Comments on: “Intermediate” MVPs

By: SKMurphy » Startup Lessons Learned Conference Coverage Roundup

SKMurphy » Startup Lessons Learned Conference Coverage Roundup — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:19:30 +0000

[...] Brant Cooper “Intermediate MVPs“ [...]

By: Most Tweeted Articles by Lean Startups Experts

Most Tweeted Articles by Lean Startups Experts — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:40:34 +0000

[...] investors make for the success and growth of new ventures? William R. Kerr … 2 Tweets “Intermediate” MVPs | Market By Numbers | Marketing Help At Eric Ries' fantastic Lean Startup Conference last Friday, I had the privilege of working the [...]

By: brantcooper

brantcooper — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:14:51 +0000

Smack-down would be fun! I am personally not a huge fan of “landing page as MVP”, but I will argue for its legitimacy. Key is to break down the components of MVP:
Minimum – check
Viable – relative to defined objective and currency, check
Product – uh, OK you’ve got me there. : ) “Intermediate” qualifies product. So the argument is simply that one can create a not-finished product in order to test one risky element of your business model. So the point is simply to determine whether or not the idea is worth the time and effort to “get to the more interesting tests.”

In other words, like all good smack-downs, we’re in violent agreement and have all the bruises and bloody noses to prove it!

By: David Binetti

David Binetti — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:49:59 +0000

Maybe we should have a lean smack-down, a la Dave McClure and Eric Ries?

My fundamental concern with landing pages as MVPs is that while they meet the Minimum criterion quite well, they fail as Viable Products.

At the end of the day, you are trying to demonstrate a sustainable and scalable business model. Landing pages test for potential acquisition rates — which is obviously a critical starting point — but that’s all they do. In order to get to the more interesting tests of the model (activation, retention, referral, revenue, etc.) you’ll need more.

I like the concept of landing-page as phase gate. Even the most minimal MVP (one that can test for other elements of your model beyond acquisition) is generally a non-trivial investment of time, so if you can’t even acquire clicks it might not be worth creating it at all. But you do need something to function as an actual product if you want to validate your business model.

By: Kevin Donaldson

Kevin Donaldson — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:03:54 +0000

Great post Brant. Like any framework – In the end if people don’t think through how to use the lean startup and customer development principals in the most appropriate way for their need or just call something an MVP to give it a name – they are only cheating themselves.