MVP development checklist

Sometimes people are asking whether they are done preparing and ready for MVP development. They usually ask themselves, not professionals. And most people don’t ask this question at all. They just proceed with MVP development, burn through the budget, and more often than not find themselves in a situation where the money is spent — overspent, likely — and the MVP itself is not that successful. A pivot is needed, yet there’s no resources left to pivot. Well, if their development team is working for free — there’s still hope. Or if the investor is willing to give them some more money to burn.
Otherwise — the situation is not pretty at all.

Hello, I’m Nikolay the Russian guy, and let me be brutally honest with you about MVPs.

From my point of view, based on experience and observation, you can only proceed to MVP with little to no preparation if:

• You are absolutely sure it will be finished in 1 to 2 months time,
• You are ok with waving the costs goodbye,
• You have some more money to burn if the MVP is a complete failure.

And i mean — if all of the above IS true, thеn proceeding with MVP development is the best course of action. Seriously. It will allow you to get to the market fast — and, provided you gather the feedback properly, it will allow you to analyze, adapt, pivot and try again. Hopefully getting much closer to the actual users’ needs, thus to the actual market value, thus to the income.

However, if anything of the above is NOT ture, then you have to carefully prepare for the MVP stage. Here’s a short checklist for you, just to understand whether you are ready or not:

1. Problem is clearly defined, meaning you know Who has a problem, What is the problem, and How is it solver right now.
2. You have a clear understanding of Customer Profiles and Customer Journey Map, defining what your Customers actually do right now and where they happen to have Problems.
3. Problem interviews were performed (10 to 20 for B2B, 100+ for B2C) with specific people matching your Customer Profiles. Results were analysed, and did confirm the Problem Definition.
4. Customers are indeed ready to pay for a new solution, meaning their current solution is painful, unsuitable, undesirable or otherwise bad enough for them to spend money on a new one.
5. The proposed Solution is formulated as a Hypothesis, clearly stating: what Problem is solved for which Customers by what Means.
6. There are specific Metrics with Numbers, associated with the Hypothesis, which will help you understand whether the Hypothesis is validated or invalidated by MVP.
7. A list of Sales Channels is there, prioritized by Business Value, Customer Reach, Customer Acquisition Cost etc.
8. The Monetization Plan is there, defining the sources and volumes of projected income.
9. Unit Economics is calculated, and it is indeed profitable, i.e. you will earn money by user acquisition, not lose it.
10. Financial Plan is there, describing the Development Costs, Support Costs, Customer Acquisition and Customer Retention Costs, along with projected Income, Breakeven / Payback Point etc.
11. There is a high-level Backlog of Features, defining what functionality will be there in the MVP. It is also good to have a list of functional blocks that will NOT be part of MVP, just to make sure you don’t invest in them.
12. Some interface Mockups do exist, at least for the main Use-Case Scenario.
13. Preliminary Roadmap defines the MVP development plan and immediate steps you intend to take afterwards.
14. A Backup Plan exists, specifying what has to be done if the Hypothesis is invalidated by the MVP. Preferably the plan should consider different failure scenarios, from «non-ideal results so that MVP needs a little tweak» to «complete and utter failure that would require drastic measures«.

Yes, as i said above, this checklist is rather short. Yes, really. Just an absolute minimum, with no fancy stuff included.

All of these points can be done in different ways, with different approaches and methodologies — it doesn’t matter that much. What matter is whether you have all of the above information or not.

And, obviously enough, the less info you have from this list, the bigger your chance of failure with the MVP, losing time and money with little to no effect.

Unfortunately, that’s the brutal truth about MVP development.

Stay safe.