The Six Stages
Stage 0: Demo
A proof of concept. Works on the happy path. No error handling, no auth, no tests. Useful for validation. Not suitable for users.
Stage 1: Alpha
Basic functionality exists but breaks under edge cases. Some persistence, minimal validation. Suitable for internal testing only.
Stage 2: Beta
Functional for early users. Has authentication, error handling, and basic monitoring. Breaking changes are expected but managed.
Stage 3: Product
Production-grade. Passes security audit, has comprehensive tests, handles failures gracefully. Suitable for paying customers.
Stage 4: Platform
Multi-tenant, API-first, extensible. Supports third-party integrations and white-labeling. The product is now infrastructure for others.
Stage 5: Infrastructure
Industry standard. Other products build on top of it. Self-healing, globally distributed, 99.99% uptime. Stripe, Cloudflare, AWS-level maturity.
How to Use the Model
The maturity model is diagnostic, not aspirational. Identify your current stage, determine what stage your use case requires, and focus investment on the dimensions that close the gap.
Full stage criteria and assessment methodology coming soon.