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Product & Prototype

Prototype vs. MVP: What’s The Difference?

By September 16, 2021February 27th, 2023No Comments

Bezos started off with a simple website selling books.

Now he hangs out on the moon.

While I’m not telling you to dream up big, pretentious goals and achieve them as the whole world is experiencing a pandemic and economic crisis…

…what I AM telling you is that it’s okay/it’s normal/it’s recommended to start small.

The big dreams come later.

But in order to understand where to start, you need to know the difference between an MVP vs. prototype.

MVP: The smallest number of features that showcase your unique selling proposition, that solve your customers’ problems, in the cheapest way possible.

Prototype: A hypothetical example that mimics the value delivery you are giving your customers. 

You can get feedback on both.

The difference is nuanced, sure.

But it’s important to know whether you’re:

  • Delivering value OR (MVP)
  • Just getting feedback (Prototype)

Commonly, the startup journey looks like (granted, with a lot of hiccups along the way):

Prototype -> MVP -> More features -> More features -> More features -> Big, end goal product

Did you start small? What are your big dreams? 


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