What resources do you need to build your MVP?

A clear problem statement and first principles thinking enables a process for learning to reach multiple phases of product market fit, PMF. Arguably, the most frustrating and satisfying challenge of PMF is developing your hypotheses and having the intellectual honesty and curiosity to rinse and repeat across hundreds of conversations in your initial market.

1. Create and launch your website, even if your product is not ready. Creating even a “coming soon” website, will force you to answer hard questions about your startup. Who are my customers and target audience? How should present my product? What’s my positioning in the market? And many more. 2. Share the story of your startup. It’s not only about your startup, it’s about the story behind your startup. Why did you start this company? What do you do? And, How do you do it? How are you better than others? 3. Features are for nerds, talk about benefits By stating your benefits clearly, you can make your features attractive and discover what’s not working. If a feature cannot clearly be communicated via its benefits, something is wrong.

As Y Combinator motto says, "Make Something People Want" - 99% founder's make this MISTAKE. To avoid this, having clarity on the target problem is a MUST. Ask yourself these questions and find a good answer before starting - - what customer pain point you are solving? - how are you unique than your competitors, is it atleast 10X better? - why this is the right time to solve this problem? - why your team is suitable to do the above? - have you verified your assumptions with the customers?

A better way to build an MVP is not to build one. That's right, you heard it right. Write down your hypothesis, imagine your MVP exists (it doesn't) and present it to your customer as a prototype. You could show a Figma design, an API, or a dummy UI and ask them to pay for the product if it truly solves their problem. Validate it from the customer, if many people are willing to pay, then start a MVP

Lean Canvas helps you to develop clarity, then track your progress and communicate it with others. Having clarity on target problem, competitive advantage, revenue model, pricing & key metrics is essential. Further, check various case studies of successful startups lean canvas and brainstorm with industry experts to learn more. Consulting reports are also useful in your research.

In the beginning of your startup / new product journey - keep your effort light on the parts of the lean canvas other than validating the problem with users. In my experience this is the longest stage with the most twists and turns.

The BIGGEST benefit of developing your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is to SAVE your precious time and resources. Majority of startups target wrong problem statement and then spent millions and billions of dollars to build the product. BUT, they find that there are no users who needs this and everything goes to waste. Hence, MVP helps us to verify if we are solving right problem and our approach is good.

El error más común al lanzar un proyecto digital, es ponerse directamente a programar. Cuando quieres construir una casa no empiezas poniendo ladrillos. Primero planificas, hablas con un arquitecto, y al final construyes. En producto digital es igual, primero hay que pasar por una fase de definición y dise?o. Esto se divide en 4: Research Arquitectura de la información Wireframes UX UI Es mucho más fácil borrar un linea y volverla a dibujar que tirar una pared y volverla a levantar. Si te saltas esa fase, tu no sabes lo que compras y los desarrolladores no saben lo que te venden. Y si te lo haces tu mismo, vas a dar muchas vueltas hasta que saques el proyecto. Te recomiendo utilizar la herramienta FIGMA para prototipar.

Absolutely, emphasizing the importance of a testing plan is spot on. I'd also recommend incorporating both internal testing and external feedback from a diverse group, including strangers. Internal testing ensures a thorough evaluation by your team, leveraging their familiarity with the project. External testing, particularly from random strangers, provides invaluable perspectives unbiased by prior knowledge. This dual approach enhances the comprehensiveness of your testing plan, offering a more well-rounded understanding of your MVP's performance and user experience.

A testing plan is your strategic roadmap for MVP development. It provides structure by defining hypotheses, success criteria, testing methods, data sources, analysis tools, and action steps. This data-driven approach sets clear expectations, tracks progress, and supports informed decisions. It's essential for hypothesis validation, risk mitigation, resource allocation, and continuous improvement, making it a critical resource in MVP development.

Absolutely, emphasizing the significance of a feedback loop is crucial. I completely agree with your suggestion of involving unknown individuals, potential future users, in the feedback process. By not providing guidance on product operation and instead offering a manual or allowing them to explore independently, you're likely to receive more authentic and unbiased feedback. This approach not only unveils potential user experience hurdles that might have been overlooked but also provides insights into aspects of your product that users find intuitive or confusing. Leveraging the perspectives of unknown users enhances the thoroughness of your feedback loop, contributing to more meaningful improvements in your MVP.

99% of MVPs I see don't optimize for learning & feedback: - ways to get stats (visitors, transactions) - ways to get customer feedback or bug reports (interviews, intercom , support chat, bug reporting) - ways to understand user behaviour (GA, session recording, ui heat maps) Too many features. Not enough Learning. MVP is for learning not for scale.

A true growth mindset doesn't just focus on Acquisition, it thinks about the Pirate Metric: A.A.A.R.R.R. Awareness: Making potential customers aware of your product or service through various marketing efforts. This is crucial for building an initial interest and setting the stage for Acquisition. Acquisition: How users find and visit your website or product after becoming aware of it. Activation: The point where users have their first meaningful interaction with your product. Retention: Keeping users coming back and using your product over time. Revenue: How you monetize those engaged users. Referral: Encouraging satisfied users to refer others to your product.

It's an attitude that welcomes learning, experimentation, and adaptation as crucial to success. With a growth mindset, you'll tackle challenges, navigate uncertainty, and view failure as a chance to grow. It allows you to celebrate wins, value lessons, and find joy in the journey of creating your MVP.

Building an MVP should be about gaining more evidence that you're addressing a real problem for a group of people seeking solutions. It shouldn't be for the purpose of getting an investment or showcasing how skilled dev person/team you are. The smaller you can start, the better. Focus on your main user flow(the main problem you are addressing) build only that, validate it, and then iterate to improve it.

One of the biggest constraints in building MVP is the resources triad. You need a product thinker, an engineer and a designer. Product thinker must narrow down the scope to the most important problem to solve. The engineer assesses feasibility and brings alive a concept to working prototype. Design gives the visual life to what would otherwise be slides in a deck. The story unfolds when design weaves in the user journeys. And to pitch for funding, you need a designers magic to make it appealing.

The term MVP is thrown around by many individuals who focus on the M and not the VP. A Viable Product needs to be just that - a Product, that can be Positioned and sold to a target customer that has a willingness to pay a valid market Price. It is not demo-ware. It is not a collection of features. It has to solve the entirety of a user/customer problem lifecycle that you are working to address. Ensuring it does no MORE than that is fine, and that in fact is the art and science of PMF and of discovering how M is M. If what you take to market and label as your MVP is not sellable as a product, you might have hit the M but not the more important VP.