Key Differences Between a Prototype and an MVP: Decision Factors for Product Development

In product development, understanding key differences between a prototype and an MVP will enable you to determine the best way of developing your tech product.

This article mainly focuses on prototypes versus MVPs, which are regularly confused in theory. A minimum viable product (MVP) is an early version of a product with functional features and requires minimal effort to attract early adopters, gather feedback, and validate your idea.

Prototypes are only meant to demonstrate that your concept can work in practice. A prototype proves that whatever you have conceived can actually be built; thus, a prototype is an input to the MVP.

Key Differences Between a Prototype and an MVP

In this section, we will comprehensively look at the differences between a prototype and an MVP, which will guide you in your product development journey. The key differences between a prototype and an MVP include the following:

Definition:

• Prototype: A model that shows what the product looks like. It could be a sketch, wireframe, 2D or 3D image, or physical model. Some prototypes let users interact with them, acting like a working product. Think of a prototype as a mock-up of your tech product.
• MVP: An early product version with working features that address a problem for users.

Purpose:

• Prototype: Demonstrates how your product will look. You can test how it works by making an interactive model.
• MVP: Validates your product idea and gets user feedback to make it better.

Development Process:

• Prototype: It involves sketching using tools like Figma or Balsamiq. A prototype is built with the help of the product manager and UI/UX product designer who use these stated tools.
• MVP: It involves building a working product with a product manager and developers. You then use the feedback to improve, change, or pivot the product. You can ditch a prototype and design a new one because it takes less time and money. This isn’t true for an MVP. Ben Yoskovitz recommends that if an MVP doesn’t get positive feedback when it’s first released, that doesn’t mean you should give up on the product. Instead, you use the feedback to test your idea and keep improving the product until it gives value to customers.

 Form:

• Prototype: As basic as a paper drawing, a wireframe—a digital version of the product concept—a mock-up of your product idea, an interactive front-end model that mimics user navigation, and so on.
• MVP: It HAS TO BE a functioning product because it is released to the market. Your first audience needs to be able to use the MVP, whether it’s an app or website, and give their thoughts about it.

Audience:

• Prototype: This is mainly targeted at internal stakeholders. For example, from an end-user perspective, one can test if a prototype works from your design team. Prototypes are also used to illustrate an end product to investors to build their confidence that it’s something worth investing in.
• MVP: Targets early adopters, potential consumers in the market, and potential investors.

Resources:

• Prototype: Development takes a little time, money, and labor. Some prototypes take just a day, week, or month to develop. The more complex ones take longer. Depending on the product idea you have, you may actually be able to build a prototype yourself, saving on labor costs.
• MVP: Development takes more time, money, and labor. It may take from three to four months to develop an MVP or even longer if it is complex. The average cost for the development of an MVP varies from $15,000 to $150,000 or more. You will also need a product manager, developer(s), designer, and people who are skillful in other areas like project management and marketing to be able to build an MVP.

Functionality:

• Prototype: It does not necessarily need to have functionality. Depending on the need, it should represent a product or be interactive to demonstrate functionality.
• MVP: It MUST be functional. Your early adopters should be able to use your MVP.

MVPs and prototypes differ because an MVP is a functional product released to early customers, while a prototype is a visual model of your product. No rule prevents your prototype from eventually entering the market and becoming a full-fledged product, but this is not the primary function of building it.

An MVP, on the other hand, has to enter the market because its primary function is to gather user feedback and validate your product idea.

Fig 1: Key Differences between an MVP and a Prototype

Decision Factors: When to Choose a Prototype vs. an MVP

Testing is essential when introducing a new product idea to the market to ensure it is successful. Prototyping and the MVP development approach are common ways to test tech products while ensuring that you use minimal resources.

You will encounter scenarios where an MVP is a more suitable approach and others where prototyping is more appropriate. Therefore, let us look at factors to consider when choosing between a prototype and an MVP.

Factors to Consider

You  should consider the following factors to guide you in deciding whether to use an MVP or prototype:

1. Project Scope and Purpose: The scope of tech products differs depending on your company’s goals and objectives. Prototyping is more appropriate if you aim to determine the feasibility of your product with limited resources. The MVP approach is more suitable if you want to enter the market early and convince customers to use your product.

2. Development Stage: In the early development stages, a prototype is more suitable before figuring out your product’s basic concept and functionality. Prototypes allow you to experiment, test, and refine your idea. You can also discard the idea and develop multiple prototypes if the first one is not feasible. An MVP is more suitable if you have a well-thought-out product idea that you’re ready to test in the market.

3. Available Resources: Prototypes generally require fewer resources than MVPs unless your product idea needs a complex prototype. A prototype showcases a model of your product and is more suitable if you have limited resources. MVPs are used as alternatives to full-fledged products because they not only allow you to test and validate your idea but also require fewer resources. However, you still need a considerable budget for your MVP, which ranges from $15,000 to $150,000. Using a prototyping tool, for example, Sketch will cost you $12 a month. You can account for designer costs, which will still be less than an MVP.

4. Time Constraints: Building prototypes is less time-consuming compared to building an MVP. This is unless your prototypes are complex and require more time. Consider a scenario where you have to present your idea to potential investors within a week. The best approach is prototyping because you can build a visual representation within that time. An MVP will consume more time because it needs functional features.

5. Target Audience: The target audience of your product also matters when deciding between a prototype and an MVP. A prototype is suitable when presenting a future product to potential investors and shareholders. An MVP is more  suitable if you intend to attract early adopters, potential customers, and investors as well.

Essential factors to consider when choosing between an MVP and a prototype include your intended audience, time, the resources you have, the development stage, and the scope and purpose of your project.

Fig 2: Decision factors when choosing between an MVP and a prototype

Scenarios Where a Prototype is More Appropriate

Prototypes can either be high-fidelity or low-fidelity. A low-fidelity prototype is more suitable in the early development stages when you still haven’t fleshed out your product idea.

A high-fidelity prototype is more interactive and shows how users interact with your product. Picture a scenario where your company wants to build a website without fully conceptualizing what it will entail. A low-fidelity prototype can be a sketch of the features the website can incorporate. A high-fidelity prototype would be interactive.

Scenarios Where an MVP is More Appropriate

The purpose of an MVP is to test and validate your idea by solving a pain point experienced by consumers. The way to do this is to provide something that your target audience will actually use and provide feedback. Therefore, an MVP needs to be functional and usable.

Picture a scenario where you identify a gap in the market and develop an idea to solve it. You also need to know whether customers need this pain point addressed. An MVP  is the most appropriate approach as opposed to a prototype. You can still use prototypes in the early development stages of your MVP before figuring out how to make it work, but the end goal is to develop something functional.

The reception of your product might not be positive after the initial launch, but this does not mean that customers don’t need the pain point addressed. MVPs give you a chance to collect feedback, determine what’s wrong with the product, and how to make it more usable to your consumers. With proper feedback, iterations, and improvements, you can come up with a successful product.

Once you get an idea for a tech product, it is crucial to determine which approach you will take. You have an option of prototyping, especially if you have limited resources and you haven’t fleshed out your idea yet, or building an MVP. An MVP is a more suitable approach if you have your entire product idea mapped out and you’re ready to introduce it to the market.

Common Pitfalls when Developing Prototypes and how to Avoid them

Prototyping is an important part of product development since it refines your concept and helps you visualize it before building it. Before delving into prototyping, there are some common pitfalls to remember and how one can avoid them. They include:

1. Bias on the first idea: It is common and part of human nature to fall in love with your first product idea(aka your solution). In entrepreneurship, the concept is known as the Einstellung Effect and is caused by cognitive bias. It predisposes someone to solve a problem in a specific manner without considering better alternatives. In prototyping, the Einstellung Effect makes you biased toward the first idea you have. It inhibits someone’s ability to discard a prototype that doesn’t work and look for better options.

Solution: It is essential to commence the journey of product development with the understanding that our first ideas are not always the best. You should also keep an open mind and welcome opinions and feedback from your target audience. Focusing on the facts and results after testing your prototype also helps address the Einstellung Effect.

2. Inability to choose: The inability to choose your prototypes is also a result of falling in love with all of them. This is caused by investment bias, whereby a person becomes excessively invested in their prototypes because they have spent time and financial resources on them. It inhibits the ability to see faults in your prototypes and choose the most suitable one.

Solution: Run A/B tests whereby you run tests on two or more of your prototypes simultaneously to determine which one performs best. You should select the prototype with the best results (depending on the goals you have set) because you have real data to back your decision up.

3. A lack of a clear and intended purpose: Blindly creating prototypes is a significant pitfall because it wastes time and resources.

Solution: Every prototype you create should have a specific purpose. Clearly define your hypothesis and what you want your prototypes to achieve before building them. 

4. Scope creep:  Scope creep in prototyping occurs when someone adds more functions and requirements to the desired product. This makes the prototype grow beyond its initial intentions. Scope creep is risky because it can make you deviate entirely from the purpose you originally intended for your prototype.

Solution: Define the scope of your prototype and clearly outline the goals you aim to achieve with it. Work with these goals only and do not add any requirements that do not align with them.

Figure 3: Pitfalls in Prototyping and their solutions

Some common pitfalls in prototyping are first idea bias, an inability to decide on which prototype you go ahead with, a lack of clear and intended purpose, and scope creep. These pitfalls limit your capacity to design a smooth and functional prototype, which will let you build a good product with value for your probable customers. These pitfalls should be attended to if the result is desired to be successful product development.

Conclusion

While prototypes and MVPs seem similar in theory, they have significant differences. It is essential to fully understand the differences between an MVP and a prototype before starting the journey of building your product idea. Understanding these differences will help you know which route to take.

An MVP is an early version of your product with functional features released to adopters to gather feedback and validate your idea. A prototype is a demonstration of your product and is either low-fidelity, like a sketch, or high-fidelity, like an interactive model. Decision factors when choosing between an MVP and a prototype are time, resources, scope, development stage, and intended audience.

When it comes down to it, an MVP is used to test and validate the early version of a digital product, while a prototype is a demonstration of a product idea. You need to clearly define the scope of your project and establish its goals so you can decide whether to prototype or use the MVP approach.

Prototyping is more suitable when your idea is not fleshed out and someone needs to prove the feasibility of the concept. Unlike a prototype, an MVP is ready for the market and has functional features. It is released to early adopters and used to validate a product idea. You need to consider these factors to decide whether to build an MVP or a prototype.

Having trouble deciding whether to start with a prototype or MVP? Schedule a discovery call with us today, and we’ll help you navigate the decision while connecting you to the right development team to bring your product idea to life!

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