The Lean Startup Movement has only just begun.
I noticed that Eric Ries has built The Lean Startup website in advance of The Lean Startup book, which comes out September 13, 2011.
It does feel like the Minimum Viable Product movement has really just gotten started.
Startup Lessons Learned had a sold out conference in May -- you can watch the complete video streams for free.
Also worth reading: On August 3, Lara Druyan interviewed Eric Ries at a very special 106 Miles event; I tweeted my 49 favorite lines from Eric.
After enjoying this guide to Minimum Viable Product, one thought comes to mind.
Building a minimum viable product is hard.
See also: How do I learn to fail better?
Here's how I look at it: A primary goal of BDD (Behavior Driven Development) is meeting "stakeholder" goals. MVP extends BDD with the goal of insuring product salability.
That's a lot of words, John. In practice it is very hard to build something people want.
How do I know? Look at how many products have been built, that people don't want.
Of course it's hard, which is why methodologies like MVP are so important and rising in popularity. My point is that engineering (and startup) success can be amplified (or risks and mistakes reduced) by extending BDD with this focus on what the customer will pay for.
Got it. The challenge is when there are users involved, since they are generally a special kind of customer who pay with their time.
The writing equivalent of the MVP is the Shitty First Draft, whereupon the goal is to finish a version of the book, no matter how much is sucks. The saying goes "You can fix a bad page, you can't fix a blank one."
I really feel this is a nice analogy for the MVP: build something complete and usable. You can make it not suck in another iteration.
Also, the MVP idea can be extended to any piece of software, not just startups. I have a lot of trouble indoctrinating new and junior devs into this idea. "But it's not done yet..." Chances are, it will never be *done*, it just needs to be done enough for now. Next iteration, it'll be more done.
I like the mantra build something complete and usable.
If we look at the first release of Facebook, it pales in comparison to the Facebook of today. But it was complete and usable.
See also: How 20 popular websites looked when they launched.
You May Also Like:
