Post by wsannhbz on Dec 5, 2023 5:00:10 GMT -5
Product-market fit
Minimalism and MVP
We promised to get back to the question: “How minimal an MVP can be?”. Reid Hoffman and Buffer come to mind here. Let’s start with Reid Hoffman. This is the guy who created LinkedIn and who somewhere once said: “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you released it too late.”
For us, the keyword is “embarrassed.” It means that the Phone Number first version of the product may be slightly underdeveloped and imperfect. This is not only acceptable at this stage but also desirable. Why? It’s all about pragmatism.
If you locked yourself in a “garage” for six months and refined your product there, you might find that you wasted a good chunk of your life on something that later no one would buy anyway. It’s good to know this in advance, right at the MVP stage – an imperfect, embarrassing one.
The head of Buffer took this advice to heart and brilliantly tested the MVP of the tool, which at the time was only meant for scheduling Twitter posts. Today, Buffer allows for more; it is a platform for managing social media profiles. In any case, Buffer’s creator started with two slides.
Literally. He posted two slides on Twitter showing the basic idea behind Buffer. At the same time, he asked users what they thought of it. Several people shared their opinions and left their email addresses. The entrepreneur took this as a good sign and did a second test. He published three more slides – this time with a price list.
He wanted to test the recipients’ willingness to pay. Again, several people left their email addresses. And Joel Gascoigne, Buffer’s CEO, proved not only that an MVP can be truly minimal, but also that, if done well, it can attract customers. He himself acquired his first customer within four days of posting those slides.
Minimalism and MVP
We promised to get back to the question: “How minimal an MVP can be?”. Reid Hoffman and Buffer come to mind here. Let’s start with Reid Hoffman. This is the guy who created LinkedIn and who somewhere once said: “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you released it too late.”
For us, the keyword is “embarrassed.” It means that the Phone Number first version of the product may be slightly underdeveloped and imperfect. This is not only acceptable at this stage but also desirable. Why? It’s all about pragmatism.
If you locked yourself in a “garage” for six months and refined your product there, you might find that you wasted a good chunk of your life on something that later no one would buy anyway. It’s good to know this in advance, right at the MVP stage – an imperfect, embarrassing one.
The head of Buffer took this advice to heart and brilliantly tested the MVP of the tool, which at the time was only meant for scheduling Twitter posts. Today, Buffer allows for more; it is a platform for managing social media profiles. In any case, Buffer’s creator started with two slides.
Literally. He posted two slides on Twitter showing the basic idea behind Buffer. At the same time, he asked users what they thought of it. Several people shared their opinions and left their email addresses. The entrepreneur took this as a good sign and did a second test. He published three more slides – this time with a price list.
He wanted to test the recipients’ willingness to pay. Again, several people left their email addresses. And Joel Gascoigne, Buffer’s CEO, proved not only that an MVP can be truly minimal, but also that, if done well, it can attract customers. He himself acquired his first customer within four days of posting those slides.