Making a Minimum Viable Product

The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else

The first website of an accommodation company did not include a map or means of payment. This MVP (Minimum Viable Product) was an experiment. It facilitated learning and shaped what was to become a billion dollar global business.

What is a MVP?

Our product development journey starts with an idea to address an unresolved problem. The problem could be one we have ourselves and/or spot in others. Good Problems for Our Apps to Address identifies characteristics we may seek out.

A MVP is the simplest version of our product we can share with initial users. The functionality should be extremely limited, addressing a key aspect of the user problem. The MVP is not v1.0 of our full product release - that comes later.

We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want. - Eric Ries

MVP benefits

MVPs are good because they:

• Are a tangible incarnation of our idea which is an asset

• Enable us to engage with early users and get their feedback

• Help us see what users do with it

• Give an insight on whether our idea delivers any value

• Are a prototype to iterate from

• Enable us to better focus our effort and resources

Making our MVP

As I suggested in How Less Makes us Creative, making a MVP should take days, not months. Hacks that help me are:

• Write a brief spec

• Time box the spec, e.g. launch in 3 days.

• Cut the spec if necessary to tightly focus the scope

• Use existing skills and tools

• Don’t fall in love with the MVP

Types of MVP

Here are 18 types of MVP worth considering, including video explainer, website landing page and single feature prototype.

DropBox’s founder posted a short video on Hacker News which demonstrated key file synchronisation features. It was laced with tech humour and drove tens of thousands to signup.

You may have guessed who I was referring to in the opening sentence of this post. The first version of Airbnb’s website was built in a few evenings and was very basic. I have simple landing pages for my apps, including a public facilities finder NipTo and game Scarper.

Other resources

The Lean Startup talk by Eric Ries

How I Build my Minimum Viable Products by Pieter Levels

What is Your Problem? post by Phil Martin

Airbnb grew from a very humble MVP website. Until next Sunday, you may wish to Get Your Own Website and see where it takes you.

Have fun.

Phil…