Comments on: How I built my Minimum Viable Product http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/ Practice Trumps Theory Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:29:53 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: ashmaurya http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-653 ashmaurya Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:52:43 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-653 Thanks Kaleb... Thanks Kaleb…

]]> By: Pete Mauro http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-517 Pete Mauro Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:11:43 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-517 Ash - I am really enjoying your essays. Thanks for taking the time to share your personal experiences in such detail. I was about to ask how the product is going but I see you shared some metrics in a follow-up post. pete Ash – I am really enjoying your essays. Thanks for taking the time to share your personal experiences in such detail.

I was about to ask how the product is going but I see you shared some metrics in a follow-up post.

pete

]]> By: Minimum Viable Product revisited – the MVP Curve « Methodologist http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-504 Minimum Viable Product revisited – the MVP Curve « Methodologist Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:42:50 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-504 [...] More recently, voices of the Customer Development/Lean Startup community have made excellent efforts in elaborating the idea, e.g. Andre Chen; Minimum Desirable Product and Ash Maurya; How I built my Minimum Viable Product. [...] [...] More recently, voices of the Customer Development/Lean Startup community have made excellent efforts in elaborating the idea, e.g. Andre Chen; Minimum Desirable Product and Ash Maurya; How I built my Minimum Viable Product. [...]

]]> By: Interact Seattle » Blog Archive » User eXperience (UX) Digest http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-191 Interact Seattle » Blog Archive » User eXperience (UX) Digest Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:13:38 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-191 [...] How I built my Minimum Viable Product [...] [...] How I built my Minimum Viable Product [...]

]]> By: From Minimum Viable Product to Building A Landing Page http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-90 From Minimum Viable Product to Building A Landing Page Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:14:24 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-90 [...] testing my MVP, I started building a basic landing (and pricing) page in parallel that I would show potential [...] [...] testing my MVP, I started building a basic landing (and pricing) page in parallel that I would show potential [...]

]]> By: Customer development: By-the-book - Venture Hacks http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-70 Customer development: By-the-book - Venture Hacks Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:01:51 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-70 [...] Is AdWords the right MVP for your product? “For Timothy Ferris, his MVP for testing new products that don’t yet exist (micro-testing) comprises of a landing page, signup page, and Google Adwords to drive traffic. However, this approach presupposes that: [...] [...] Is AdWords the right MVP for your product? “For Timothy Ferris, his MVP for testing new products that don’t yet exist (micro-testing) comprises of a landing page, signup page, and Google Adwords to drive traffic. However, this approach presupposes that: [...]

]]> By: Ted Rheingold http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-17 Ted Rheingold Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:28:03 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-17 Nice strategy and documentation Ash, I recently was pushing for the ersatz sign-up page method for the conversion of our TogetherTag.com service to a freemium model and my partners convinced us to build the minimum product on the premise you make that if you do the fake signup you are only testing the adsense ads and the fake signup, not the product itself, which means you mostly have non-actionable data. They convinced me if we took the extra 4 weeks to build it, we'd be testing real adsense against a real product offer (albeit highly minimized.) Took more time but now we're getting real data about the product conversion and foresee getting highly actionable data when we start driving traffic. Great to read it's worked so well for you! Nice strategy and documentation Ash,

I recently was pushing for the ersatz sign-up page method for the conversion of our TogetherTag.com service to a freemium model and my partners convinced us to build the minimum product on the premise you make that if you do the fake signup you are only testing the adsense ads and the fake signup, not the product itself, which means you mostly have non-actionable data. They convinced me if we took the extra 4 weeks to build it, we’d be testing real adsense against a real product offer (albeit highly minimized.) Took more time but now we’re getting real data about the product conversion and foresee getting highly actionable data when we start driving traffic.

Great to read it’s worked so well for you!

]]> By: Ash Maurya http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Ash Maurya Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:12:00 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-16 Nivi - I can see that but if your primary distribution channel is through a website, isn't the landing page the next mvp provided you've iterated through the customer problem/ product presentations and been able to acquire a paying user base albeit small? What is the minimum number of early paying users that qualifies for early traction? For a b2c product, for a b2b product? How do you go about acquiring them? Through more in-person referrals? As I'll outline in my next post, we had little trouble getting people to see and understand our differentiated value after a face to face demo but had a completely different outcome if they only saw the first version of our landing page. Most immediately jumped to a premature conclusion about how our service worked and did not identify the differentiated value. It took a lot of tweaking to make it better... I think there's still room for improvement. To me the landing page tests, helped create a more crisp message which in turn helped feed more users into the conversion funnel. We haven't and don't intend to turn the knob all way by spending on advertising, but we are interested in testing the engagement level of the promise. As Eric Ries pointed out in one his talks, what's the point of building a downloadable product, if no one makes it to the download page? That said, I do intend to follow Sean Ellis' advice and close the loop with retention stats with our existing user base. Nivi – I can see that but if your primary distribution channel is through a website, isn’t the landing page the next mvp provided you’ve iterated through the customer problem/ product presentations and been able to acquire a paying user base albeit small? What is the minimum number of early paying users that qualifies for early traction? For a b2c product, for a b2b product? How do you go about acquiring them? Through more in-person referrals?

As I’ll outline in my next post, we had little trouble getting people to see and understand our differentiated value after a face to face demo but had a completely different outcome if they only saw the first version of our landing page. Most immediately jumped to a premature conclusion about how our service worked and did not identify the differentiated value. It took a lot of tweaking to make it better… I think there’s still room for improvement.

To me the landing page tests, helped create a more crisp message which in turn helped feed more users into the conversion funnel. We haven’t and don’t intend to turn the knob all way by spending on advertising, but we are interested in testing the engagement level of the promise. As Eric Ries pointed out in one his talks, what’s the point of building a downloadable product, if no one makes it to the download page?

That said, I do intend to follow Sean Ellis’ advice and close the loop with retention stats with our existing user base.

]]> By: Nivi http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-15 Nivi Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:32:15 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-15 In Sean's world, you wouldn't spend much time on landing and signup pages until you had the P/M fit problem solved. In Sean’s world, you wouldn’t spend much time on landing and signup pages until you had the P/M fit problem solved.

]]> By: ashmaurya http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-13 ashmaurya Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:18:37 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-13 Thanks for the link Nivi... Had seen it before, but re-reading was certainly insightful and very timely as I have been contemplating how to go about measuring our product/market fit. I will definitely test the 40% early traction rule. Thanks for the link Nivi… Had seen it before, but re-reading was certainly insightful and very timely as I have been contemplating how to go about measuring our product/market fit. I will definitely test the 40% early traction rule.

]]> By: Nivi http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Nivi Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:43:08 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-12 This is awesome. If you haven't read Sean Ellis' startup pyramid, you should: http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid This is awesome. If you haven’t read Sean Ellis’ startup pyramid, you should: http://startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid

]]> By: 10 examples of minimum viable products - Venture Hacks http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-11 10 examples of minimum viable products - Venture Hacks Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:37:26 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-11 [...] Cloudfire uses a classic customer development problem presentation. [...] [...] Cloudfire uses a classic customer development problem presentation. [...]

]]> By: mike simmons http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-10 mike simmons Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:50:35 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-10 Thank you Ash. This is really good post. Best of luck. Question: would it help if there was a tool/service to help the interview process? For example, something like this product but repurposed for engaging potential customers instead of screening job candidates? http://interviewbot.com/static/howItWorks.shtml (This is not my product) Thank you Ash. This is really good post.
Best of luck.
Question: would it help if there was a tool/service to help the interview process?
For example, something like this product but repurposed for engaging potential customers instead of screening job candidates?
http://interviewbot.com/static/howItWorks.shtml (This is not my product)

]]> By: ashmaurya http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-9 ashmaurya Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:43:34 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-9 thx Greg :-) thx Greg :-)

]]> By: Greg http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-8 Greg Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:35:36 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-8 Very interesting post and a nice summary. Another correction - the url in the link to CloudFire is incorrect. Very interesting post and a nice summary. Another correction – the url in the link to CloudFire is incorrect.

]]> By: ashmaurya http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-7 ashmaurya Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:14:43 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-7 Thanks Kaleb... Thanks Kaleb…

]]> By: uberVU - social comments http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-6 uberVU - social comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:06:18 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-6 <strong>Social comments and analytics for this post...</strong> This post was mentioned on Twitter by byosko: Great case study on building a minimum viable product: http://bit.ly/4rQkZ3 - discipline is key.... Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by byosko: Great case study on building a minimum viable product: http://bit.ly/4rQkZ3 – discipline is key….

]]> By: Kaleb Pederson http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Kaleb Pederson Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:55:26 +0000 http://www.ashmaurya.com/?p=45#comment-5 Thanks for the great article that incorporates many different important concepts. One correction: wiling -> willing. --Kaleb Thanks for the great article that incorporates many different important concepts.

One correction: wiling -> willing.

–Kaleb

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