Building a new product is tough, not only because you have to decide what you think it is, design it, build it, test it, market it, etc…. ( this list can really go on forever ). Yes, this list is long but for me, it is always when do you push the button for the first time. When do you decide what you have is enough to get the point across to the user about what you are trying to achieve? I am working with several different start-ups at the moment. Some of them know exactly what they want to be and more or less know the path they want to take to get there. Others are pretty sure they know what they want to be but the path to getting there is a little murkier. I think when what you are building doesn't exactly line up with the grand picture goals you have for the future, or there are a few big leaps between where your product is now and where you intend it to be, this is when the question of is the MVP enough because really difficult.
Sometimes the question of whether it is enough is not really a choice because of an event or some time-bound constraint that forces the situation, this makes it easier to, what I like to call push the button. When this factor is not in play that is when the team, or you, have to truly understand the vision of the product and what are the most important goals you need to meet in order for the organization to truly feel like you just might have something work spending more time on. When the vision is fluid and the goals are changing as the company pivots as it talks to the market, even before the first launch of the product, it does make it difficult to keep everyone marching in the same direction and is even more difficult to understand what the true MVP is in the end.
While I am living this now, and I have lived this in the past, I think there are some pretty good insights I have learned along the way:
- If you are a brand-new product, and don't have some sort of crazy budget for marketing or a foolproof viral marketing campaign (if you have one of these let me know) then you have a little time to get it right, so just get it out there.
- Be as nice as you can to those first set of customers, they might not be with you forever but they will hopefully help point you in the right direction, but again you have to push the button to let the world see.
- If you can limit the launch to a “friendly” group of people, do it, one because it lets you work out a few of the kinks before you hit the masses and two the hopefully friendly customers will be a little more forgiving of issues, but those can only really be discovered if you are out in the wild.
- Finally, and I think this is the toughest one. You have to help the team understand, this MVP is just the beginning, it is not the middle or the end and you have to remember depending on what a person's role is in the group they will possibly have very different objectives for why they do or don't feel the product is ready.
Well, that is just a bit about what I have learned in the past, and as much as I would like to say I am good at following this as well, I have definitely let perfection and the next feature get the best of me when it comes to launching a new product. So I have a lot to learn here as well. But I am trying to get out there, so I am at least starting.
