What is Iterative vs Incremental Development?
Incremental delivers finished pieces one at a time — each increment is done, but the product grows part by part (build the kitchen, then the bathroom). Iterative refines the whole thing in passes — a rough version of everything, then better (sketch, then paint, then detail). Agile deliberately does both: each iteration delivers a usable increment and refines the product with feedback.
The Mona Lisa analogy (Patton's) sticks: incremental paints the canvas tile by finished tile; iterative sketches it all and sharpens everywhere.
Worked example
A reporting product team ships incrementally (export first, then scheduling, then dashboards — each complete on arrival) while iterating on the core viewer (v1 tables, v2 charts after feedback, v3 drill-downs once usage data shows where people click). Two motions, one backlog — and knowing which one a stakeholder is asking about prevents half of all roadmap arguments.