SBenegaL

Tag: #MVP

  • Many pivots?

    Pivots have joined the vocabulary of entrepreneurship thanks to Steve Blank and Eric Ries. It has become so prevalent that when you ask any entrepreneur who isn’t making much progress, you get a response – “I am making a pivot.” The question that immediately comes to our mind is, why are you pivoting so many times!

    Pivots simply refer to changes in a strategic component of the venture building, guided by a goal. If one is changing the goal so many times, then are you at all making any progress, or are you simply confused? To understand the concept of pivot better, it is important to understand the lean start-up process beginning with the venture idea.

    An entrepreneur beginning with an idea should first acknowledge that there are many underlying assumptions made. You begin with testing these assumptions (which otherwise would weaken the foundation). The testing of assumptions requires an appropriate formulation of the hypothesis. A hypothesis that can be empirically tested through experiments. 

    The empirical testing begins with designing the experiments. Most often, entrepreneurs skip this critical step of experimental design. If you are not designing an experiment, you really cannot make causal inferences by running the experiment. You need to be pretty sure what the variation is before you can run with it and make a claim about the validity of a hypothesis. Testing the hypothesis takes the form of a version of the MVP (more on it later), which is then experimented to gather the outcomes. Based on this experiment’s outcomes, you infer if the assumption was accurate and realistic or just plain fiction. If the assumptions are inaccurate or fictitious, you must re evaluate the component of the idea and make amends. This amendment is what we refer to as pivots. If the assumption withstood the experimental test, you move ahead and persevere on the idea and build your venture.

    So next time you are claiming to be amid a pivot, ask if you have really tested your assumption and thus seek a change in the strategy to build the venture.

    Ask yourself:

    Have I identified the underlying assumption of my venture idea?

    What is a good experiment to test this assumption? It need not necessarily be building your MVP!

    What do the results of the experiment imply? Is the assumption invalid and, therefore, requiring a pivot, or am I simply fooling the world claiming to be in a pivoting mode all the time?

  • Minimum viable product (MVP)

    MVP is one of the most proliferated acronyms from the lean startup approach to the vocabulary of entrepreneurs. While we resist discussing the approaches in detail, the common misunderstood meaning of the word is something that must be addressed and hence this topic. To understand the apt way of developing an MVP, it is important to remember that lean startup suggests that entrepreneurs need to find a problem/solution fit, then make the transition to finding a product/market fit before scaling up.

    In the problem/solution fit phase, entrepreneurs need to identify the existence of the problem that is pretty common, worth solving and having the potential to be paid for, if solved. In the solution aspect, one must consider the broad set of parameters where a solution addresses the problem involved. In the next phase, the solution is developed into a product that is then tested to find an appropriate market that picks up the product quickly. With this background, it would be useful to refer to the image below in understanding what is/is not an MVP. 

    Our interactions with entrepreneurs indicate that most entrepreneurs mean MVP development to be the one represented in Panel 1. Through this, they are generally referring to the development phases of the product – lay the wheels of the car, then connect the transmission system, etc. before developing the car.

    The intended suggested development cycle for MVP is first, to begin with developing a complete product – as shown in panel 2, a skateboard! Doing so will help validate the existence of the problem much earlier. The problem you are trying to solve is transportation! You are not sure if people are ready for a new car when the fundamental problem of transportation is not addressed! Once you have a skateboard accepted, you could continue to improve on the feature and eventually develop a car if it is appropriate.

    For example: If you are thinking of developing an audiobook for tourist spots, and you believe the quality of content is what matters, maybe the best course of action is to simply get quality recordings. See if people appreciate it when you put these recordings out and share them in MP3 players, podcasts etc. Why build the app first?

    Building the MVP right, takes care of the validation of the existence of the problem, reduction in the biases, and quick learning loops.

    Ask yourself:

    What am I building as an MVP? Am I simply fooling myself into developing a whole product in the name of an MVP?

    Disclaimer: The image is used only for demonstration purpose. Copyrights remain with the original creator. No claim of onwership.