What Is a Productype?

Here's the situation. You prompt an AI coding tool, it generates an app, you ship it, and people actually use it. It's not a prototype: you didn't throw it away. It's not a product: nobody's paying for it. So what is it? The definition A productype is software you maintain for a small audience that could become a product but hasn't yet. Picture a spectrum: Prototype → built to learn, then discarded. Productype → maintained, useful, serving real users, uncommitted to commercialization. Product → monetized, supported, marketed. The key distinction: it works well enough that people depend on it, you keep maintaining it, but you haven't committed to turning it into a business. The quality is there. The decision isn't. Two examples JiiaCat : home inventory app, built with Lovable. 675 commits over ten months. Started as a photo grid for tracking stuff around the house. Now it has a map view, a container hierarchy (the toolbox is in the closet, the closet is in the bedroom), and passwordless