Prototype and a Proof of Concept vs an MVP? While MVP development is a general recommendation for all Startups, your Project may not need a PoC at all. Functional prototypes are a good idea almost always but it’s also something that may seem excessive in some situations.
• Both a Prototype and a PoC are used at the pre-Product Stage. They are needed to validate ideas and assumptions that refer to tech feasibility (it’ll be a PoC) or a UI/UX sphere (for Prototypes).
• An MVP is built at the Product Stage and released for early adopters.

A PoC vs a Prototype vs an MVP visualisation

If we try to visualise these concepts on a single timeline, it will look like this:

Working with Startups for over 3 years now, we regularly receive many questions regarding the Proof of Concept. Here are some of the most popular ones and our answers to them:

• I know that my competitors have implemented similar technology. It means that my idea is feasible, so I don’t need the Proof of Concept and can skip this stage to save money, right?

Nope, that’s not actually right. The goal is to find out whether the technology or feature can be implemented particularly within your Project.

If you just know that your competitors are already using the technology you’re interested in, that won’t be enough. However, if you know how they’ve implemented it (for example, you asked and they shared or they have a “how we used X in our app” article in their blog), it’s possible to skip the PoC step.

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• Is it a must-do stage in Startup Development?

No, you don’t need it if your Project doesn’t have any tech challenges that you aren’t sure how to deal with.

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• I have a few doubtful tech points in my Startup Project. Should I create several PoCs for them?

Yes. Another difference between a PoC and a Prototype or an MVP is that you may need to create multiple Proofs of Concept to validate tech assumptions for different parts of your Product.

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• When should I build the Proof of Concept?

As early as possible. It’s better to create a PoC before a Prototype and an MVP since it proves whether your idea feasible at all. If it’s not, building a Minimum Viable Product or a Prototype will be a waste of time and resources.

Let’s say you’ve created a PoC and it proved the tech viability of your idea. What may be the next step? A Prototype!

🎨 Prototype: Visualise Your Idea

As we keep to outline the key difference between a Prototype vs a Proof of Concept vs an MVP, let’s get a closer look at the first concept in this line.

A Prototype is an interactive visualisation of your Product that demonstrates user flows and main design elements.

If you’re already familiar with our article about wireframing, you may remember that we described prototypes as the most advanced stage of mobile/web blueprinting.

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Ok, now you’ve proven that your idea is feasible from the tech perspective and you know how to implement it from the UI/UX perspective. What’s next? Build an MVP!

📱 Minimum Viable Product: Solve the Problem

Despite the MVP concept was introduced in the far 2001 (when only 8.6% of the world’s population could go online and the Internet used to look like this 🙂), sometimes it’s misunderstood even nowadays. So what is it?

A Minimum Viable Product is a Product that has a minimum needed set of features to satisfy early customers and collect feedback for further development.

So the key Prototype, PoC and MVP difference is that only the MVP in this line is actually a Product. It’s not something you do for your domain expertise and show only to the limited number of stakeholders but publicly release for everyone.

According to Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup, the concept is a kind of compromise between 2 extremes:

• On the one hand, Startup Teams usually think that they have only one shot so it’s quite natural they want to make it perfect. Therefore, they’re spending months or even years in the stealth R&D adding many cool features, creating an awesome UI, making everything pixel-perfect and polished - all to satisfy the users.
• On the other hand, some Startups implicitly follow the rule “release early, release often”. However, many took this advice wrong and pull out crappy Products in order to get early feedback but don’t know what to do next.

Eventually, both approaches usually fail.

In the first case, Startups waste too much time and money on a Product that no one may ever need. Even if the Product passes the “toothbrush test”, any pivots or even the smallest changes may be expensive and difficult due to the product’s complexity.

In the second case, there’s a risk of falling into a circle when instead of improving a Product the Team will try to chase what customers think they want.

An MVP tries to deal with both of the problems and says: “Release a good enough Product fast”.

Another misconception regarding the Minimum Viable Product is that it’s something not very useful, having poor performance or design. It’s more like this:

Let’s take a final look at how different a Proof of Concept versus a Prototype versus a Minimum Viable Product are!

📊 MVP vs Prototype vs PoC: Comparison Table

To summarize the key ideas, we made up a comparison table below. Take a look: