The P in MVP is not an app

Last Update: 05.10.2018. By Jens in Newsletter

When you start about building your own Saas you will inevitably come across the concept of MVP - a minimum viable product. And that last word is confusing devs like hell. Because we actually think in products. And a product for us is an application. A working one.

However, it is not in the context of MVP building. Here a product is just a simple test for verifying your ideas/assumptions. A test can be an app but most of the time it is something else. Maybe just an article, maybe a video, maybe just a landing page with some mock screens. It depends on what the MVP is all about and the target audience - the people you want to get on your fishing hook. And of course your reason for doing all of that.

So, don’t think by default in applications here, think in tests; maybe like unit tests. However, don’t avoid the app stuff at all, sometimes it can be much faster to put a tiny app out there as a test than it is to mock something up. LIke the case where I turned our tutorial of using Google Sheets as a database into a tiny Saas named Spreadsheet 2 Site.

Before you start, think what will take the least effort - time and energy wise - to test your assumption and go with that. If it is an app, fine. If not, use something else.