Proof of Concept
Posted on January 23, 2008
Filed Under The Startup
Continuing in our Web 2.0 Series. Lets talk about proof of concept when it comes to a start up company.
Proof of Concept
The proof of concept stage is where the goal is to create some sort of working model of the product so that employees, potential investors and your relatives can see that this thing is actually possible. Another word for this would be the prototype.
So if we were designing clothes. Then to get to the Proof of Concept, we would have to go through a number of stages
- Idea- Its in your head
- Rough sketch - Down on paper and edited/collaborated in some form or another
- Design specifications - Again if we are designing clothes this is the formal drawing of what it should look like
- Prototype/Proof of Concept - For clothes this will usually be a single piece hand tailored by the designer to show what it will look like. For a web-dev project, it will be a buggy and un-skinned version that will be able to accomplish the basic functionality specified
More about what to expect (and not) in the Proof of Concept for a Web-Dev
- It wont be pretty- forget about formatting and visual design at this point. User Experience - no way
- It will be a simple CSS style sheet thrown together by your developer in 10 minutes with <div> hooks that you can later arrange into a proper formatting
- It will showcase what you are trying to accomplish. For example if your vision is to let people custom design friendship bracelets online
then the proof of concept will most likely be a friendship bracelet design wizard that lets you choose from 3 different colors and 3 different designs. - It will not be feature filled. To stay with our friendship bracelet example, the final spec may call for 20 designs and 20 colors with the option to import your own as well. Well the Proof of concept will not have all these things
- Basic and unnecessary functions may be left out - For example, it will obviously be part of the final design spec to allow users to register, but in the Proof, this step may just be skipped because it is a simple step that does not need to be proven. Remember we are here to PROVE something
- It will be buggy - That doesn’t mean that your developer is bad, it just means that all apps have bugs and bugs take time. However for the Proof, the only bugs that need to be resolved are the bugs that deal with the core functionality. No need to chase gnats around the patio when you have giant cock-a-roach in your living room.
Again the Proof of Concept is to PROVE. Keep it simple and functional, dont bother to develop features that are taken for granted (ie..user reg) or are purely a luxury (ie…user mods unless it is a core concept)
It should be fast and sleek and get you ready for the next round.
DING!
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