juststuff

Minimum Viable Product

Ideas

Products

‟A startup [...] transforms ideas into products [...] those products are really experiments; the learning about how to

build a sustainable business is the outcome of those experiments„

• we figure out what we need to learn

• use innovation accounting to figure out what we need to measure to know if we are gaining validated learning

• and then we figure out what product we need to build to run that experiment and get that measurement

‟Although we write the loop as Build-Measure-Learn because the activities happen in that order, our

planning works in reverse order„

‟We need to identify hypotheses to test [... we need to find] the leap-of-faith assumptions(value hyphothesis and growth hypothesis)„

‟The MVP helps entrepreneurs start the process of learning as

quickly as possibile. It is not necessarily the smallest product [...] it is simply the fastest way to get through

the Build-Misure-Learn feedback loop with the

minimum amount of effort„

genchigembutsu

‟First hand understandingof customers„

‟go and see for yourself„

‟If we do not know who the customer is, we do not know what quality is [...] sometimes MVPs

are perceived as low-quality, if so, we should use this as an opportunity to learn what customers

care about„

‟remove any feature, process or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek„

‟Innovation Accounting: a disciplined, systematic approach to figuring out if we’re

making progress and discovering if we’re actually achieving validated learning.

It works in three steps„

VISION1. use an MVP to enstablish real data on where the company is right now

2. startups must attempt to tune the engine from baseline toward the ideal

3. pivot or persevere

Pivot: starts the process al over again,

reestablishing a new baseline and the tuning

the engine from there

problem/solutionFIT

product/marketFIT

SCALE

‟While ideas are cheap, acting on them is quite

expensive„

‟Do I have a problem worth solving?„

• Is it something customers want? (must-have)

• Will they pay for it? If not, who will? (viable)

• Can it be solved? (feasible)

‟A problem worth solving boils down to three

questions„

problem/solutionFIT

product/marketFIT

SCALE

‟From there you derive the minimum feature set to address the right set of problems, which is also known as the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)„

‟Your MVP should address not only the top problems customers have identified as being important to them, but also the problems that are worth solving. By that definition, you should plan to deliver enough value to justify charging„

• Price is part of the product.• Price defines your customers.• Getting paid is the first form of validation.

Effective Experiments

• maximize for Speed, Learning,

and Focus

• Identify a Single key metric

or Goal

• Do the Smallest thing

Possible to Learn

• Formulate a Falsifiable

Hypothesis(A falsifiable hypothesis is a statement that can be clearly

proven wrong)

Effective Experiments

• Validate Qualitatively,

Verify Quantitatively (If you have a lot of uncertainty now, you don’t need much

data to reduce uncertainty significantly. When you have a lot

of certainty already, then you need a lot of data to reduce

uncertainty significantly)

• make Sure you Can Correlate

Results Back to Specific

actions

• Create accessible Dashboards

• Communicate Learning Early and

often

examples