(2024-10-22) Procopio How Do We Keep Our Mvp Minimum And Viable

Joe Procopio: How Do We Keep Our MVP Minimum and Viable? ...this is why you go MVP in the first place. You know the problem, you’ve got the solution, but there are a lot of moving parts out there in the real world markets, from data you can’t get from some customers, to features that need to work a certain way for a single customer, to assumptions you made that were just plain wrong.

So you need to offer PARTS of the product that solve the ENTIRE problem

...our final product has all the hallmarks of an eventual success, so much so that our sales team is closing deals even faster than their own expectations, which were of course, much faster than my own expectations. Time is of the essence here. Those sales people (led by the CEO), have done an amazing job of properly setting customer expectations for our feature set and delivery timeline, but as it is any time you go the MVP route, the prospects always come up with quirks and tweaks and roadblock-creators that may or may not be deal-breakers. We also have to hit a certain date or we’re screwed.

You have to focus on the solution, and eliminate as much of the variability as possible around it.

Manumate things that don’t have to be 100% automated, Lose money if you have to in the beginning.

Limit your target market to the largest group for whom solving the problem is the most similar with the fewest outliers. (market segment)

Customers, and even employees, will almost always find or even create loopholes to suit their needs or gain an advantage. This is usually fine, but if you give them too many options for doing something, they’ll usually do something unexpected, and “break” user flow in a way you weren’t expecting.

Keep all these in mind:

No features that don’t contribute directly to solving the problem.

the MVP has a very specific but often disregarded purpose. It’s not proof of idea, it’s not proof of concept, it’s not – is the market out there? It’s – can we get the billion-dollar idea distilled into a small enough package and get it out there for customers to buy and use and break until we figure out all the crap that’s going to turn the billion-dollar idea into a billion-dollar reality?

All the corners need to be cut behind the curtain, such that the customer gets the full solution for the full price – and, technically, a year or two years from now or whatever, they’re using the SAME product, it just works a lot smoother on our end and a lot better for them.

Avoid Complexity Leak: If I’m building a process or method or even a feature, and it starts to get complicated, I immediately start thinking about REthinking the entire process or method or feature. In the early days of an MVP, a little complexity is too much complexity. (complexity debt)

these days, with an overall trend towards simplicity, especially with software, complexity kills engagement pretty quickly