Ask HN: What are some great examples of a Minimum Viable Product? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some great examples of a Minimum Viable Product?

#61

Post by glimcat » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:23 AM UTC

methodin wrote: post #56

adjwilli wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might have started off that way. I didn't download it until recently. But nowadays it has all sorts of social networking features I think would disqualify it from being an MVP.

An MVP doesn't have to remain an MVP, right? I would think the purpose of an MVP is to gain traction to be able to expand upon the core product.

The purpose of an MVP is to quit screwing around with maybes and some-days and get moving.

Also, expanding is often not so good a thing as refining. It's usually better to have one or two features which are well-refined versus a great many features which aren't well-integrated and which you lack the resources to support.

Re: Ask HN: What are some great examples of a Minimum Viable Product?

#62

Post by liorsion » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 4:00 AM UTC

jballanc wrote: post #4

The very first iPhone. I feel like sometimes people confuse Minimum Viable Product with Minimum Sellable Product. That is, MVP is not about building the smallest thing that someone will pay you money for. It's about cutting out all the pieces that might fall onto the 20 side of the Pareto principle. It's about resolving any 50-50 decisions by picking one way and going with it, instead of quibbling over which way is t…

Your examples just show that your first sentence is wrong :) Actually, MVP IS about building the smallest thing possible that someone would use - paying for it or just using the process - and it's not about 50-50 decisions.

The idea behind MVP is simple enough: market response is more important and more accurate than anything you can ever do yourself - so the most important thing you can do is get it. The best way to get it is be out there fast, however - in order to get something that's worth something you need to give something meaningful (value) - and the result is the MVP.

MVP doesn't mean you don't have to work at it - it means you have to THINK about it a lot.. and be very connected to your market.

Re: Ask HN: What are some great examples of a Minimum Viable Product?

#63

Post by jwilliams » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 8:09 AM UTC

As has been discussed, MVP can have a varying definition. If you take the minimal part very seriously, one of the products I love to reference is: http://notepad.cc

Re: Ask HN: What are some great examples of a Minimum Viable Product?

#64

Post by rgrig » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 10:23 AM UTC

MattBearman wrote: post #12

As we seem to be allowing a personal bias, I'll submit my MVP - http://bugmuncher.com I've built the minimum in order to get it live in 2 weeks. I've got a HUGE list of features to add in future, including customisation, multiple highlights, automate the subscription process, API, etc.

You may wish to run a spell checker on the window with instructions. (Sadly, I can't run bugmuncher on that one.)

Re: Ask HN: What are some great examples of a Minimum Viable Product?

#65

Post by MattBearman » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:26 PM UTC

rgrig wrote: post #64

MattBearman wrote: post #12

As we seem to be allowing a personal bias, I'll submit my MVP - http://bugmuncher.com I've built the minimum in order to get it live in 2 weeks. I've got a HUGE list of features to add in future, including customisation, multiple highlights, automate the subscription process, API, etc.

You may wish to run a spell checker on the window with instructions . (Sadly, I can't run bugmuncher on that one.)

Thanks for the heads up, I'm sure I fixed those errors before launch, I must have just failed to update that page.

Also, you should be able to run bug muncher on that page, what browser are you using?

Re: Ask HN: What are some great examples of a Minimum Viable Product?

#66

Post by khakimov » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 6:18 PM UTC

csexton wrote: post #38

I think my lil mac screen capture app is actually a pretty good example, originally in v1 it only uploaded to imgur and had no UI except for the menu. V2 I added advanced features like a preferences window and history. http://captured.codeography.com While building this I did try hard to focus on what I could do to ship right away, and nothing more. Even for v2 I had to concentrate on limiting the features, which was…

Same things we did too: v1 just simple screen shot for mac v2 screen edit functions v3 version for win with edit v4 personal profile with history v5 easy-sharing

http://pix.am