Rob Calvert

Photo by Yu Hosoi on Unsplash Foreword: I’ve written this article for anyone who has used the term ‘MVP’, but is yet to have repeated success with launching them and scaling beyond a first few customers. The talk around MVPs has got very complicated. “It should be minimal yet valuable”. “It shouldn’t scale”. “Just reduce the non-essential features”. All of this are true, but they just describe what an MVP looks like. They — and most articles — miss the core reason why an MVP exists in the first place.

Most of us in the startup community have embraced the principles of Lean product development and MVPs. Despite this, most startups still flatline or fail after their MVP has been released. That begs the question; why? Startups are complex, so there’s many factors at play. Timing certainly comes into it. The quality of the team is important too. As is getting right balance between time spent on product development and developing your distribution.

Most people reading this will know the product development principles they want to live by. Outcome focussed, guided by data, experimental, a focus on learning…the list goes on. But knowing the principles is only the first step though. The second step — living by them — is more difficult than it first seems. How many times have you launched a new product or feature and realised you could have validated it far sooner, and far easier?