Build Less, Ship Sooner

Question for you: a key stakeholder asks for a big new feature to be added to your app. Would you rather spend 3 months building the perfect solution or 2 weeks building an MVP?

I’d go with the second option. It’s better to build a smaller version first as a trial to see if the feature will bring value before committing to spending months on a project. Once users get their hands on it the original idea might morph into something or the idea might even be scrapped entirely.

Re-work isn’t a big deal when you’ve only shipped the bare essentials, and if it’s scrapped, then good job you didn’t spend 3 months on it, right?!

MVPs are usually thought of as initial products used to test the market when you launch something new. But we can apply the same thinking to any feature we want to add to our app. Ask yourself: “can I take this massive feature and build the core of it within 2 weeks?” If that’s possible then great! If not, it’ll likely have helped you cut the scope down to the essentials and often leads to a clever way of implementing it simply.

TLDR: When doing product management, adopt an MVP mindset. How can I accomplish this within 2 weeks? Then cut scope to achieve that so that the feature can get released, start bringing value and get feedback on whether it’s worth continuing.