Dr. Sean Wise, BA LLB MBA PhD MVP

In this module you will learn: What is a minimum viable product Where MVP fits in the startup lifecycle How to define your MVP 7 ways to make your MVP Principles to follow How to test your MVP

Where are we? Picked a target market Undertook customer discovery interviews Built a cusomter persona Drafted our first Lean Canvas Identified the largest most inelastic unmet market need Noodled on a variety of solutions to turn that unmet market need (i.e. opportunity) into a valuable venture

Product Market Fit Scale now Startup Lifecycle Product Market Fit Scale now (LTV > COCA) Problem Solution Fit You are Here!

Lean Startup Stages You are Here!

Customer Development Methodology You are Here!

You are searching for EVIDENCE of Problem / Solution Fit, how will you know you have found it?

Problem / Solution Fit A problem is worth solving if more than 40% of the TestPop identify it as a top 3 issue You will know you have found it when: Customers are already hacking their own solution Pilot Users refuse to give back prototypes Current solution is 10x more costly, slow, bulky, unsatisfactory

What’s Next?

What’s an MVP? A MVP is “that product which has just those features and no more that allows you to ship to early adopters, at least some of whom resonate with (e.g. pay you money for) and provide feedback on” Doesn’t have to be just money, but must be more than words, must be a measurable action: Signups Downloads Use

What is an MVP? Minimum: MVP contains the core features and everything that isn’t a MUST HAVE is stripped out Viable: MVP can be built and have opportunity to gain traction Product: MVP creates value for people

Purpose of MVP Maximum learning with minimum effort MVP is an experiment to turn lean canvas assumptions into validated learnings Maximum learning with minimum effort Time and money are scarce Offers focus and execution Builds early traction Crystalizes customer input, helps refine solution and minimize scope creep The goal of the MVP is to test your understanding of the customer’s problem & see if your solution will prompt him to adopt your solution based on important features alone – Bernard Leong

2 Categories of MVPs Validating MVP Invalidating MVP solution is worse than the final version Solution is better than final version e.g. people will by the ugly version e.g. doing by hand what will eventually be done by software Failure is inclusive Failure means that the business model is doomed Validates the Business Model Never hear of these Single Feature MVP Concierge MVP

7 Types of MVPs Explainer Video MVP Landing Page MVP Wizard of Oz MVP Concierge MVP Piecemeal MVP Crowdfund MVP Single Feature MVP From VLADIMIR BLAGOJEVIC ’s blog http://scalemybusiness.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-minimum-viable-products/

Explainer Video MVP Explainer video is a short video that explains what your product does and why people should buy it Often a simple, 90 seconds animation https://www.commoncraft.com/dropbox-video-and-25-million-views

Explainer Video MVP Samples https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF-6fA32pTQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R35tMIOAWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM2RIbzD07o

Landing Page MVP A landing page is a web page where visitors “land” after clicking a link from an ad, e-mail or another type of a campaign. The job of a landing page is to quickly communicate the value of your offering, diffuse objections, and call the visitor to action.

Landing Page MVP Example

Landing Page MVP Example

Landing Page MVP Example

Wizard of Oz MVP When you put up a front that like like a real working product, but manually carry out the product functions. a/k/a Flintstoning is when you use a human-powered method to deliver a user experience that feels automated.

Wizard of OZ MVP

Concierge MVP Instead of providing a digital product, you start with a manual service. A service with the same steps that the digital process will automate. Won’t scale.

Piecemeal MVP The love child of Wizard of Oz and Concierge You emulate the steps people would go through using your solution but instead of delivering results manually, you emulate them using OTHER PEOPLES tools e.g. using google maps to MVP AccessNow

Single Feature MVP Only offers the KILLER FEATURE, the one that will lead 80% of users to buy solves 80% of the problem for 20% of the effort eg. the first cloud based email platforms didn’t have fonts or spellcheck but were widely adopted

How to Get Started… Identify a problem that at least 40% of the TestPop say is inelastic Investigate how it is being addressed today Identify why alternatives are unsatisfactory Ask TestPop what the future state might look like Ask TestPop how they would solve it if technology was used Ask for a list of benefits (not features) they would want Have the TestPop prioritize the list from MUST HAVEs to NICE TO HAVEs You prioritize the features based on importance, complexity and added value Ask them to name the one thing that an ugly solution must do to be adopted

Key Principles of the MVP Less is more The most boring feature is often the most important one Minimize Friction – always follow the path of least resistance Focus on closing the loop (i.e. making the sale), go deep not wide Iterate MVP based on user feedback and user DATA Pivot if adoption falls below 40%

Problem: walking is too slow

How to Test your MVP Customer Interviews A/B tests Ad campaigns Crowdfunding Blogs, Product Hunt & Reddit Paper prototyping Buy now buttons

MVP Exercises For each of the following startups, think about What problem is being solved? What is the one feature that without, the problem remains unaddressed? Can that feature be built as a standalone, if not, what else must be build to create an MVP for these startups?

What is the MVP for?

What is the MVP for?

What is the MVP for?

In this module you learned: What is a minimum viable product How to define your MVP 7 ways to make your MVP Principles to follow How to test your MVP

End of module 5