Therefore, the minimum feasible product does not need to have too many functions, as long as it provides some functions that can cause early users to buzz. Some users will give you feedback, and some users are willing to pay for the services they need. -Erics
However, most entrepreneurs have not thought about how to develop a minimum feasible product, nor do they know the process of developing a minimum feasible product. In fact, the process of developing the most infeasible product can verify whether your entrepreneurial idea can provide a solution that users are really willing to pay. On the contrary, if users give wrong feedback or some biased replies, it is likely that entrepreneurs will eventually encounter waterloo.
Sometimes, people often like to deceive themselves and always listen to what they like selectively. This is human nature. Moreover, this happens more frequently than you think, but in different forms. If you enter the keyword "cognitive prejudice list" on Google and look at the search results, you will know that what I said is by no means false.
However, when verifying whether an entrepreneurial idea is suitable for going on, the author finds that some methods have obvious defects, some methods are more practical under certain conditions, and some methods will be very useful if you can master some skills or resources. However, there seems to be an effective way to communicate with your market.
By verifying the lowest feasible product, your entrepreneurial idea can be divided into several different levels, including: defective, situational and ideal, if classified.
First, the defects of the test method
1, investigate with good friends
Investigating and consulting your good friends about your business ideas will usually lead entrepreneurs to develop prototypes of some physical products, because they will definitely have some "bias" when investigating their good friends, which will lead to inaccurate feedback. You might think, "Who would do that?" But the reality may be far from what you think. People are often afraid to give (or accept) honest feedback, because many first-time entrepreneurs usually cling to their own entrepreneurial ideas, and even if they hear many opposing voices, they will go on without hesitation. If you ask your good friends your idea of starting a business, no matter what questions you ask them, they will probably give a positive answer. As an entrepreneur, you will try your best to find some "excuses" to justify your entrepreneurial dream.
2. Quickly build a complete product.
When you have a complete idea, immediately create a finished product, which sounds good and makes people feel that your execution is very strong and you can get product development quickly. But in fact, your product is not reliable, because it has not been verified in practice. This is very dangerous. In the late 1990 s and early 2000 s, many technology startups failed because of this.
Now we know that the idea of "developing products first anyway, users will come naturally" is not reliable. It is likely to push entrepreneurs to the wall. "Developing a product that people want" is just a gimmick to fool entrepreneurs. Many engineers who don't understand "lean entrepreneurship" often feel that they are very powerful, and they develop a product three times and five times, which eventually leads to failure. Even sometimes, even in the face of failure, they will stubbornly say, "You just don't understand me."
Second, according to the actual environment of the test method
1, depending on user groups
You can set up a user group in advance through blog or email subscription service. If you want to start a company in a special industry, or you want to know your market better, this will be a good way. If you are a founder with no technical background, you can use this method to verify the concept.
In addition, this method also gives you the opportunity to enter a certain market. By communicating with the market, you can become an expert and understand the pain points of users, and these pain points are the solutions you need to provide, and users will be willing to pay for them.
2. Communicate with a large number of potential users.
In addition to theoretical methods, you need to communicate with customers in practice. However, it is not necessarily wise to conduct excessive market research before developing products, because once the directional error is found, most entrepreneurs will not choose to start developing a minimum feasible product again and conduct another round of verification.
If you feel that you are a CEO-type entrepreneur, you may keep chasing the "next big thing" and find something really meaningful for yourself after three or four attempts, but there will also be problems, because you are likely to be troubled by the "next big problem" all the time, resulting in your inability to concentrate on solving the current problem.
In addition to finding problems, it is also important to know whether others are willing to "pay" for you. If you really do "tens of thousands" of customer interviews with the lowest feasible products, the suggestion can be regarded as "consulting" research. If you can hear some people's "complaints" or their request to pay for certain functions/services, this is the real opportunity.
3. Build a simple product immediately.
If you have a deep understanding of the market and do a lot of market research, it is no problem to develop a prototype product as soon as possible. But for the vast majority of people, especially the founders of first-time companies, they always "feel" that they know what users want.
Understand that building a simple product means that you don't even know what the problem is, but you just found it by your own experience or professional knowledge, and it can't even be regarded as an "entrepreneurial idea". The problem is that this kind of self-awareness will always accompany you on your entrepreneurial road, and in the end you will only develop the solution you want, not what most other people want. This method is actually very dangerous, because it will make the founders fall into some "traps" and rashly develop products without actual feedback from potential users. If we can achieve rapid product iteration according to the user's product use feedback, this is the more correct method.
4. Crowdfunding
On crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter, users can "buy" your products in advance, which is really a good financing method. However, if you use crowdfunding to create a minimum feasible product, you may fall into a very long product iteration cycle, which means that it may take you a month or more to lock the product prototype. The reason why we want to launch the least feasible product is because it can be constantly updated, but the crowdfunding platform is contrary to this purpose.
However, the crowdfunding platform is still very helpful for some types of market products. The most typical example at this stage is Pebble, and other successful crowdfunding product types are basically hardware devices. In other words, if you need to produce a real product, crowdfunding may still be a good platform, but other services or applications may not be suitable.
Third, the ideal test method
1, landing page
If you want to make a profit, it is a good choice to work hard on the landing page. Although you can't make money unless you introduce the product to users, you can at least ask. The question is, how? It's actually very simple: here's a trick. You can do some "hands and feet" on the web page. Once the user clicks buy, it can display "sold out", so that you can see what the user clicked from the background and know what the user really wants to buy. Next, if you can provide those goods in a short time (ideally no more than two weeks), congratulations, and you can formally start your business. This is almost the best proof of concept, and it is also very powerful.
"If people send subtle signals, you must be prepared to listen. Read between the lines. Ask for money, because this is the best way to get useful information, not really asking for money. " -Dan Hipper
2. Hollow minimum feasible product
A "hollow product" looks like a finished product, but it's all forged at the back end. If you are a company founder with no technical background, then this method can be used for concept certification. Here are some good examples:
"ZeroCater is a startup company cultivated by a well-known incubator YC. At first, they used the simplest spreadsheet to provide ordering service for employees; Groupon started as a blog based on WordPress, and their first voucher was a manually sent PDF file. Grouper is also a startup company cultivated by YC incubator. They helped users match dates, and at first they used the simplest spreadsheet. "
3. Quick feedback/development
If you are a technology founder yourself, then this job is what you should do and the most likely one. The key of this method is to fully understand the problems of users in the market, and then develop a product so that your early users are willing to pay for this product. In fact, it is difficult (but important) to find a balance between so-called "work products" and "satisfied products".
"Minimum satisfactory product" is the simplest necessary experience, and it is a product experience with high value and high satisfaction for users. "-Anderson
4. Start small and start with the lowest feasible product.
When you create a product, you can treat it as a service first. In fact, this is how Netflix started.
Netflix was founded in California by two boys, one is Reed Hastings and the other is Mark Randolph. Hastings forgot to return the rented movie videos every time, which eventually led to a large number of late fees. Then they thought of a note that they could mail the rented movie videos, so there would be no late fees. " -Basic Universe
Then, they began to rent their movies to their friends, which was the predecessor of Netflix. This seems to come naturally, but if you ask today's entrepreneurs how to create a company similar to Netflix, most people may give a very detailed and more professional solution, but in fact this set is useless. What you need to do is to do what you can at hand first, otherwise you can't expand the scale at all. As the saying goes, many a mickle makes a mickle.
5. Profit and transformation
This method can accumulate knowledge and professional skills, and entrepreneurs know that there will be a strong and mature market before product development. Entrepreneurs can establish a user base, and if they can carry out brand marketing correctly, they can easily test their entrepreneurial ideas. Next, regardless of whether they have product sales experience before, they can successfully transform and achieve profitability.