Building an MVP and Setting your KPIs

MVP (Minimum Viable Product) - by Michael Seibel

The first version of your product. The version where you will be learning what you are going to build.

The goal of a pre-launch startup:

1. Launch quickly.
2. Get initial customers.
3. Talk to customers and get feedback.
4. Iterate (improve your product)

You can always iterate from your MVP. If you think something bad will happen if I launch an MVP which is not perfect. Then take a pause and write down why you think it will go wrong.

Software MVP (things you need to keep in your mind):

• Should be very fast to build (weeks not months)
• Very limited functionality.
• Appeal to a very small set of users.

Solving hair on fire problem -

Let's take an example:
Imagine a guy sitting beside you with his hair on fire; what would you do in such a situation? You will go and bring the bucket of water and put the fire off; that would have been the perfect solution. But now, imagine you don't have a bucket of water. Instead, you have a brick in your hand. If you wanna solution right now, buy my brick and bang it on your head until the fire is off.

At these times, solving the problem even with the crappy MVPs will help you in taking you near your goal.

Learning from customers is easier with an MVP than without. Talking to the users with an MVP is the hack.

Hacks for building an MVP quickly:

1. Time box your spec
2. Write your spec
3. Cut your spec (30-50%)
4. Don't fall in love with your MVP! (realise it needs a lot of improvements and needs to get better with more iterations)

It's better to have 100 people love your product rather than having 10000 people like your product

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) by Divya Bhat

Rather than solving what's hard to solve, focus on what customers want.

Why the rush? Why can't I go slowly?

No

How to prioritise?
You will never be able to check off your complete list; there will always be something on the table.

Focus on:

1. Make revenue growth your primary KPI.
2. What's the KPI goal for this week? Set a target, what you want to achieve in the short term. This will remind you to go fast.
3. Identify your biggest bottleneck.

A simple system to move your KPIs:`

1. Write down the ideas that may help Rank them.
2. If your KPI is not moving, be brutally honest and think why.
3. Do real retros, learn and adjust the course. a. If it's not working, do something different b. If it was working, double down
4. Move fast.

Things you need to focus on before pre-product-market fit:

• Talking to users
• Building products that your customers pay for

Common traps:

1. Checking off a list feels good.
2. It's easy to convince yourself something is working, even if it's not. Be brutally honest to yourself cause these things will not help you.
3. Working on the secondary problems rather than the existential ones.
4. Perfectionism and indecision are your enemies. (fast decisions are good decisions)

Don't waste your time on the things which will not take you near to product-market fit. It's good to waste your time on something that's not scalable, as long as it's not breaking.

Bad KPIs:

1. Amount raised
2. Team size
3. Office space sqft
4. Press hits
5. Celebrity endorsements
6. Instagram likes

Setting targets:
How much growth is enough?
From paul graham -

1. 5-7% WoW - good
2. 10% WoW - exceptional

Early growth matters; growth rate compounds.

Final Takeaways:

• Move fast but in the right direction.
• Prioritisation:
  • You'll never get to everything on your task list.
  • Use KPIs to prioritise your work - only work on the biggest blocker to your primary KPIs.
  • Be honest with yourself, and fail fast.
• KPIs
  • Primary KPI = Revenue Growth, unless exceptional circumstances.
  • Secondary KPIs are important to track but not necessarily optimise (yet)

Prioritization matters. KPIs help you prioritise.

That's all folks. Ba bye :)