Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Alyssa Royse
Generally speaking, when an entrepreneur gets an idea, it is a complicated one. It starts simple, “I want to solve this problem.” But before long it’s, “I want to solve this problem, with this thing, and this thing, and if it could do this thing, and I could totally make this other thing do this other cool thing and….” And we are so clear in our convictions that we believe we can build this multi-thinged-wonder-machine, and that we know what the customer wants better than they do.
We’re usually wrong. And we spend a lot of time and money being wrong.
The simple truth is that most people are less complicated, and less visionary, than we are. They will be happy with much less, and value simplicity much more than multi-thinged-wonders. Restraint may be the most valuable skill set when it comes to designing your product and getting people to use it – maybe even pay for it!
And that’s where the MVP comes in. No, not Most Valuable Player (though it is,) but the Minimum Viable Product. This is the simplest version of your idea that you can get to market, validate that people want it, learn how they use it, find out what they want and develop the product in reality, rather than in your imagination. This can, if done right, save time and money and help you create a better product.
Let’s use the Super Bass-O-Matic 76 as an example. You believe that people want to enjoy fresh-caught fish without having to scale, cut or gut it. You design the very powerful Bass-O-Matic. You can get it to market in 6 weeks, for $1,000.
But you want to be cooler than that. You want to make sure that you beat the crap out of more than just carp, but your competition as well, (after all, people are using plain old blenders to blend their bass now, even though it sucks.) You add a heating element, to make fish soup. And a filtering system to drain the cartilage out when pouring. And little chutes so that people can add seasonings without having to take the lid off or stop blending their delicious fishes. Now you can get to market in 3 months, for $20,000. But you’re sure people want the heater, strainer and spice chutes.
Turns out, no one wants those things, and you wasted time and money building something no one wanted. In turn, you depleted all your resources, and have to close up shop. Bummer.
The MVP approach could have prevented this., in a few simple steps.
- Stay true to your vision. Create the Super Bass-O-Matic 76 with the powerful motor that creams cod at the push of a button. Super strong motor, better than anything else on the market. But simple, all it does is blend.
- Look at customer response, is it as vital as you thought? Are you marketing in the right places? What are you learning about where they come from? Use that data to further define your market.
- Use that revenue to do a little R & D about both the customer and the product.
- Ask them – either directly or indirectly – if they want the other cool features that you envisioned. Don’t ask open-ended questions like, “what else do you wish the Bass-O-Matic could do?” That will send you down a rabbit hole. But do ask, “Would you use a heater, strainer or spice chute?” You can do it in a survey, or by creating links on your site to the features, and then have an “under construction” message – but you’ll get to see what they’re interested in.
- Take their responses to develop the next version of the Bass-O-Matic. It may be new and improved, it may be an additional deluxe version. But you’ll know that you have a market, and you’ll be funding it – or seeking investment – based on real-world users.
Congratulations. You got to market, true to your vision and created a product that people actually want and pay for without wasting time and money on features that nobody wants.
I used the Bass-O-Matic so as not to name names here in Seattle. But think about the startups that you’ve seen fail around you. Most of them failed because they tried to do too much, were out of touch with their customers and blew through the cash and goodwill that they needed in order to keep going.
Now think about the most successful companies and products on the market. They’re simple. They don’t ask too much of their users. They do what they need to, and nothing more.
Yup, less is more. Especially when it’s less money and less stress and gets you more users and more success.
