COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Low Fidelity
Minimum Viable
Product (LoFi MVP)
CPE 036: Module 5
Objectives
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Design a LoFi MVP using the customer discovery
framework.
Digital transformation is about a way of approaching
business problems and finding solutions for them.
Introducing a new product means changing existing
interaction, workflows, and processes. It’s important
to ensure the new product is meeting all expectations,
along its journey.
Minimal viable product and prototype are two terms,
which are used a lot in tech start-up industry, but
they’re still often misused and misunderstood. It
can be hard to figure out what’s the difference
between a minimum viable product and a
prototype and how to fit these two methodologies
into your journey to achieve product market fit.
What is a Proof of Concept (POC)?
Prototyping is often confused with Proof of Concept
(POC). The purpose of Proof of Concept is to verify the
fundamental idea and find out it’s feasible in terms of
business models and technical capabilities.
What is a Prototype?
A prototype is a completed visual representation of the
product. It focuses on showing how a software product
will interact with the user and flow from one screen
to another. It is an important part of the project because
it helps in understanding the fundamental project
workflows and their usability.
What is a Prototype?
A prototype usually includes screens, wireframes (paper
or interactive), mock-ups and user flows. The prototype
itself is clickable, but it may or may not include
functionality.
What is a Prototype?
Once you have a functional prototype, you can share it
with stakeholders and groups of prospective users.
Through a prototype, you can get useful feedback that
you can iterate to optimize the prototype. It helps you to
point out errors and issues early on and you can come up
with new ideas and features to implement.
Types of Prototype Models
1. Throwaway Prototyping
2. Evolutionary Prototyping
3. Incremental Prototyping
4. Extreme Prototyping
Throwaway Prototyping
Also known as rapid prototyping, this involves creating a
temporary prototype to test ideas or gather feedback
quickly, and then discarding it.
Purpose: To build a product iteratively based on user
feedback.
Evolutionary Prototyping
This approach focuses on creating a prototype that is
continually refined and evolved into the final
product.
Purpose: To build a product iteratively based on user
feedback.
Incremental Prototyping
This method breaks the system into smaller
components, each prototyped and tested separately
before integrating into the whole.
Purpose: To reduce risks and allow modular
development.
Extreme Prototyping
Primarily used in web application development, this method
emphasizes dividing the prototype into three distinct phases:
1. Static Prototype: The basic structure and UI (e.g., HTML
wireframes).
2. Functional Screens: Adds simulated or backend services.
3. Final System Integration: Connects the frontend to the real
backend.
Purpose: To rapidly deliver functional web applications for
iterative feedback.
When Do You Need a Prototype?
There are various cases when you need to build a
prototype. If the product is too complex and there’s
some aspect of the system that you don’t entirely
understand, prototyping is very useful.
● If you have a general lack of understanding that you
need to complete before you start building product,
throwaway prototyping is useful.
● If you understand some aspects of the system and
aren’t sure about the others, evolutionary or
incremental prototyping is more suitable.
How to Build a Prototype
A prototype doesn’t need to look like the final
product. You can choose different approaches to achieve
different fidelity of prototype, which refers to how it
conveys the look-and-feel of the final product.
● Based on the goals of the prototype and available
resources, you can decide to create various types of
prototypes, ranging between a low-fidelity
prototype and a high-fidelity prototype.
Low-fidelity Prototyping
Refers to the creation of simple, quick, and often
rough representations of a product or concept. These
prototypes are typically inexpensive and easy to
modify, making them ideal for testing early ideas and
gathering initial feedback. The prototype should
include key elements and basic visual hierarchy
There are two techniques you
can use to build a low-fidelity
prototype:
● Paper Prototyping
● Wireframe Prototyping
Paper Prototyping
Paper prototyping is based on creating hand drawings
without using digital tools. Drawings represent
different screens of the user interface of a software
product. This approach is very simple and quick. It’s
helpful if you need to redefine designs quickly and if you
want to try different approaches of using software
product.
Wireframe Prototyping
A wireframe is the graphic representation of a software
application or a web page containing the most essential
elements and content. The wireframe provides a skeleton
of your product, but there is still a huge gap between an
actual tangible version of your product and wireframe.
However, you can link static wireframes together, which
allows you to create the simplest form of an interactive
prototype clickable wireframes
High-fidelity Prototyping
The user interface of a high-fidelity prototype looks like a
real application or website. This type of prototype
contains interactions, illustrations, images, similar-to-real
content and it looks like the real product to end users. In
comparison to low fidelity prototypes, creating high-
fidelity prototypes is more expensive.
What is Minimal Viable Product
(MVP) ?
The most basic version of a product that includes only
the essential features required to satisfy early adopters
and provide feedback for future development. It's a
strategy often used in product development to quickly
launch a product and validate ideas with minimal
resources and effort.
What is Minimal Viable Product
(MVP) ?
An MVP is intended to enter the market for user
evaluation. It helps you to gather user feedback and
impressions about the product’s key functionality.
Examples:
● Airbnb: Started as a simple website for renting rooms
during an event.
● Dropbox: Initially used a demo video to gauge
interest before developing the full product.
Three key elements of
Minimum Viable Product
1. An MVP is a product
2. An MVP is viable
3. An MVP is minimum
An MVP is a product
An MVP is a product that works and it needs to help or
get users from a point where they are now to the point
where they want to be. Your MVP needs to solve the core
user’s problem. The primary problem - the point where
users are now. Solving the problem - the point where
users want to be. A landing page, mockup or prototype is
not a product and something that get users from point A
to point B.
An MVP is viable
If your MVP is not viable enough, you will lose a lot of
clients. Word viability comes from the Latin word vita,
meaning life. If your software is broken or looks
unfinished, it will give a negative first impression and
deter users. Products are vital if they feel different,
delight us with usability and respond right. Without some
of the standard attributes of a software product, your
product is considered not worth anyone’s time.
An MVP is minimum
It’s tempting for founders to add “just one more
feature” to the MVP. You should focus on delivering a
minimum set of valuable features to satisfy early
adopters. You should put everything else on the backlog
for the time being.
What are the benefits of a
Minimum Viable Product?
Besides validating the demand for your idea, building MVP, you
can expect several other benefits. Building MVP, you are
already building the core of your product. You can focus on the
main idea of your product first and the others at a later stage.
It helps you better target your customers and this is an
opportunity to get early adopters without spending a lot of
money on marketing. The user feedback you gather following
the MVP will help you to position your product.
What are the benefits of a
Minimum Viable Product?
Building an MVP allows you to bring your idea into the market
faster. Software products require a lot of refactoring in the
early stages to align the product with customer requirements.
When you build a product with only the basic or crucial set of
functions, code refactoring and design changes are much
easier to implement than in a fully-featured product.
What are the benefits of a
Minimum Viable Product?
MVP is tangible and convincing a first validated version of your
product. Investors will feel more confident investing in your
idea, which helps you raise future funds and appease potential
investors
Difference Between MVP and
Prototype: How to Choose The
Best Approach?
Prototypes are developed before a minimum viable product
(MVP). A prototype is not a product, it is just a visual
representation of the product, whereas an MVP is a functional
product. You need to create a prototype when there is some
aspect of the system that you don’t entirely understand or
when your concern is feasibility.
Difference Between MVP and
Prototype: How to Choose The
Best Approach?
If you are sure your idea is feasible, you can build a minimum
viable product (MVP) to enter the market for user evaluation.
MVP helps to clarify the needs and demands of the target
audience and put it into the context of the product. By nature,
the prototype is intended for a small audience usually
stakeholders and some potential clients. MVP could be built for
sizable customer groups your target audience
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Thank You!