#004 - Building Your First MVP - Like a Skateboard

How to think of Product Development in 2024

Hey all - we back (sort of)

In today’s digest I want to go over MVPs, the word I keep hearing over and over again. I guess that’s what you get working with startups all year round.

It doesn’t help that every next person I see using the term, is kinda using it wrong.
And that is what I hope to clear out today.

Let’s start with a googler - 

What is an MVP?

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development. 

Source: - good ol Wiki

But here is exactly where the issues start, what is ‘just enough’?
Enough for the budget at hand? Enough for the time constraint at hand? Define enough to a founder. Good luck.

Here’s the deal, this definition was fine when building on Software itself was an arduous process.
People would eventually get to a point of polish where they felt comfortable going ahead with the launch of a Product.

But these days? With AI, no-code tools, easy access to outsourced devs - ‘enough’ isn’t enough to define an MVP anymore.

Here’s my take - love it or hate it -

But I think MVP is a mindset more than an actual formula to develop products.
The mindset of solving a core problem, in increasingly evolved ways as your product grows.

You identify a problem, you work on a solution for it, and whatever solves the problem becomes your MVP - in most cases.

But how do you define a good Problem for a MVP

And this is now the new thing to solve for.
What makes a problem, a good problem?

Well, in Product sense, a good problem to solve is any problem that -
Is impacting a real market/hella people?
Is feasible in your current state to foreseeably solve?
Is focused enough - Targeting certain pain points. Niches be Riches.

And lastly, most importantly, for founders, yes maybe you - do you really care about solving this problem?
Or do you just see *insert dollar symbol zing emoji in eyes patrick*

Got a good problem to solve? Then let’s see

How to Approach Building an MVP as a Founder in 2024?

“For many founders, MVPs have morphed into a box-checking exercise, often leading to half-baked products that fail to resonate with users. 

Instead of fostering innovation and genuine user engagement, the focus has shifted to merely meeting the minimum requirements for launch. 

This approach can lead to frustration and disillusionment among teams when their MVPs do not achieve the desired impact or market traction.”

Ok thanks gpt I will take over from here.

As mentioned earlier, the resources are plentiful these days, but with that there is a high chance to be stuck in analysis paralysis when picking your path to building a MVP.

Here are my top 2 recommendations on how you should think of building MVPs:

1 - Start a Community

If you really care to solve a problem, then chances are there is a community for it.
If not? Then go ahead and create one. 

Talk about the problem, raise awareness about it, get people to back you up. Even before you think of writing your first line of code, get your first 100 supporters.

That is, by far, the most effective way to bootstrap in MVP these days.

Start a blog, newsletter, go to social media - endless options to build communities.

Heck, if you pain point is valid enough open a paid community on Skool for all I care.

Building a community, and then building within that community is the best way to develop a MVP these days - no question around it.

2 - Service to Product Route

Know how to solve the problem yourself? Then become the product yourself.

Starting a services business can be a good middle point between going full Product. Especially if it is your first time around.

Most pain points today can be solved with a behind the scenes service these days. Especially if you can get into developing small solutions for small setups.

If you go look at a lot of established Product companies, like 10up, 37signals, Automattic - they all started as software agencies. They provided services to others until they saw a trend and built their own products.

I know services business doesn’t sound s*** these days, but trust me, better to build a Product with experience of building than not.

Got a pain point figured out, an approach figured out - then

Build your MVP - Like a Skateboard

Ever seen this image?

Skateboard Mindset of Developing Product MVPs

I love it. I mean I don’t think there are any skateboard companies that sell cars.
But that’s not the point.

The point is the mindset.

The mindset of solving a problem consistently - Just in increasingly complex (for you) and increasingly convenient (for your users) ways.

A lot of folks think MVP is an 'incomplete' version - which isn't the right view.
An MVP is the most feasible version of you getting to solving the pain point for your users.

MVP is built to gage interest of your ideal users.
Validate your idea to take it to the next stage.
Test the waters so to say.

Stop thinking of MVP as the ‘Product’ - it’s not. I mean it says in the name, it's barely viable.

A ‘Product’ is a business, where money comes in, or atleast a very solid chance that it will come in if certain conditions are met (like having 10k users on trial).

This differentiation is especially important these days.

Make MVPs Great Again

To truly make MVPs great again, we must shift our focus from mere deliverables to embracing them as a mindset.

If you can build a community? Learn from the feedback, do things that don’t scale, get on calls - work with people who will make this work for you in the long run.

If you are running a services business, keep an eye out for patterns. Instead of offering the 20th service, focus up, niche down - target key pain points and turn your services revenue into Product dev fund.

Here’s my favorite quote from the skateboard article:

“A good product manager (you, the Founder in this case) does not dictate solutions to their team. They define the problem sufficiently and completely enough to enable their team to design and build a solution to the problem described.”

In the end, all this is to give you a new perspective. 

If you still disagree and think MVP should be stuffed with features, then you do you.

But my intent here is to leave you educated better on how to approach Product dev. And it can only get better, if you leave some feedback for me.

Do you think MVP is a mindset? Or a methodology?

Post a reply to the email or comment below!

Further Learning:

https://medium.com/@byrnereese/the-skateboard-mindset-in-product-development-ddf3409d5e98

https://blackboxofpm.com/mvpm-minimum-viable-product-manager-e1aeb8dd421

https://paulgraham.com/ds.html

P.S. - I had reasons to pause this newsletter. Now I have better reasons to make it return leading into 2025. Your support and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Let’s make Product Dev simple (and perhaps easier).

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As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.