

How Lean should a start-up be? - JayTe

My cofounder of Prognition Corp, Chris Metcalfe and I both like the model of the lean start up and the idea of producing the Minimal Viable Product (MVP).  The MVP is then morphed into a more complete solution using customer feedback.<p>The problem we encounter, however, is that when we define the MVP it seems to lack innovation; it’s designed to be plane Jane.  We’ve read other articles that tell readers not to look to customers for innovation.  What we debate is if we should produce the MVP or what we’ve started to call the Minimal Viable Awesomeness (MVA).  For a start up (a company with no money) it takes considerably more resources to produce a MVA then an MVP.  Allso, the MVA is most likely a bit of a “push,” what happens if initially people don’t get it.  Is it better to introduce the MVP and then introduce the “awesome” factor?<p>All thoughts will be appreciated.
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bitsm
The entire point of the lean startup is getting out of the building and
validating your ideas with customers. Everything else is gravy.

Go out, talk to people, and they will define what you should be building, and
what will constitute MVP or MVA.

You seem to not be spending enough time talking to customers. You cannot
define these things on your own, that's the whole idea.

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DanielRibeiro
Great article on what a mvp is: [http://www.w2lessons.com/2010/10/minimum-
viable-product-diss...](http://www.w2lessons.com/2010/10/minimum-viable-
product-dissected.html)

Another one[1]: _Your Product is NOT “The Product”_

And finally[2] _How Zynga Uses Ghetto Testing and Minimum Viable Products_

[1] [http://www.ashmaurya.com/2011/06/your-product-is-not-the-
pro...](http://www.ashmaurya.com/2011/06/your-product-is-not-the-product/)

[2] [http://grattisfaction.com/2010/01/how-zynga-does-customer-
de...](http://grattisfaction.com/2010/01/how-zynga-does-customer-development-
minimum-viable-product/)

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darkxanthos
The main idea is really about learning. Whatever is the minimal you can do
while still learning something valuable is what you should do. If releasing
your MVP won't help validate your core business assumptions then it probably
isn't worth the cost of releasing it.

However do you have to build the MVA to at least somewhat validate it?

If people don't get it... Are you sure you get your customer base? It's all
just about rapidly learning about your market.

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jaequery
In other words, MVP is really just a fake landing page with a sign up button
and see how many people click on it.

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JayTe
Thank You! It is about rapidly learning about our market. We have existing
customers and we're building an add on module. We're going to pole our
customers this week about what they want. Do I feel dumb.

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darkxanthos
That's great!

An important thing to keep in mind is Customer Development and Lean Startup
both are very cautious about directly just asking your customers what they
want. It's more about validating the problem and then getting the minimal
solution in front of them somehow. Hell paper prototyping, RAD... w/e you have
to do.

Not saying "You're Doing It Wrong" just throwing an idea out there since I'm
not sure exactly where you are mentally with all this. :)

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mattmanser
Well, launching MVPs are supposed to challenge your assumptions and it sounds
like you're sitting on a pretty big one right there.

That your market can only be disrupted by this hand-wavy awesomeness you're
alluding too but we have no idea wtf you're talking about.

If, for example, you're talking about setting up a new human-computer
interaction device and the MVP is a mouse where you really want to build a
gesture based input device, then yes, you're probably right. A mouse is not
going rock anyone's world and it's a saturated market.

If, on the other hand, you're making a way of easily managing incoming sales
calls that's not really been done but you'd make an awesome UX as traditional
form based layouts suck, but you know, it'll be awesome, then no, you're
probably wrong. The core of your business is the sales call management not the
UX and you're going to waste a lot of money on that UX without even finding
out if there's a market for the sales call manager.

So details, or personally I'd just ignore all the advice here as no-one's got
enough information to tell you anything useful.

EDIT: I guess I'm trying to say have you sat down and figured out if the
market you're going after is for the awesomeness or for the actual product.
Making an MVP smart phone won't work, but making something better than the
iPhone might, but will be expensive. If you've spotted an under served market,
go for the MVP just to find out if the market really exists.

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jsavimbi
> when we define the MVP it seems to lack innovation

Like most MVP's it's probably just a small subset or specific feature of what
a mature MVA product will look like. The key is to make that MVP more
efficient to the user in comparison to the competing product. Use benchmark
words like stronger, lighter, faster and cheaper over complicated terms that
require abstraction like flexible, scalable, easier and performant.

Think of something simple like the paper towel. It's a global commodity and
sales are pretty much flat, so how is a brand to distinguish itself from
others? Just cut the towels in half with another line of perforations. The new
towels are smaller, lighter and cheaper by volume over the competition and all
they did was adjust the settings on the perforator.

Not everything is genius at the first iteration. It's hard work and requires a
mix of innovation and feedback over time.

