How many times have you or your team “quickly coded” a prototype to the oohs and aaahs of your stakeholders? Then they immediately want to put it into production. It is of course true in a sense because time is money and we want to empower our executive team to make decisions rapidly.
Speeding up the MVP phase will give you an early and false sense of security and even worse, set you up to fall from grace. It’s important to understand the difference between concepts, prototypes, a minimum viable product (MVPs), and the production product. Then its important to wield the right tool for the given challenge.
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a concept in product development where a new product is built with a sufficient set of features to satisfy its initial users and provide a conduit for collecting feedback for future development. Essentially, it's the simplest version of a product that's still functional and delivers value to customers. The objective of an MVP is to test fundamental business hypotheses and validate market needs with minimal effort, enabling the product team to iterate, improve, and refine the product based on real-world feedback.
Setting up the process for how you will develop your MVP is a game of trust.
The role of CTO is critical in this process. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new product for a new startup or a new idea for an established enterprise. In most cases, the CTO will be the only person in the room of stakeholders who knows what technology can accomplish to meet this need. Mix some emotional intelligence in there and you have the superhuman ability to facilitate the stakeholders in moving the ball forward.
A Proof of Concept (PoC) and a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) are both critical stages in the product development cycle, but they serve different purposes and are used at different times.
A Proof of Concept (PoC) is typically the first step in the development process, used to verify that a particular idea or method is feasible from a technical perspective. The primary purpose of a PoC is to demonstrate that a concept can be developed and to identify potential technical pitfalls that might need to be addressed during the development process. A PoC is usually not a complete product and is not typically shown to the public or customers. It's meant for internal validation before a company invests significant resources into developing the full product.
On the other hand, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a development technique where a new product or website is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters and to provide feedback for future product development. It's a version of the product with just enough features to validate the product's market fit and understand what the target audience requires. The feedback gathered from an MVP is used to iterate on the product and guide the development of a more refined and fully-featured final product.
In short, a PoC is used to validate whether a concept is technically feasible, while an MVP is used to validate whether a product is desired by the market and to gain valuable feedback for further iterations.
| Proof of Concept | Prototype | Minimum Viable Product | Production Product | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOAL | Prove feasibility of a single idea | Demonstrate a business concept which contains a few-to-several ideas | Minimum set of features to see if customers will utilize the product. Begins the process toward product-market-fit. | Fully functional product that satisfies customers needs |
| DEVELOPMENT TIME | Hours / Days | Days / Weeks | Weeks / Months | |
| Iterative | Months / Quarters | |||
| Iterative | ||||
| WHO | Developers | |||
| Select stakeholders | Stakeholders | |||
| Investors | ||||
| Focus groups | Early adopters | Customers | ||
| WHAT | Test technical feasibility | Test out user flows | ||
| Demo product ideas | Securing funding | |||
| Get to product-market-fit | Growth | |||
| WHY | Reduces technical risk | Reduces business risk | Speed to market to test our hypotheses | Ensure complete solutions that serve customer needs |
| INVESTMENT | Small | Small to Medium | Medium and well-defined. | Large. Budgeted annually. |
| REVENUE | None | None | Beta offerings. | |
| Price experimentation. | Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) | |||
| Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) | ||||
| Churn Rate | ||||
| NEXT STEPS | Code is throw-away. Learnings inform Prototypes and/or MVP. | Learnings inform MVP. | ||
| Designs refactored for MVP. | ||||
| Code might be throw-away or refactored. | Code incurs technical debt. As learnings are gathered, code is refactored. | Code effectiveness is monitored. Refactored as needed for scale. | ||
| Typical code longevity is 2-4 years. |
As the CTO, the responsibility for determining when an MVP is ready to launch often falls squarely on your shoulders. This task requires a deep understanding of both the technical aspects of the product and the strategic business objectives.
First, the CTO must ensure that the MVP has enough features to deliver the core value proposition and solve the problem it's intended to address. This involves defining the 'minimal' part of the MVP—deciding which features are essential for the initial launch and which can be postponed to later iterations.
Feedback can only be gained from customers if the product is actually being used by them. Each moment the MVP is delayed from shipping is a moment that feedback is not coming in. The CTO must act as the advocate for the business to determine what is required for launch, versus what can come in future releases. Business teams will want both completeness of features AND a fast time to market. A streamlined and clear prioritization process is essential.
Second, the CTO must validate the technical viability of the MVP, ensuring its stable, functional, and ready for user interaction. This may involve overseeing the testing process, including both functionality tests and user experience tests. Additionally, the CTO needs to consider whether the current infrastructure is prepared to support the product once its live. This could mean ensuring server capacity, planning for scalability, confirming that security measures are in place, and that the system can handle the expected user load.
Finally, the CTO has a crucial role in coordinating with other teams—product, marketing, sales, and customer support—ensuring they are prepared for the launch and ready to handle customer feedback and queries. The CTO is not a passive order taker in this process, they are the conductor proactively driving the teams to get to goal.