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Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

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Re: Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

#31

Post by jhoelzel »

brianwawok wrote: post #15
jhoelzel wrote: post #3

MVP implies that you show them the most valuable feature. It can simply be a mockup too! What you need, in my opinion, is basically your core proposition. Like if you build a killer robot, showing that it can hit any target you click on, is nice.. even though it might not be able to move. If its a webapp, don't focus on solved problems, like Logins or SSO but rather show me what your "x for y" can do. After all the p…

People want a product that works for MVP in most cases. If you are a brand new tech that no one has ever done, okay. But if there is even 1 competitor that kinda works, a mock-up is worth 0. So I think depends on the market for the product.

i disagree here! Not because i think you could not be right, but because there is much more room in one space.

Like under this advisement apple never would have gone into phones. There was literally a phase were we were joking that somebody is building the "uber for X" or the "tinder for y" and im pretty sure a lot of those did get funding without having a single line of code in their names.

Re: Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

#32

Post by microChasm »

If your goal is to raise money, then you has better make sure you have done your homework for the business reasons and justifications for the product or service.

The best business plans are summarized and laid out in the product or service demo.

I'm still not clear about what your definition of MVP is.

MVPs (product or service users that are loyal and passionate users or influencers) are typically used by large companies that want to generate positive marketing, spin, what have you for their product or service. You sell them, they sell others. Or, you pay them. Yada, yada, yada.

If you are writing here about a "most valuable product," then using the term MVP is silly. MVP indicates your other products are not valuable just based on the usage of that term. Avoid minimizing your products or services.

Re: Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

#33

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

skykooler wrote: post #26
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #20

That's traditionally called a "demo." The time-honored way to do demos, is to show a lashed-up, duct-tape-and-baling-wire abomination, in a carefully controlled setting. I have seen companies plant shills in the audience, to generate those "random questions." The best was when I attended the "Longhorn" demo, at Microsoft (Longhorn became Vista). The marketing person gave this great demo of all the eye-candy UI, and k…

> Vista turned out great! That's debatable.

It was a joke. Forgot the /s

Re: Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

#34

Post by etothepii »

microChasm wrote: post #32

If your goal is to raise money, then you has better make sure you have done your homework for the business reasons and justifications for the product or service. The best business plans are summarized and laid out in the product or service demo. I'm still not clear about what your definition of MVP is. MVPs (product or service users that are loyal and passionate users or influencers) are typically used by large compa…

In this context wouldn't MVP mean minimal viable product?

Re: Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

#35

Post by hoofhearted »

Show it to the users in person as soon as possible and ask for feedback if you can. I have personally carried around an iPad around an expo hall demoing an MVP multiple times.

You can also record a low budget demo of your product, and ask for user feedback. The best example of this is when Drew Houston created a demo video of what appears to be a working product. Apparently some of the video is mocked out and was edited and uses camera tricks. Even to this day, it looks like a solid working product.

https://youtu.be/7QmCUDHpNzE

Re: Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

#37

Post by whartung »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #20

That's traditionally called a "demo." The time-honored way to do demos, is to show a lashed-up, duct-tape-and-baling-wire abomination, in a carefully controlled setting. I have seen companies plant shills in the audience, to generate those "random questions." The best was when I attended the "Longhorn" demo, at Microsoft (Longhorn became Vista). The marketing person gave this great demo of all the eye-candy UI, and k…

> That's traditionally called a "demo."

Also colloquially known as the "rigged demo".

Let's be clear, there is nothing wrong with a rigged demo. A rigged demo is no different than a magic show. Folks love magic shows.

However, there is a big difference between a rigged demo and lying to the audience. All of those slide decks, static screens with "just one button that works", "demos on rails", they're all legit. It's ok to talk hopes, dreams, future capabilities, and what it should be capable of. But you can't (shouldn't) do that and tell them that "this'll be done next week". Shouldn't give false expectations.

It's a fine line, to be sure, but it's marketing. You can have honest marketing without highlighting all the ways you currently fall short. Everyone needs to do due diligence. A rigged demo may seem like 3 Card Monty, but it's not. 3 Card Monty is designed to deceive. A rigged demo is designed to highlight and exemplify. Yes, there is a difference.

In the end, the hard questions will come, and you need to be prepared to answer them honestly. If they don't come, you should be upfront about them. Address unsaid concerns. But that doesn't disqualify the use of the "rigged demo".

Re: Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

#38

Post by vparikh »

If you want to se the ultimate MVP demo of a product look no further than the 2007 introduction of the Apple iPhone - https://youtu.be/MnrJzXM7a6o

It was not a finished product and the dev team was terrified that the system would crash. In fact you could argue that the first iPhone was an MVP released to the public.

These would help:

- Be upfront that this is an MVP. Do not try to sell it as a product that is a finished product

- Create a script that shows the core working functionality

- rehearse the script and make sure the feature list demonstrated and that you can run through the script

- In your case, is it possible that you can dictate (you need to control the variables)?

- Ask for feed back. Listen. Do not try to defend the product.

Hope this helps

Re: Ask HN: How to show a not “so perfect” MVP to potential customers?

#39

Post by cercatrova »

fxtentacle wrote: post #10

They won't mind obvious issues as long as you can show progress towards solving their pain point. In 2010 I worked on a 3D audio mixing software. The first beta crashed every 30-60 minutes, losing any unsaved data. People truly hated that. But mixing for 22 speakers + 2 LFE by hand was still an order of magnitude more painful than dealing with our buggy beta. So our customers were (rightfully!) complaining all the ti…

> There are only two kinds of programming languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.

Now replace programming languages with products.

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