MVP vs PoC

A Proof of Concept (PoC) and an MVP answer different questions. A PoC asks: can this be built? Can this technology do what we think it can? It is an internal experiment, usually built by engineers to de-risk a technical assumption before committing to a full product. A PoC is never meant to be seen by end users.

An MVP asks a completely different question: will people use this? It is a market-facing product, however minimal, built to generate real user behaviour and feedback. Where a PoC is about technical confidence, an MVP is about product-market confidence.

The confusion between the two often leads to wasted effort. Teams sometimes build a PoC, confirm the technology works, and then ship it directly to users, skipping the design, UX, and product thinking that makes a real product usable. The technical capability being proven in a PoC is rarely the thing that determines whether a product succeeds in the market.

Use a PoC when you are facing a genuine technical unknown, an integration you have never done, an algorithm whose performance you need to test, or a third-party API you are not sure can support your use case. Use an MVP when the technical path is reasonably clear and the real unknown is whether users will find value in what you are building.