Lean and simple
It does one important thing, and does it properly.
Guide
Building your MVP.
What a first version is, what makes a good one, and how to choose who builds it.
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What an MVP is
MVP stands for minimum viable product: the smallest version of a product that customers can really use. It is released early, on purpose, so that what customers do with it decides what gets built next.
It is not a prototype and it is not a demo. A prototype shows what a product might be. An MVP is the product, with most of it left out.
The point is to learn. Every feature you leave out is a guess you did not have to pay for before finding out whether it mattered.
What makes a good one
Functional
People can use it for real, without you standing beside them.
Not a prototype
It is something a customer could pay for.
Flexible
It is built so the next version is a change, not a rebuild.
The four stages
Identify
The one thing the product is for, the budget in stages, and the few features the first version needs.
Choose
Who builds it. The choices are below.
Build
Test what you can before building: a drawing, a page, a version run by hand. Then build the smallest thing that works.
Adapt
Talk to the people using it, measure what they do, and decide what to build next from that.
Who builds it
A technical co-founder
The most control, and the hardest to find. Hiring one is a risk if you cannot judge the work yourself.
An agency or a software team
A whole team from the first day, and a cost you can see in advance. You need to stay close to it.
A venture builder
Hands-on and quick to change course. Usually selective, and often paid partly in equity.
A freelancer
The simplest route to something basic. One person is one set of skills.
Four myths
An MVP saves money by cutting features.
It saves money by finding out early what is worth building. Cutting features is how, not why.
If the MVP does not take off, the idea has failed.
It has told you something. Most products change direction after their first version.
More features make a better first version.
More features make a later, dearer first version, and hide which one mattered.
An MVP is a shortcut to market.
It is the start of the work, not a way round it.