#3 - (Part 1) MVPs: Test your hypothesis and validate your assumptions

What is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)?

These are the minimum amount of product you can build and push out to get real feedback from the users. MVPs are made to test and validate your ideas, hypothesis or any assumptions you have made when coming up with the product.

MVPs are based on the idea of Validated Learning. Its more about the idea validation. MVPs are made to validate ideas and assumptions in order to mitigate risk.

Speed is a core concept in when making MVPs. MVPs should be quickly up and running. They are based on the concept of “Fail Fast”. You quickly create MVPs, run you experiments, collect the data, analyse the feedback and use this learning to create your next MVP. This way MVPs are built quickly and incrementally until we reach the final product.

6 Steps to an MVP:

1. Figure out what exactly your problem and solution set is
2. Identify assumptions associated with the product. Things that you have assumed while making it and find out the riskiest of those assumptions.
3. Take the assumptions and state exactly what they are and establish the criteria for testing them. This is when you convert your assumptions to hypothesis.
4. Once you have come up with your hypothesis, establish their minimum criteria for success, also known as MCS. For this you need to know what constitutes success and what constitutes failure.
5. Then, pick an MVP strategy and type.
6. Execute, get real life data, evaluate and iterate. Find out what went well and didn’t go well in order to address it in your next MVP. At this point, you should have a hard YES or NO on whether the idea/product is viable and worth spending your time on compared to the other things on your plate.

Lets get into the details....

How to lay down assumptions:

In order from most risky to least risky… just say, “I assume that…”

"My users have XYZ problem"

Identifying the actual problem is very critical. Hence this is the riskiest of all assumptions. If you try to solve a problem when there is no problem to begin with, it can tank the whole product. At the same time, people sometimes don’t realize a problem, but the problem exists or sometimes, you can show people a better way to do a certain thing.

Eg: There was no 1080p HD TVs back in 90’s. Life was good. I didn’t have a problem. But today, with HD video qualities, I can’t go back to the old fat TVs.

"ABC (some feature) matters to my users"

While the above point is true for the core idea behind your product, it is relevant for identifying the product feature as well.

"Users will pay/sign-up for my product"

While this could be a big problem but there are other ways to monetize. Eg: you can run ads on your app. It may not be an ideal way you may have thought while building your product but it is viable.

"There is no substitute of my product"

This would be the least risky. People can be dislodged from the substitutes if they are shown a better way.

To be continued...

#4 - (Part 2) MVPs: Test your hypothesis and validate your assumptions