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Keep in mind you want to avoid premature optimization of both the back end and the front end. This is a great tip for a validated concept, but at the MVP stage

Keep in mind you want to avoid premature optimization of both the back end and the front end. This is a great tip for a validated concept, but at the MVP stage, I wouldn't consider it priorty #1.

skrebbel 14y ago
So you're saying that MVPs should be of mediocre quality?
- timjahn 14y ago
  MVPs should be the absolute bare minimum. If you're starting a grass cutting business, don't go buy a pickup truck, a trailer, and 3 of those orange ride/stand-on mowers. Get a spreadsheet out and start signing up your customers. Is that mediocre quality? No. It's not prematurely optimizing for something that may never happen.
  - salman89 14y ago
    If you are in a crowded space, UX differentiation is a feature. In the case of close.io, they are competing against well entrenched market leaders. Making a high quality, easy to use sales communication tool is their MVP.
  - jrochkind1 14y ago
    I think an MVP has got to be as few "features" as you can get away with -- but each feature has got to be as HIGH QUALITY as you can make it, to stand out from the crowd. It's not year 2000, or even year 2010 anymore -- you probably have competitors, you need to differentiate somehow. Don't buy a pickup truck, a trailer, and 3 of those orange ride/stand-on mowers -- but the ONE mower you buy, make it the BEST DAMN MOWER you can afford, well-thought out best for precisely the kind of mowing jobs you plan to focus on. (And this is only a great analogy to software if your customer is going to be actually USING your mower themselves!)
    - StavrosK 14y ago
      If your value proposition is "I've got a better mower", sure. If not, work on your value proposition, the rest is fluff. Unless close.io's business model is "allowing you to enter information easily" (it might be, I don't know what they do), they shouldn't bother with it for the MVP.
- tsm 14y ago
  Yes. They should be of minimally-viable quality. It needs to be stable enough and featureful enough to be useful. That's all.
  - mattty 14y ago
    Exactly. The clue is in the name :)
philfreo 14y ago
We're beyond the MVP stage... and I think when you're competing with well established players in a big space your best option is to compete on product quality rather than marketing, cost, etc. It's also worth noting that this is a form that can get filled out dozens of times a day by many of our users. It's not some obscure settings page.

Keep in mind you want to avoid premature optimization of both the back end and the front end. This is a great tip for a validated concept, but at the MVP stage, I wouldn't consider it priorty #1.

skrebbel 14y ago

So you're saying that MVPs should be of mediocre quality?

timjahn 14y ago
MVPs should be the absolute bare minimum. If you're starting a grass cutting business, don't go buy a pickup truck, a trailer, and 3 of those orange ride/stand-on mowers. Get a spreadsheet out and start signing up your customers. Is that mediocre quality? No. It's not prematurely optimizing for something that may never happen.
- salman89 14y ago
  If you are in a crowded space, UX differentiation is a feature. In the case of close.io, they are competing against well entrenched market leaders. Making a high quality, easy to use sales communication tool is their MVP.
- jrochkind1 14y ago
  I think an MVP has got to be as few "features" as you can get away with -- but each feature has got to be as HIGH QUALITY as you can make it, to stand out from the crowd. It's not year 2000, or even year 2010 anymore -- you probably have competitors, you need to differentiate somehow. Don't buy a pickup truck, a trailer, and 3 of those orange ride/stand-on mowers -- but the ONE mower you buy, make it the BEST DAMN MOWER you can afford, well-thought out best for precisely the kind of mowing jobs you plan to focus on. (And this is only a great analogy to software if your customer is going to be actually USING your mower themselves!)
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    If your value proposition is "I've got a better mower", sure. If not, work on your value proposition, the rest is fluff. Unless close.io's business model is "allowing you to enter information easily" (it might be, I don't know what they do), they shouldn't bother with it for the MVP.
tsm 14y ago
Yes. They should be of minimally-viable quality. It needs to be stable enough and featureful enough to be useful. That's all.
- mattty 14y ago
  Exactly. The clue is in the name :)

philfreo 14y ago

We're beyond the MVP stage... and I think when you're competing with well established players in a big space your best option is to compete on product quality rather than marketing, cost, etc. It's also worth noting that this is a form that can get filled out dozens of times a day by many of our users. It's not some obscure settings page.