Proof of concept, prototype, MVP - how best to validate your product idea?
Whether you’re a product owner at an enterprise or a CEO steering a startup through its product-market fit phase, you’re likely wrestling with budget constraints. Every decision must be considered, particularly in tough times when optimizing every penny and ensuring data-backed justification becomes a standard. This principle is fundamental to the Lean Startup methodology, where validating your idea is essential for the success of any digital product. In this article, we delve into various strategies aimed at optimizing your expenditure on product development through rigorous idea validation. Continue reading to find out which approach best aligns with your needs: proof of concept, prototype, or MVP?
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Why bother validating your product idea?
An idea – either for a completely new product or a significant update or expansion of an existing product – is an opportunity for your business. It might bring in new clients, build your community of users and fans, or even trigger the digital transformation of your whole setup. But getting a positive ROI for apps, websites, platforms, and the like is not necessarily easy. Does the new idea hit the mark for users? Is it attractive to investors and other stakeholders? Before you commit to further design and development, you need to expose that idea to sufficient reality to decide whether it is viable. In other words, is it a good idea?
The answer is to put something together and test it. But do you need a proof of concept, a prototype, or an MVP for idea validation?
Difference between POC, prototype and MVP
Proof of Concept (POC)
The first major issue is whether your product idea will work or not, and that’s what a proof of concept will check. A POC is not a reduced version of the final product, it’s not a way of researching the market’s demand, nor does it explore user needs – a POC confirms whether or not your idea is technically possible.
What does a proof of concept (PoC) look like? Most often, it’s a demonstration of a working feature that proves something is feasible. It is likely to be basic in appearance, lacking design or having only the minimal necessary user interface, and relatively simple. The idea behind a PoC is to demonstrate the feasibility of a solution using a specific technology, rather than to present something perfect or ready for immediate inclusion in the final product.
The benefits of a POC for product idea validation include:
- Reduced risk – you confirm viability before proceeding further with the project, avoiding unnecessary development.
- Reduced costs – you won’t waste money later on designing a product that either won’t or can’t work.
- Improved development and business strategy – confirming the idea is potentially functional combined with the resulting feedback or data can be used to refine the specifications and scope of the project.
- Get investors on board – proof that the basic technical challenges of the project can be handled is a significant step in gaining others’ interest in the project.
A proof of concept is created early in the life of your idea; it can serve as the first ‘green light’ for the design and development process. A POC is especially useful when the product or feature idea is genuinely new; meaning it is untested on the market.
Prototype
A prototype goes a step or two further than a proof of concept. The goal of a prototype is to test and validate design concepts, functionality, and user experience of a product before it is fully developed and launched. By creating a prototype, teams can visualize their software or product idea long before investing in the development of a full-scale version. This process, typically spanning 7 to 14 days, offers a practical and efficient way to demonstrate the concept to stakeholders, perform essential testing, and collect valuable feedback and data.
Prototypes can come in various forms. Here at Boldare, we prefer to create clickable prototypes with a digital interface as they are closer in nature to the final product, but checking user appeal can be done with a sketch on the back of an envelope – the test is whether the prototype accurately and clear communicates to the potential user so that you can observe and record their reactions. And that is the key word with prototypes: “reactions”. You’re not looking for detailed, thoughtful feedback; you want to know how users will respond – what’s their gut reaction? Which is partly why keeping costs low is part of creating a prototype.
The benefits of developing a prototype for product idea validation include:
- A better understanding of your product idea – although a prototype may well not look anything like the final product, it does require you to think through the product idea and how it can be applied; highly useful groundwork for the future design process.
- A better final product – thanks to user feedback and reactions, you can create a final version of your digital product more in tune with user needs and pain points and therefore likely to be more successful.
- Quick & low-cost – much less expensive than development of a full product version, prototypes are also relatively quick to create; if you use a Design Thinking approach or follow the system laid down in Knapp, John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz’s Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas In Just Five Days the actual time dedicated to prototype development is just one day.
- Get commitment from investors – being able to demonstrate potential user (and market) interest is critical to attracting investors or getting approval from relevant stakeholders.
When should you create a prototype? The most obvious use is the one established earlier: to validate your idea for a web or mobile app or product. However, prototypes can also boost fundraising – an investor or venture capitalist is more likely to be interested in your idea if there is a proven need for it; by prototyping to test user needs, you’re also testing the market. A prototype can also be used to generate initial interest in the idea and eventual product; even encouraging pre-sales and advance orders.
The key to a great prototype is to build enough to learn and no more. The prototype is a way of presenting the idea and core features to users; it not intended to be an actual product – prototypes do not end up being released to the market for wider use.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Similar to POCs and prototypes, an MVP is a way of testing the assumptions you may have about the product and initial product concept. However, unlike a proof of concept or prototype, an MVP is a functional version of the product – with just enough features to gather validated feedback from users. In essence, a minimum viable product is an experiment exploring what you think you know about the market and target users for the product: the actual need for the digital product or feature; whether the product will address real user needs; and even whether your business model for the product is viable.
The benefits of creating a minimum viable product for idea validation include:
- Understand the target audience – have you identified the right target users for your product/idea? Does the MVP address their pain points or problems? Does it add value? An MVP can tell you if you’re aiming your product at the right people.
- A roadmap for future development – an MVP is a key milestone in the product development process, indicating either that you’re heading in the right direction or showing you in which direction you need to pivot.
- Financial viability – enthusiasm (or lack of it) in response to testing your MVP with users can be an indication of future sales and customers.
The time to put together a minimum viable product is when you have your initial product or new feature design. You have a clear idea of what your digital solution could look like, and it’s time to test the core features of that vision with target users. In a sense, you’re also testing the users themselves – are they right for the product? After all, if your great idea ‘fails’ it may not mean the idea is bad, just that you’re pitching it at the wrong people.
POC, prototype & MVP – cost & budget
All three of these development strategies are cost-savers, helping you avoid spending thousands of dollars on a product that is ultimately rejected by its target market. Proof of concept, prototype, and MVP are methods of gathering just enough external input to validate the idea or product. All three offer a valuable ‘reality check’ that can save considerable expense in terms of developing an unwanted, misaligned, or vanity product.
3 idea validation strategies
Ultimately, all three of these approaches have a similar goal: to test your idea (or product or feature) against reality. The main difference between POC, prototype and MVP comes as follows:
- proof of concept asks whether the idea is possible;
- the prototype asks whether the idea is good for users;
- and the minimum viable product asks whether development is heading in the right direction.
You don’t have to adopt all three for every digital product you develop or every product idea you come up with. But almost all digital development projects benefit from at least one: either a POC to check the initial direction, a prototype to generate user reactions, or an MVP to put a version of the product out there in the ‘real world’. Which of the three you need depends on the type of product you’re developing and the amount of risk involved (new ideas and groundbreaking products tend to be higher risks; a variation or advance on a proven theme less so).
For more on product idea validation, check out Boldare’s full cycle product development services.
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