Your MVP should take **weeks**, not months to build. Almost all big companies started with a small shitty product. Don't worry about it being shit, or low quality - the people who will be turned off by that weren't early adopters and your ideal first customers anyways. You want to do it fast, and not fall in love with the MVP. You want to fall in love with the customer and the problem. #### Good qualities of a great MVP - Very fast to build (weeks not months) - Very limited functionality - Appeal to a small set of users (not covering every use case) #### Founder's biggest fears Founders think if they build an MVP and no one likes it, the company just dies. If that happens, does it really mean anything? Aren't you and your founders still there? Is the company actually going to die? Can't you make improvements, reach out, and sell to more people? If you wait 1 year to launch your perfect MVP you're a [[Fake Steve Jobs]]. #### Hair on fire Find the hair on fire issue your initial users have, and ONLY SOLVE THAT. Surveys might help you understand the pain, but they won't help you figure out how to solve that. The only time you have that conversation with the customer is you put an MVP in front of them and ask "does this solve your problem?" **There is no shortcut to building something fast and shitty at the start.** Your MVP should focus on something that a customer is desperate for, and even though you solve it poorly, they still need it because it's that much of an issue. Their hair is on fire - even if you give them a glass of water instead of a bucket, they'll still use it. #### Steps: 1. Time box your spec 2. Write your spec 3. Cut your spec - Does a truly desperate customer NEED these features? 4. DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH THE MVP! - Fall in love with the customer and the problem. If you build a screwdriver that doesn't screw things in properly, don't try to find a new problem that screw driver can solve, FIX THE SCREWDRIVER #### BIG KEY THING TO REMEMBER **You don't start your startup with all the answers. Building a startup is all about learning, taking some of the insights you started with, bringing them to the market, and learning. Most of the solutions and best parts of products were discovered AFTER a product was launched when they were learning from their users. Building an MVP is the fastest way to start learning.** #### Relevant resources [How to Build An MVP | Startup School](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRZ_l7cVzzU) [Michael Seibel - How to Plan an MVP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hHMwLxN6EM)