How do you create a minimum viable product for customer validation?

?? In my opinion, defining your value proposition is the cornerstone of a successful MVP. It ensures your product aligns with customer needs. ?? Problem-Solving Identify the specific problem your product addresses. This clarity helps in crafting a solution that stands out in the market. ?? Unique Approach Highlight what makes your solution different. Differentiation is key in a crowded marketplace where many solutions exist. ?? Tools for Clarity Use frameworks like the Value Proposition Canvas to detail your value, target segments, and customer interactions effectively. ?? A well-defined value proposition sharpens your focus, making it easier to build and validate your MVP effectively.

Talking to EVERYONE would require a lot of time and effort, and might generate really diverse needs and wants. For example if you talk about a food ordering app with people who order food at the office, you might identify the ability to place a group order as something that's highly important for them, something which likely won't come up from people who place home orders. So I would say first steps are to segment your addressable market, prioritize segments and focus on your ideal customer profile -> understand THEIR needs and build an MVP for them.

To effectively understand and articulate your value proposition, it is essential to gain insight into your target customers' needs, challenges, and desires. I think simply using interviews is valuable, but to enhance your understanding, it is crucial to bring something tangible that can solicit feedback on your comprehension.

Na minha vis?o, a cria??o de um MVP eficaz come?a com a defini??o clara da proposta de valor. Na minha experiência, uma dica prática é envolver os clientes desde o início para obter feedback contínuo, ajustando o produto conforme necessário. Isso garante que o MVP realmente atenda às necessidades do mercado.

A value proposition is a second order effect of understanding the customer pain point. You should make every effort to understand the customer's drivers and reasons why this paint point exists. If it is a multifaceted pain, prioritise them to help define an MVP later. Only once you understand the customer should you embark on determining a solution and value proposition. This customer exploration phase is a significant undertaking and deserves a defined focus. It is what will form the foundation of a product and it needs to be strong.

Depends on the product type but we have a consistent approach to explore the IP, market landscape, product roadmaps and development pathways (complexity, cost and likely hurdles) and compare findings and risk levels from each major area. The actual MVP can be 3D printed or through some awesome development partners that can help tackle concepting and early production.

Here is an example of minimal viable product MVP assumptions that can be tested in an experiment: 1. User Acquisition: The goal could be to acquire a specific number of users within a given time frame. 2. User Retention: The goal could be to test the engagement and retention of users with the product. 3. Market Fit: The goal could be to determine if the product meets the needs of the target audience. 4. Revenue Generation: The goal could be to test the potential revenue streams for the product. 5. Scalability: The goal could be to test the scalability of the product, especially if it involves technology or infrastructure. It's essential to define clear, measurable goals to evaluate the viability and potential success of the product.

I use David Bland's Assumptions Mapping technique. This approach involves prioritizing our assumptions according to the level of evidence we possess and their significance to our idea. By directing attention to the assumptions residing in the riskiest territory, we ensure that our efforts are balanced on low-value activities.

Riskiest assumption? Your Competitive Advantage - the thing that will make your product or service zing... is never what, nor where you think it is. I've proven this to be true. Rarely has one a true understanding of what it really takes to truly stand out, be critical to your market, (never mind 'just interesting' to the customer) and create and deploy 'your best value' (to both the customer *and* you, not just keep the financial person happy with margins and other metrics that bear no relation to actual value potential or delivered).

Sometimes economic viability is forgotten in the list of assumptions to test. We talk about product-market-fit and user acquisition but fail to test economic returns or margin contribution.

Although landing pages offer an initial measure of interest, they do not equate to a minimum viable product (MVP). While landing pages make promises to address a user's problem, an MVP goes a step further by actually providing a solution to the problem.

Start low fidelity! When you’re building a product, your most important priority is getting feedback. Getting it to market and getting hands on it is crucial. Start in focus groups.

Instead of PROTOTYPING you might check out PRETOTYPING. What is pretotyping? YOU FAKE IT BEFORE YOU MAKE IT ???. Check it out here … Pretotyping is a technique for testing hypotheses and validating ideas quickly and cost-effectively. It involves creating a simplified version of a product or service to collect user feedback and understand market demand. For example, in the food industry, a company may pretotype a new salad recipe by offering a limited quantity to a small group of potential customers to gauge their interest before investing in full-scale production. Pretotyping helps reduce the risk of failure by assessing market response early in the development process. Check out another example of Tesla later in this article.

I agree with Andrew. The MVP should provide a solution. An MVP must provide some ability to solve some of the problem. An MVP should not be mistaken for a mock up.

As mentioned we do not have just one way to build a MVP, also the different frameworks can be used. These tools help in managing the development process, testing assumptions, gathering customer feedback, and iterating the product. Some exemples: Lean Startup Methodology Agile Development Design Thinking Customer Development Business Model Canvas Value Proposition Canvas Pretotyping and Prototyping Scrum Framework Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF) Analysis SWOT Analysis A/B Testing Kano Model Analysis

When developing an MVP, it's crucial to start with a scrappy version that can be quickly tested with users. This approach allows you to get valuable feedback early in the development process. In the Product Management class I TA for, we use a method called "Prototype on Paper" with the Marvel App. This involves sketching app screens and connecting them with links within the app to demonstrate the product's vision. By prioritizing key features that directly address the problem statement, you can ensure that your MVP is focused and effective. Iterating on this initial version based on user feedback will help you refine your product and deliver a more valuable solution to your customers.

Building your MVP is the best part: - Get hands on and build something testable that is not time or resource intensive - Marvel is an excellent free tool to prototype on paper

I would like to advise you to PRETOTYPE, like Tesla did … Tesla used a Lotus Elise to interest potential buyers for their first car. In 2003, the founders of Tesla had an ambitious idea (an all-electric 2-door sports car). In order to convince potential buyers to order its car, Tesla created a pretotype of what the car would look like. Lotus supplied Tesla with a ‘glider’ Elise - which was filled with models of key components. This was not a prototype, because the vehicle didn’t function. Tesla was able to show buyers a close proxy for the final design. Tesla asked “Will you put down a $5,000 deposit to have it built to order?” From this test Tesla secured several hundred deposits, a non-trivial result to reassure their Investors.

With any minimum viable product the goal is a display of key functionality. Should the product be visually appealing? It depends on the audience. Some leaders will ONLY consider products if they have visual appeal. This makes no logical sense. A working product should be prioritized. But leaders are a different breed. Part of some assessments of viability is whether they believe users will like the look of product enough to engage with it.

Check out how UBER tested its MVP Uber was born out of difficulty finding taxis the traditional way. And that was the problem Uber was focused on in the first stage. UberCabs was an iPhone app meant to connect the users with cab drivers and offer them a way to make payments via a credit card. The MVP version offered only these features on an initial level. The fancier features were added only after the app received significant downloads signalling its validation. At first, they handled all the orders manually. Uber offered drivers to accept and manage orders on their own. Only 3 out of 10 agreed, giving a start to the no. 1 taxi app in the world. Uber started with just 3 cars and validated its idea before its competitors could.

At the Microsoft Garage Vancouver, we prefer to use the word "evaluate" rather than "validate" when exposing our MVP to target customers. The term "validate" can imply seeking confirmation of our assumptions, whereas "evaluate" encourages a more open and unbiased assessment. When we expose our MVP, we measure customer responses through metrics like sign-ups, engagement, and retention, but we also prioritize qualitative feedback from interviews, surveys, and reviews. This approach helps us truly understand how our product is resonating with customers. Based on these evaluations, we make informed decisions on whether to pivot, persevere, or iterate, ensuring that we are continually refining our value proposition and product strategy.

It is crucial to establish clear definitions of what you are measuring and what success metrics will entail. Without upfront clarity, every outcome may appear successful, leading to ambiguous conclusions. Therefore, it is essential to first identify the specific experiment and then set a quantifiable benchmark or percentage that enables a clear determination of success or failure, facilitating informed judgement calls.

For MVP validation, I combine online ads and direct outreach to gauge interest. Key metrics like sign-ups and conversions give us a quantitative measure of success. Equally crucial is direct customer feedback through surveys and interviews. This qualitative insight helps us understand customer behaviors deeply. Based on this data, we decide whether to pivot, persevere, or iterate on the MVP. This balanced approach ensures our product strategy aligns with real user needs and market trends, guiding our next steps effectively.

You must validate your MVP before moving on to building out more features. If your MVP is not validated, how do you know if you are building for a market?

My experience is as an inventor and founder. This experience has been focused on hardware and I feel most of the guidance and literature out there is software focused. There are parallels although the differences are far greater. I would love to see a focus on hardware innovation from time to time rather than seeing it mentioned as a side note. Hardware innovation is hard, expensive, and less forgiving but it's much harder to simply uninstall or switch hardware.

One of the most common pitfalls I have witnessed in product development is confusing an MVP with a mockup. Contrary to MVP, a mockup is a model that demonstrates the functionality or design of the product but does not provide any real value. If you chose launching a mockup first, make sure your client understands the difference. Otherwise, the major disappointment is not too far down the road.

When you're working on an MVP, it's not just about making sure it works well—you need consider the emotional aspects—how it makes people feel? It is super important to understand the emotional needs your product tackles, like making users feel more comfortable or confident. Trust me, if you can nail that, you'll see a huge difference in how much people engage with your product. When you're in the MVP design phase, keep it simple and focus on making the user experience enjoyable. And when you're gathering feedback, don't just ask about the practical stuff—make sure to get a sense of how users feel when they're using your product. Are they excited? Frustrated? Those emotional reactions are just as valuable as the technical critiques.

Go through the Design Thinking process when building an MVP. I cannot stress enough how helpful this has been for me when building out products. It helps nail down product-market fit.

I like to share with you that in a culture that embraces change and experimenting the letters FAIL stands for ‘FIRST ATTEMPT IN LEARNING’. Help others in your (startup) organisation by sharing this quote and supporting their experiments too ???.