Prototype, MVP or full product: which does your startup need?

Different tools for different questions

Founders often use prototype, MVP and product as if they meant the same thing. They don't, and picking the wrong one is one of the most common ways to waste time and money. The simplest way to tell them apart is by the question each one answers:

• Proof of concept: can it be built?
• Prototype: can people use it?
• MVP: do people want it?
• Full product: can it grow?

Proof of concept: can it be built?

A proof of concept tests technical feasibility. It's usually rough, internal and never shown to customers: a quick experiment to check that, for example, an AI model can pull the right data from your documents, or that two systems can talk to each other. If your idea doesn't depend on anything technically uncertain, you can skip it.

Prototype: can people use it?

A prototype is a clickable set of screens, usually made in a design tool such as Figma, that looks and feels like a real product but has no working code behind it. It lets you watch real people try to complete a task and see where they get stuck, in days rather than weeks.

Prototypes are ideal for testing a flow, getting feedback on a concept or showing investors what you're building. What they can't tell you is whether people will actually use the product week after week, or pay for it. For that, you need something real. Our UI/UX design and prototyping work starts here.

MVP: do people want it?

A minimum viable product is the smallest working version of your product that real users can use for real. It has working code, but only the core features: the ones needed to test your riskiest assumption, such as “clinics will pay monthly for this” or “people will book through an app instead of phoning”.

An MVP isn't a cheaper version of your final product. It's an experiment with real users, and it should be judged on what it teaches you. Before launch, agree the signals that count as success, such as sign-ups, activation or paid conversions, and set up analytics from day one.

A validation MVP typically takes us 2–4 weeks. Our MVP development page explains how we approach it, and our guide to what an MVP costs in the UK covers the budget.

Full product: can it grow?

A full product is built once demand is proven. It has the complete feature set, handles edge cases, and sits on foundations that grow with your users: proper security, performance, monitoring and a reliable way to release updates. For us, a larger platform usually takes around eight weeks and beyond.

If your MVP was built well, you extend it rather than start again. That's why the technology choices in an MVP still matter, even though the feature list is small.

Side by side

Which one do you need now?

• You're not sure it can be built: start with a proof of concept.
• You know the problem but not the right design: start with a prototype and test it with a handful of target users.
• You've tested the design and need to know whether people will use it or pay: build an MVP.
• Your MVP has real, returning users and a clear signal of demand: invest in the full product.

Most early-stage founders need an MVP first, often with a prototype stage before it. Jumping straight to a full product is the most expensive way to find out whether people want what you've built.

A real example

For Infinite Running League, the first relay running league platform, we validated demand before building the product. A prototype and a waitlist campaign drew more than 1,000 sign-ups and a 45% feedback rate in six weeks, so the founder went into the build knowing what runners actually wanted.

Not sure where your idea sits?

Run it through our free idea stress test. It takes five minutes and shows which assumption to test first, which tells you whether you need a prototype, an MVP or neither yet.