MVP Feedback Tactics

In lean product development, there's the concept of a Minimum Viable Product, aka the MVP. 

(A MVP is intended to prove (or disprove) assumptions made in a business model. It's a product which aims to solve the core problem with as few features as possible.   Spending time building a product is expensive and in the earliest phases of a startup that expense hurts unless there are paying customers that follow quickly. So, you build a MVP).

But just how can you test out the product and get customer feedback?

What are the feedback loops? 

How can you be scrappy and learn fast with minimal investment?

Here's an excellent article giving a few great examples; "Minimum Viable Feature Analysis" by Alistair Croll (@acroll), co-author of Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster.

In the article, Croll gives us suggested tactics such as

• Survey (just one question though)

• Phone a friend

• Headcams and stop motion cameras

• Watch someone use a competitors app

• Button to nowhere (my favourite)

• Sign Up Form 

• Prototype

• What would Bob do?

• False payment (sneaky, but very smart)

They're all great tactics, they all find ways to validate assumptions before investing too heavily in a finished product.

I've always been a fan of testing something to see if it works, then tweaking based on early feedback.  It's an evolutionary mindset that requires me to apply myself to a problem and learn from experience. This works not only in software development, it works in almost all areas of work.

I never truly understand a problem until I try to solve it.