From the idea to the market product: POC vs MVP vs Prototype

There are many startups in the market some with having the good funding and some are waiting for the funding. Some startups with a big idea to change the world some startups are implementing themselves, Some startups fail because of their bad choices and some fail because they don’t know the concept of the market to follow. But what are the reasons? What are those concepts to succeed in the market? Why do startups fail? There are many questions around, and to answer those question we are here to discuss. And we will discuss it in detail.

Testing your idea is the first thing to do when you think to start or invest in your idea because if the idea is good but you fail to test it well, then your startup will definitely go down. Some of the startups fail because they fail to identify their target audience and without testing it they launch their startup and meets the failure statement.

To avoid such failure and risk business and startups take action to test their idea at the different level of the process like PoC, MVP, and Prototype. But not every startup are doing well. There are many reasons why startup fails and not getting their results in the market.

Here are some of the top reasons:

1. Market Problem:\
   • The market is the reason why new startups are built. The market has many unsolved problems and the opportunities to fulfil the gap and make decent money in the process.
   • Identifying the correct market and the problem is not that easy If you end up making the solution for a problem which nobody has or is significant.
   • Solution: Before Start building, the product go to the market and talk to people about your product and build the target audience.
   • Make the changes when you are on the stage of implementing your idea because it’s easier to make changes at an earlier stage.
2. Bad User/Product Experience:
   • There are many competitors in the market when you are thinking about the user experience. You can easily lose your audience if you don’t have the proper user experience of the product
   • If you have the bad user interface and your product takes too much time to process, or there are more clicks then necessary then the user will never accept the product and you need more time to get up in the market.
   • Solution: Remember UX is the critical factor when it comes to any web and mobile or product development.
3. Loss of Focus:
   • We all have 24 hours of time but, without direction, Every startup loses its focus on what they do.
   • Solution: When you are a startup you need to focus on only two things\
     • Customers
     • Your Product Talk to your customers and stay focus on your startup to update as your audience want.
4. No Teams:
   “Individuals don’t build good companies, teams do” – Mark Suster
   • Find at least one person from a different discipline to balance your startup and make the growth 3x more than the unbalance startup.
   • If you want to know more about how to choose the best tech partner you can click here and read the deeds.

These are the points you can consider to solve your startup failure problem.
There are lots of small choices to make when the startups are going to launch their products. From scratch to the final product everything matters. But the hardest thing to decide is whether they should develop a minimum viable product, a proof-of-concept or a prototype.

Proof of Concept (PoC):

Proof of Concept determines whether an idea can be turned into reality. Also, Identify potential technical and logistical issues that might interfere with success. In one sentence proof of concept is the process of testing the idea or concept is doable or not. PoC will help the idea with the proof that it works or not, so let’s assume with the question for “YES” or “NO”.

There is a small project, startup or application and we need to do the PoC for that, While doing the process when you get the answer with “YES” then go to the next step it’s the obvious thing, but what if you get the answer as “NO”, here don’t think that your concept will not work, but think like why it not works? And find a feasible solution for that and if you find the solution you will definitely take an action with the proof of concept, right?

As an app development company, we know what exactly PoC is. Having worked with a lot of startups since 2010. We know how important it is to be efficient with one’s resource.

Note: Whatever features you are thinking about adding to your mobile or web application, just go for the PoC. It’s not just about the coding but it’s all about the proof of concept.

“A PoC is by no means the Production ready”.

Here are some of the questions OR situations to choose PoC.

Minimum Viable Product

The process of launching the valuable features of your product to the end users so that you can get to know if your product is working well, your the audience is having a good experience with the product in the future with more features, so in simple terms launching the product with the less feature so you can make the decision on the early stage.

After acquiring the feedback’s from the early users other features and options moved into design and development.

So the main value-added thought is that before launching the whole product, every startup or business must learn what the customer really wants, not what they say they want and what we think they should want.

Get feedback from the customers (Direct or Indirect).

“ MVP software development isn’t about relaxing coding best practices or writing sloppy code. It is about always keeping the core business in mind when developing. This means building features that will actually help the business today. It’s about prioritising so that those features which have the highest impact are built first. While those features that won’t make a huge difference are left for a later time.” –

Michael Houghton

To know more about the MVP we need to know that what MVP is not

The early launch of the product is not only the meaning of the MVP. Let’s clear that up.

A half product: This not something that early adopters like and likely want to use the product.
A cheap product: User experience is the most essential part so the quality of UI/UX is essential so that people can interact with the app. An app that doesn’t get used doesn’t provide data.
About fast development: Fast development leads to the bugs and other loopholes in the startup or app. So MVP is not necessarily about the fast development than the full-featured product. MVP helps in the people not finding the bugs, vulnerabilities, broken features, etc.
A landing page: A Landing page is a good step, but it’s not MVP. MVP means a development technique and a process.

Here are some of the questions OR situations to choose MVP.

Prototyping

Steps in your mind when you think about an idea of doing any web and mobile application. The first step is knowing what to build, Next step is how to build and that’s how the prototyping works.

A structured skeleton of your idea to know how and what the application is doing before the implementation of the idea into reality.

Prototypes are usually reviewed by the production team, members, stakeholders, and representative users.

Feedback is just to make the decision about the flow of the project, features, information architectures, user flow and the other structure of the project or product.

A very early draft of a product/process/concept is called the prototyping

Here are some of the questions OR situations to choose Prototype.

The life-cycle of PoC, MVP, and Prototype will look like the image below.

Let’s compare MVP vs Prototype vs PoC:

Prototype Vs. MVP:
Prototype in simple terms a structure created in some software or on paper to show someone our web or mobile application.
It can be helpful to you as you can create the prototype of your product and show it to your customer and potential investor so that they can understand your idea. But don’t think like you will get more than feedback because prototype only gives you feedback from your customer or the investor. It’s difficult to get the customer who actually pays without having anything they can truly trust on.
So, If you need your mobile and web app feedback early from your customer prototype is the option.
MVP is useful when you need your business to run. Let’s take an example of any product or application that have a clickable or interactive prototype to showcase, but that proves nothing to the customer.
MVP is the product with primary functions so that the user can actually engage with your product functionality. You can show this customer engagement to your investors, which can help you to get the next-level funding. MVP is like a small investment, big payoff.
The prototype is the process before MVP. It is not always necessary but to get the customer and investor feedback it plays a vital role. Read the scenario of choosing MVP and Prototype in the above table.

So, The difference between the two is the purpose. A prototype is used to define the functionality. While MVP is already a basic but a functional product ready to on the market, that could be further improved and scaled.

PoC Vs. MVP
When you have a small project and you want to check the feasibility of some idea and you are looking for the funding on the very first time go for the PoC.

Also, PoCs are built when there is some technology risk like it is unknown if the technology that is required to build a product will work or not.
If you want to confirm your assumptions about your product and impress the customer than choose MVP.
Understanding the basic difference between PoC and MVP is very crucial and significant in software development.
Since a PoC is done ahead of planning the development, it allows you to discard the idea if it fails to test. This saves your long-ensured money and time. Also, if the idea is validated, it prominently demonstrates the promised value of the product–helping you know that your product will succeed in the market.

Wrapping Up

Your Checklist, Is your idea unique?

1. Do you need to find out if your target audience needs your product?
2. Do you have a budget restraints?
3. Do you have time restraints?
4. Is your project large?

If your answer to one or more of these questions is yes, then you definitely need to go the safe way and build from proof of concept to prototype to MVP.

If you have a promising idea then take the smartest route, consult WebMob Technologies to turn your product or idea into software or app. We have a top experienced team who can help you to build Minimal Viable Products that will be cost-effective and best in the market.

We are the Top Mobile and Web App Development Company since 2010. Want a team to give you advice on app development? Get in touch with us and we’ll help you in win time, money, and users!