Startups Stack Exchange Archive

How to decide on what features to include in a MVP?

• posted by: Okyasoft on 2015-01-01
• tagged: tech-company, business-model, web-development, lean-startup, minimum-viable-product
• score: 7

My question is while building the MVP, how to avoid ending up with something totally not useful for your customers. The following picture explains the problem better :

Answer 1826

• posted by: Basit Anwer on 2015-01-01
• score: 7

Find the answer by questioning your customers. Build the product around their problem and not the other way around.

In the picture you mentioned, the customers want a way to travel fast and with ease and not a feature of a car.

So answer the following questions

1. What is the problem/need my audience is facing ?
2. What is it that they want most ?
3. What is it (unique or not) that I can offer ?

Answer the questions and build an MVP by sacrificing everything else in the product.

Answer 1827

• posted by: Denis de Bernardy on 2015-01-01
• score: 5

Aim for the pain point, and build from there. Proceed in two steps:

1. Which problem(s) needs to get solved asap, to the point where your prospects are itching to pull out their checkbooks before they even see a working prototype?

2. Which features/integrations do you need to add in addition, if any, in order to make it viable for your prospects to purchase your product right now? Make note of these.

This won’t give you an MVP. It’ll give you the future version of your product.

Now, add this third step:

1. Which extra features can you actually postpone, while still keeping the problem solved and signed checks coming your way?

Remove them all until you hit a sweet spot in terms of ETA and number of clients willing to buy without seeing a fully functional prototype. You now have an MVP.

And a roadmap for versions 2, 3, and so forth – complete with a list of hot prospects for them.

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