Prototypes and R&D

What the service covers

A prototype is working software built to answer one question before a company commits to the full build. The question is either about the product, whether people will use it, or about the technology, whether it can be built within the limits that matter.

ByteInk does two kinds of work under this service:

• Product prototypes. A web or mobile app with the core flow only, deployed where real users can reach it, and instrumented so their behavior can be measured.
• Technical R&D. A focused investigation into a question the build depends on. Examples are whether a model runs fast enough on a phone, whether a document set can be searched accurately, or which of two architectures holds up under the expected load.

The work typically produces:

• A written hypothesis and success criteria, set before the build starts.
• The working prototype, deployed where it can be tested.
• Measurements from real use, or benchmarks on real data and hardware.
• A findings report with a recommendation to build, change or stop.
• When the answer is to build, a scope and architecture outline for the full product.

Who it is for

Founders with an idea and a budget that should not go into a full build before the idea is tested.

Product teams inside larger companies that need evidence from real users before asking for investment.

Engineering teams facing a technical unknown that blocks a roadmap, such as an unproven integration, a performance limit, or an AI model whose accuracy on their data is not yet known.

How an engagement runs

Framing. We turn the idea into one question and write down what result counts as success. The output is a short brief with the hypothesis, the people who will test it and the metric.

Build. We build the least software that can answer the question. Anything that does not bear on it is stubbed, hardcoded or left out. The output is a deployed prototype.

Test. Real users work with the prototype, or the technical spike runs against real data and hardware. We collect usage data, user feedback and benchmark results.

Findings. The output is a report with results against the success criteria, what was learned, and a recommendation. When the recommendation is to build, the report includes a scope and architecture outline that carries into product engineering.

What happens to the prototype code

Prototype code is written in the same stacks as production work: Next.js, React and TypeScript for web, React Native for iOS and Android, Go and TypeScript for backend services. Parts of it can carry forward into the full build. The findings report names the parts that were built only to answer the question, so they are replaced before launch.

Prototypes put real data in front of real users, so authentication, secrets handling and input validation are in place from the first deployment.

R&D at ByteInk

ByteInk runs the same kind of investigation on its own products and tools:

• ThinkByte runs language models entirely on an iPhone, with no internet connection.
• voiced is a local, OpenAI-compatible speech-to-text gateway for Apple Silicon, built on whisper.cpp.
• bit is a systems programming language that compiles to static native binaries with no dependencies.
• ByteBucket is self-hosted, S3-compatible object storage written in Go.
• mppjs converts Microsoft Project .mpp files to XML without a JVM.

The full list is on the open source page. For feasibility work on AI features specifically, see AI consulting.

Questions

What is the difference between a prototype and an MVP?

A prototype answers one question and may be thrown away afterwards. An MVP is the first release of a product that is meant to keep running, and a prototype that proves its case usually leads to one.

Can a prototype test an AI model?

Yes. Whether a model can do a specific job accurately enough, quickly enough and at an acceptable cost is a common R&D question, including for models that run on a device or on your own servers.

Where is the team based?

ByteInk is based in Dubai, in the UAE. Prototype work with teams outside the UAE runs remotely. To test an idea, get in touch.