Building The Right MVP – Balancing Plumbing VS Value

In the previous blogs I discussed specific approaches one could take to develop product hypotheses, and then get a MVP – Minimum Viable Product – out in the market to rapidly test and learn from the feedback.  This is consistent with the lean product development framework so you can decide whether to persevere or pivot. There is one caveat though – when do you decide to pivot, and how do you know that it’s time to pivot? 

It’s an arduous process that product leaders have to go thru to make the right choices. Lean does not mean less work!

Here is a checklist that may come handy as you prepare to release your MVP.

1.       MVP definition – Strike a balance between value and plumbing features

In order to make a right choice whether to persevere or pivot it’s important that the product leaders carefully define MVP by balancing value and the plumbing that is required for a successful operation of the product. A poorly designed user experience to install or update the product (plumbing features) may lead to a negative customer feedback which could, mistakenly, be interpreted as ‘customer not seeing value in the product’.  Product leaders must identify a list of all the core plumbing features, such as, product installation, updates, remote diagnostics to analyze a potential cause of product failure, and subscription management etc. to ensure that these are in place to not only debug field issues, but to also learn about how customers use the product. It’s important to strike a right balance between value and plumbing features so that metrics measurement post MVP is not negatively influenced by poor plumbing. This is always a hard decision as product leaders must balance between what’s table stakes and what adds value to the product.

2.       Measuring value creation

Consider the following key areas to measure value creation as outlined in The Blue Ocean Strategy to build your own checklist:

·         Reduce – What pain points are being reduced significantly more than the industry standard? Example, can your product identify a mobile security risk in real-time and mitigate?

·         Eliminate – What process steps or redundant technologies can you eliminate?  Example, can your customers save extra steps to do a secure online commerce transaction? Can your product eliminate the use of existing/ traditional products and technologies and still deliver the customer outcomes?

·         Enable – What new capabilities does your product enable? Example, ability to take pictures from your phone and to share instantly with your social network.

·         Raise – What value you can raise above industry norms? Example, IT risk management in real-time. 

Metrics measurement must be designed to capture targeted value creation. This will help product leaders to make informed decisions about potential improvements needed to deliver on expected customer outcomes. It will also help decide whether it’s time to pivot.

3.       GTM Checklist:

It’s of paramount importance that the product leaders pay a great deal of attention to GTM plans for a MVP so that the feedback and metrics can be interpreted with a greater degree of accuracy. Absence of a well thought out GTM would lead to ad-hoc decisions based on the flavor of the day. In such cases, one sample could lead to a highly inaccurate interpretation resulting into a GTM strategy that is changing every day. This is something that must be avoided. 

GTM plans for MVP, unfortunately, don’t get the needed attention as, often, the product leaders are challenged to demonstrate instant success after the release of MVP.  Most of the executives forget the fact that MVP is still about testing product hypotheses and refining the product strategy.  The temptations to see a quick economic success of a MVP may prove detrimental to the overall success of the organization. This temptation, potentially caused by a lack of GTM planning and a proclivity, caused by strong confirmed biases, for an early success, soon after the release of MVP, leads to premature spending of expensive dollars very early on in the product life cycle. In the process, product leaders are left with less money for a real launch of the product when the product is truly ready for the prime time.

Here is a simple checklist that one can use to build a solid GTM plans to test MVP:

1.       Existing customer opportunity – Could you sell this to the existing customers by enabling key outcomes they care about?

2.       New customer opportunity – What new segment of the customers would benefit from the product? For example, a company with a focus on mobile security may look at segments of the market where mobility and compliance are of prime importance.

4.       Key partners – Who are the key partners that we need to integrate with in order to deliver expected outcomes? What is the strategy to establish those relationships?

5.       Key channels – How do you sell your product to target customers?  What’s the channel to deliver the product to the customers?

6.       Key resources – Do you have needed expertise and resources to support the GTM model?

7.       Business model – What is your business model? There are several aspects that the product leaders need to consider. For example, is the product going to be a platform that would enable collaboration of several stakeholders and eco system partners to create value for the target customers? Or, is it going to be a Freemium model, where a set of baseline features would be available to all, and one pays for the premium options? Calculate cost and revenues for your business model(s). Validating business model is one of the key requirements as one takes a MVP to the market.

8.       Key factors that may influence product adoption – Look for the following key influencers – Technology, Regulatory changes, Switching costs, Substitute products and services.

A good planning and execution helps product leaders to manage lean product development process effectively. ‘Lean’ is not a short cut to success; it helps rapidly build the products that customers want. Success of lean product development approach requires strong leadership, ability to evangelize and gain a cross functional alignment, finding a right balance between plumbing and value features, and establishing a well thought out metrics measurement to interpret market feedback correctly!