Why your application requires a Proof of Concept

What is a proof of concept (POC)?

A proof of concept (POC) is a demonstration of a product in which work is focused on determining whether an idea can be turned into a reality. A POC’s goal is not to seek market demand for the concept or choose the best way to produce it. Rather than focusing on building or developing the idea, it tests whether the idea is feasible and viable. In addition, it enables those involved in the proof-of-concept exercise to explore its financial potential.

POCs are an important part of the product development process for an organization. They are commonly small and are created by employees or team leaders. Project managers can also use POC documents as a framework while creating a product development process. Many industries, including the hardware, drug discovery, manufacturing, science and engineering sectors use the POC process to pursue ideas before approving them for further testing and, eventually, full-scale production.

A POC typically requires time or other resources, such as supporting technologies or necessary physical components. Focusing on a project’s viability, a POC should demonstrate that the initial idea or concept would meet customer and business requirements. Teams creating POCs should also collect user feedback and team insights.

The value of a proof of concept

The proof of concept is the first point where an organization can check if an idea has a chance of succeeding. Going through this process enables companies to determine an idea’s practicality before putting production-level resources behind an untested hypothesis.

Developing a POC can help a product owner identify potential technical and logistical issues that might interfere with success. An organization can also solicit internal feedback about a product or service while minimizing unnecessary risk.

Steps to write a proof of concept

A POC plan could address how a proposed product or service will support organizational goal , financial objectives or other business requirements. However, there are no standardized step-by-step processes on how to write a proof of concept. As a general example of how to write a POC, they should include the following:

• Define the POC idea, including what the idea is trying to achieve, objectives and resources needed.
• Determine the scope of the POC process to evaluate the project clearly.
• Clearly define criteria for success with use cases within the scope.
• Identify and organize the involved team, including those in decision-making processes, production processes as well as stakholder.
• Estimate the time duration the POC will take place as well as the efforts that will need to be put into the project.
• Evaluate the POC by collecting user feedback and team insights — if a project idea needs work, this is a moment before development to make changes.
• Create a proposal for how to move forward should the POC prove successful.

A well-crafted POC is crucial to ensuring the best possible execution of a product or service.

The constructed POC should be able to answer if the idea can be reliably produced, if there is a potential market for the idea, if the idea would work as predicted, what technology is necessary to run the idea and if there is potential feedback.

Why do you need a PoC?

The main reason to build a PoC is to save time and money instead of investing in a flawed idea. A proof of concept helps to better and more precisely predict the necessary costs and other resources, such as specialists.

About 34% of businesses claim that they fail because their product does not fit the market.

The first step to better market fit starts with validating your original idea at as early a stage as possible. The PoC is the first point at which you can check if your business idea has any chance of succeeding. It is a cornerstone of your future product.

The result of creating a PoC also might be less optimistic — the idea could be infeasible. Of course, that is not good news, at first sight, but there is another side to the coin. Early identification of a mistaken idea saves company resources and the team can focus on another project. Investing more time and money in a faulty project will not make it lucrative.

Why else might your project need a proof of concept?

Verification of the core idea

Sometimes projects are developed without checking data from market research, and the product idea is based on false assumptions. A PoC helps to validate the concept and the existence of a market need at an early stage.

Even if the feedback is not as positive as you expected, that does not mean that the project was a waste of time. Take this as a chance to modify the concept to better adjust it to your target group’s needs.

Clear business plan

A proof of concept highlights the project’s top priorities and requirements. With what you will learn from a PoC, it is easier to set up a more accurate project timeline and roadmap and predict costs better.

Startups often have a limited budget and seek as many savings as possible. However, should a PoC be omitted in this case?

Advantages of PoCs for startups

Startups provide innovative ideas and products — sometimes, the time is not right for introducing new projects, or simply the market is not ready. It is better to take a short break and save the budget instead of wasting it on a too-early product release.

At the very beginning, it is difficult to say for sure how scalable the product should be. If a startup focuses on a large-scale product, investing in a PoC first offers more security, and validates the concept instead of investing in an uncertain project that will surely be time- and cost-consuming.

Last but not least, one more saving-money argument — a PoC helps to verify if the predefined features are all necessary, or whether something is missing. Thanks to that, the team will not waste time developing useless components in the future.

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