mvp - minimum viable product

Business Skills for Start Ups

How to Select Your Initial Product Features Barry Doctor, Harborlight Partners

What is it? What is it NOT? How do you know?

Delight customers Get lots of them signed up Make a lot of $$ Realize some big vision or change the world

“Maximize chances of success” ◦ Build a great product with enough features that

increase the odds that customers will want it ◦ Problem: no feedback until the end, might be too

late to adjust “Release early and often” ◦ Get as much feedback as possible – quick ◦ Problem: run around in circles, chasing what

customers think they want

Avoid building products that nobody wants Maximize the learning per dollar spent Probably much more minimum than you

think!

Visionary customers can fill in the gaps on missing features, if the product solves a real problem

Allows us to achieve a big vision in small increments without going in circles

Requires a commitment to iteration

Saeed Khan http://onproductmanagement.net

One Expert’s Opinion

Anther Possible Definition: Good products for startups to build

Minimum Viable

Crappy products nobody wants to use products built by companies better financed than you

http://blog.fastmonkeys.com/2014/06/18/minimum-viable-product-your-ultimate-guide-to-mvp-great-examples/

What is the Market Problem that your product solves?

I just had an idea I needed it I thought it was cool I had this one guy who wanted it

Who has the problem? In what industries? Identify buyers and users What are they using today instead of your

sparkly, glitzy, innovative, never before seen product?

The simplest solution that someone will pay for is the MVP

Describe your MVP concept to possible buyers Share wireframes or mock-ups Gather feedback from possible buyers Do NOT build the product… yet

Do you have a solution seeking a problem?

Identify who (buyers & users) has the problem Research the target industry Talk to potential buyers & users Establish your positioning Test the concepts

that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

It’s like [reference product in another category]

but for [new application]

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite: it’s like

an iPod but for books.

Our <products and services> help <buyers/users> who want to <solve a problem> by <reducing something> and <increasing something else> unlike <competing solution>.

because the concept is flawed because the solution doesn’t solve the problem because the product isn’t yet good enough because the market positioning is wrong because you’re targeting the wrong customers

Understand the market Define the market problem Create Detailed Personas – details in ebook at

www.outsideinview.com

Identify the Market Problem first Determine the target buyer persona Ensure that the solution will solve the

problem AND it is something the target buyer needs and is willing to pay for

Mock up/smoke test/alpha test concept Collect buyer feedback Revise & Iterate…

Smoke test / landing page / AdWords / SEM Alpha test / In-product split testing Remove some features Paper prototypes Customer discovery/validation/feedback –

physically do some interviews ◦ Find/create user community ◦ Use Google Hangouts, LinkedIn, Dev communities

Barry Doctor Harborlight Partners

952-240-7399 Barry.doctor@gmail.com

@bdoctor