There is a ridiculous misconception across the internet that MVP should take from 3 to 4 months! In some cases, it may be true but usually, this estimate is related to the inability of the development team to use the right resources or the perfectionism of a management team.

Rather you wanna build a marketplace, a blog, a data analytic platform, a SaaS an NFT project or even fucking casino there are tools and templates that will allow you to release a well-functioning product in 24 hours of development time.

So why do we still spend 4 months on it!?!?

Bias #1. Developers are paid in hours

And that is the fact even when payment is project-based. NEVER work with outsourced agencies to build an MVP. Their main goal is to figure out your budget and make MVP as big as possible because it is their profit. Heavy MVP also makes you dependent on them, because in 4 months you will have a custom backend with a single-page React application that can be supported only by the people who wrote it.

Those people have no idea what the Pareto principle is. They do 100% of the work while the real MVP should include 20% of the work that gives 80% of the results.

Stay away from agencies, especially if you are not technical, ESPECIALLY if you are building a startup.

Here is what you should do instead:

• Find a technical co-founder
• Ask someone for an introduction to a specialized agency for an MVP building (Make sure you show them this article)
• Ask your friend to build it for you in exchange for company shares

Bias #2. Management of perfectionists

Perfectionist doesn't give a fuck about the Pareto principle because perfectionist is afraid to be judged for being not ideal. And even if the product is providing 80% of the value customers need, the 20% of not provided value will be disturbing the sleep of perfectionists till the moment it is completed.

The management has to realize that feedback on prototypes is not real feedback. It may be biased by the personal responsibility of a customer of being nice, especially if the product is a B2C.

In order to get real feedback startup has to get a real product out there. An actual product that solves a real problem for which customers will pay money and if you think that 20% of unprovided value will change their mind - well, maybe you are solving not big enough problem.

Identify 20% of features that will give your customers 80% of the value and cut your dev time 5 times!

Here are some things that you definitely shouldn't include in your MVP:

• Design-related tasks
• Advanced notification system
• Animations
• Features of your competitors
• Cheating prevention
• Scalability
• Registration and account management
• Security

Things you should definitely include:

• Comprehensive user onboarding
• Your main competitor differentiator
• Your secret sauce
• Feedback features

Bias #3. Homework wasn't done

If a startup struggles to develop an innovative solution to solve customers' problems they start growing the backlog. The perfect startup has 1 single differentiator that makes them better than everyone else. Tinder for dogs. Twitch for startups. A blog for blinds.

What happens is that some people start building ALL features they think customers may need instead of finding that 1, which will give 80% of the value.

If your idea sounds like Uber for tractors with search functionality and advanced data analytics - you probably facing huge competition and haven't found your unique differentiator. So before planning any MVP, do your homework, and do an adequate customer development that will help you to identify 1 thing in which you will be the best and this 1 thing - will be your MVP.

Find ONE feature for which customers will use your product. It should be your secret sauce, something that differentiates you from everyone

Here are some ideas of how you can do it:

• Make your product have 5 faces and talk with customers. Check out which face has the best response.
• Create 5 landings with different positioning and drive traffic. Check out which page gets the best engagement.

It may delay your MVP and it may require some money, but instead of spending 3 more months in development, you will spend only a week in research.

Conclusion

If your MVP takes more than 24 hours, it is shit with a 90% chance. Now sleep with it)

If you need any consultation on building your MVP reach me at yev.rachkovan@gmail.com.

P.S. If you gonna point me to some companies from the past that spent months or years building MVP I suggest you call your dad and ask him to give you his crypto wallet address. Maybe it will help you to understand how different technologies were 10 years ago and now