This principle didn't make it to my final list of system architecture principles I submitted for ESD.34 class. I thought I might as well post it here as I spent few minutes writing it. I am following Minimal Viable Product strategy for my first iPhone application I am about to deploy.
Tag Lines leading to the Principle:
“Minimum Viable Product or MVP is a strategy used for fast and quantitative market testing of a product or product feature”
“If Apple can launch a smartphone without Find or Cut-and-Paste, what can you cut out of your product requirements?” – Sramana Mitra
Descriptive Version of Principle:
Minimum Viable product has just those features which allows the product to be deployed. It aims at generating the maximum validated learning from every customer with least effort. Such products are often deployed to a subset of users who are early adopters, more forgiving and more likely to give feedback.
Discussion:
MVP is more of a market testing strategy to understand the needs of the consumers and demand of the product before making big monetary and time investments into the product. It is important to understand that MVP is started with a product vision which is maintained through the life cycle of the product, but the features adapt to the feedback of potential customers of the product.
Not adhering to the principles of MVP can lead to development of complex products which loose the primary vision of their existence. And hence do not have customers coming back to them. According to Tristan, the co-founder of Start-up square a primary reason of shutting down of his website was not following the principles of MVP. As he points out - “startupSQUARE is trying to be:
Any one of these topics is enough for several websites. By trying to tackle them all at once, we bypassed our Minimum Viable Product by several orders of magnitude and in doing so, we didn’t focus on enough basic value to keep our users coming back.”
Prescriptive Version of Principle:
Maintain a vision for your product and understand what core problem it solves. Release the product early to a subset of customers and learn from the feedback they give. Keep the product sleek and do not deviate from its vision.
[1] http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product-examples
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product
[3] http://blog.startupsquare.com/tag/minimum-viable-product/
Tag Lines leading to the Principle:
“Minimum Viable Product or MVP is a strategy used for fast and quantitative market testing of a product or product feature”
“If Apple can launch a smartphone without Find or Cut-and-Paste, what can you cut out of your product requirements?” – Sramana Mitra
Descriptive Version of Principle:
Minimum Viable product has just those features which allows the product to be deployed. It aims at generating the maximum validated learning from every customer with least effort. Such products are often deployed to a subset of users who are early adopters, more forgiving and more likely to give feedback.
Discussion:
MVP is more of a market testing strategy to understand the needs of the consumers and demand of the product before making big monetary and time investments into the product. It is important to understand that MVP is started with a product vision which is maintained through the life cycle of the product, but the features adapt to the feedback of potential customers of the product.
Not adhering to the principles of MVP can lead to development of complex products which loose the primary vision of their existence. And hence do not have customers coming back to them. According to Tristan, the co-founder of Start-up square a primary reason of shutting down of his website was not following the principles of MVP. As he points out - “startupSQUARE is trying to be:
- A place to find co-founders and advisors for startups (a discovery engine)
- A place to brainstorm ideas (ideation)
- A place to find the best resources for your startup
Any one of these topics is enough for several websites. By trying to tackle them all at once, we bypassed our Minimum Viable Product by several orders of magnitude and in doing so, we didn’t focus on enough basic value to keep our users coming back.”
Prescriptive Version of Principle:
Maintain a vision for your product and understand what core problem it solves. Release the product early to a subset of customers and learn from the feedback they give. Keep the product sleek and do not deviate from its vision.
[1] http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product-examples
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product
[3] http://blog.startupsquare.com/tag/minimum-viable-product/
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