Tell IH: Ship your MVP as fast as you can.
Hey IH,
I might get a lot of backfire for this but here's my opinion on MVPs: They should be done in 2-3 days maximum.
If you're building any product --> Try to put something out there ASAP: A landing page with your offer and an email capture, or a newsletter, or even a blog post writing what you're going to build.
Launching something, even very small, gets the ball rolling towards your bigger objective. It's like driving at night, you only need to see what's in front of you.
Launching gives you that extra spark of excitement (from customers that are interested in your product) that will help you build the next thing. This is easy to get trapped in building a MVP alone for several weeks. Don't do it alone, you've got thousands of people who could already be interested in what you're building and will tell you whether you're in the right direction. Whether that's on IH, on niche FB groups, or other communities.
Shipping in increments though helps you with momentum / build something that people want.
Just my Friday night thought, haha! And always be shipping!
Have a good weekend folks!
I think everyone has their own opinion on this.
My take, MVP does not stand for "Minimum CRAPPY product". But the definition of "VIABLE" isn't much better.
I am more a fan of MLP.... "Minimum lovable product". You need to have ENOUGH working functionality to deliver value so you can quickly iterate and improve by driving people to WANT to pay you because they LOVE what it does, and are willing to provide insight on how to make it better. Product market fit starts to become more apparent when people talk about your product naturally and share how well it works, and offer feedback on how to make it better.
It's also why I dislike sites like AppSumo. You drive the wrong behavior.... gets lots of people into your early access program who aren't the right ideal customers you want. Feedback you get from people trying to save a few bucks disintegrates the 'value driven' ideals of making an MLP that people want to pay you for.
Just my 2 cents. You don't have to build the world. But sometimes to get to MLP it is going to take more than a few days to build something if it has any sort of cognitive complexity.
I'd sound a small note of caution on this, if you're launching a product into a space thats pretty mature, then you're going to want to release something a bit further along and better built than you ordinarily would, because when you think about it, the bar is much higher to gain adoption of your product since others options already exist that are probably really good.
If you have a spin on the space that is going to be your selling point, then I'd definitely focus on that in the release and make it front and center to see if anyone's buying, this might allow you cut down on your time to market since you might be able to de-emphasize other parts of the product that aren't as necessary for what you're touting.
cheers
Prepare for backfire
MVP's done in 2 days..LOL..seriously ?
Some of us have ...work , family , food shopping , laundry , kids and a host of other things that need our immediate attention...responsibilities that have to come before our dream of building a great business .
How is that supposed to fit in 2 days...?
Not to mention associated launch costs such as hosting , legal requirements etc .
If you think those costs are MINOR..then perhaps you would be willing to donate some of
your $ 55.000 MRR to some of the lesser well off indie hackers with worthwhile projects struggling to simultaneously make ends meet and launch their dreams .
All of those constraints are good reasons to figure out what you can launch quickly. Maybe it's not a "product". Maybe it's a landing page with a signup form. Maybe a quick email to people you already know.
As someone who has screwed this up before, the more time and money-constrained you are, the more important it is to create a business that doesn't take a ton of time and money to get off the ground.
👍 I too believe in shipping as quickly as you can. The best way to know if you're shipping the right thing it to put it into the hands of your potential users and let them tell you what's right and what's not.
I tweeted yesterday about moving my content off Medium:
I posted my MVP today 😀
https://practicalmvp.com/
Congrats. StarterStory for MVP's stories? Great concept! :D
Yeah partially! I hope to get people to share why and how they built their MVP.
Also will be writing about everything related to building an MVP, quickly!
What are people's tech stacks that allow them to ship an MVP so quickly? What are people using for their backends?
Definitely agree with you! It's being smart with your time and money.
Yeah, I'm rethinking my whole strategy of stripping an MVP down to a phone call or email at this point. My time and money aren't infinite resources. Right now I'm focused on narrowing/stripping down potential problems that require that type of MVP without jeopardizing a bigger ROI/impact.
I built my MVP in 3 hours, and had paying customers after a week. Then I found a co-founder, built a product, and am now at $800/mth :) https://scoops.io/ is where I got to. 100% agree, though SOME products I'd argue can't be done so simply.
Preach it, the less code the better!
I normally strip down an idea or feature into the very basic and ship it. Then iterate in small steps from there. It's much easier to get users validation that way and easier to scope.
I completely agree! No backfire here lol
Damn. I am relieved. Hahaha :D