Why getting to an MVP is easier than a coherent product roadmap

There’s a lot said about getting an MVP or minimum viable product out into the market early, and then getting market and user feedback to refine it. This is absolutely critical, as far too often we think endlessly about that additional element that will make it stand out without knowing exactly how our customers will use it. In my mind though, the MVP is often the easier part as the entire team is dedicated fully and solely to getting this launched. The greater challenge is what follows - the ‘product’ is continuously evolving and so as much attention and thought needs to be given to the product roadmap given the regular business challenges (or distractions!) of getting users and hopefully revenues.

In our journey at Flexing It over the past 2 years the product has evolved a fair bit. As I look at the timeline of when we added material product features, it works out to one every 2 months with the pace increasing to 1 every month in 2014!

This works out to long-ish list and it begs several questions. Did we adequately think these features through? Did we plan well? Have we made the most of these product additions? My answers –not always, somewhat, and no.

So, based on our steps and mis-steps, here are some learnings on what to keep in mind as you look to develop a roadmap for your product.

#1 Keep a high ‘business’ bar for any new product addition. It should meet at least one of the following criteria - (1) address a key need for your customers, (2) be a key differentiator and (3) hugely simplify operations.

At Flexing It, we are attempting to create a new market-clearing mechanism for short-term, flexible skills and the key concern users on both sides have is around quality. A lot of our features therefore are part of our journey to strengthen the curation and quality of skills/projects you see on the platform i.e. the feedback functionalities, ability to tag specific expertise, etc.

#2 Don’t wait for your customers. Especially in new, and evolving market segments exciting business models and services can open up demand. While not everything a business does can be too ahead of its times, I do believe 1-2 thought-through bets are risks worth taking. In our case we are investing behind our proprietary matching algorithm, FlexScore, as we believe this will be a game-changer and is the first time an intelligent heuristic is being applied to match skills and roles in India.

#3 Think experimental vs. full scale launch. There are often pragmatic ways to test new ideas without turning your entire core product on its head and taking months of development time. Unless it’s a pretty sure big bet, it’s always good to think of simpler ways in which we can test demand out before we go all out.

#4. Spec it out – Yes, this sounds boring but in my own limited experience, things left fuzzy will become fuzzier when coded! So mock up how you want it to look, how you want a typical user to navigate early, how you want to give discounts to different segments of users. This literally hit our pockets as ‘Free for X months’ vs ‘One free trial’ had very different implications!

#5 Set broad targets for uptake, and if not material, delay the product. We opened up our marketplace to permit niche service providers to showcase skills too and access projects, a couple of months after formally launching and were not ready to leverage this. We barely had a strategy to market to our core audience – professionals – and so did not really do very much for the huge new segment we opened up. This could easily have been pushed out at least by a couple of quarters and would not have made a huge difference in growth.

#6. Have a broad 12-18 months plan outlined that details how product evolution will drive or support business objectives. While this may change and priorities for specific features/add-ons go up or down, this is key to ensure there is some coherence in the roadmap. This will also do more mundane things like help plan tech capacity!

#7. Retain the agility to spot new opportunities. While a plan is important to know what we are doing and if we are doing it well, our environment is changing and can often throw up new ideas and need gaps. Whether is a product/service extension targeted at the same users, a new geography or even monetizing your IP, its key to have someone from the team alert to the changes taking place around you.

As I end, I will re-iterate that a product roadmap is as important and needs as much, if not more, thought than the initial MVP. The impact of one’s decisions today will only be known later so all one can do is set a high bar, think big and ahead and be organised. I read in an article today that luck can determine success once, but for continued success one needs reliable and replicable skills, and I couldn’t agree more.