How building a MVP Spec might be the best thing I have done?

I am a huge fan of thinking through the plans and then sticking to it. It saves so much time early than to to waste a ton of time changing again and again. One problem I have faced with my earlier startup is that I often changes the whole specification before even the v1 is complete.

This mistake is what I trying to fix with my current venture — Blogmate. I am now a huge fan of building a MVP Spec and then sticking to it.

MVP Spec is just a fancy name for the first usable product specification. It is the minimum viable version of your product. By spec, you just write down all the features you want to build for this version. It's about writing down all your details related to the MVP.

I find this highly useful. If you don't have a document to refer to, you will always find yourself lost in "I want this and I want that too". MVP Spec closes the scope of the product and this way, you might get it done faster, since you don't have to think realtime on what features you would like to have.

This process of writing down the features and then sticking to it, have drastically reduced the time to market for me when building new products. Also thinking it through while writing MVP Spec gives clarity and help visualize what you want to build.

This is my process of writing down the MVP Spec.

Step 1: Define the Core Problem

What is the single most important core problem that customer face and you can solve it? Be ruthlessly specific with it.

For us: What is the single biggest pain point or challenge bloggers face that we intend to solve? We started with brainstorming and writing down all the problems we could think of. If you already have a customer or potential customers, asking them is a good starting point.

For us, it was:

• Lack of clarity, strategy or plan for their blog
• Unable to generate new ideas for blog posts
• Overcoming writer's block; don't know where to start, what to write on
• Structuring posts for SEO; lack of expertise for writing seo friendly content
• Repurposing content across platforms takes time

Step 2: Target Your Ideal Early User

If you are trying to solve the problem for all customers, you won't reach anywhere. It's better to start a service company with customised offering for each customers. That might now work too, but that's for another day.

Start with, who would benefit the MOST from the solution to your core problem? Think about segmenting your customers based on various criteria. For us, we filtered down on:

• Blogging experience (newbie, intermediate, expert)
• Blog niche (tech, lifestyle, travel, nutrition etc..)
• What makes them an early adopter (willing to try new things, active feedback, etc.)

Step 3: Write down your Unique Value Proposition

Think what makes your solution different. What values do you provide that other competitions lack? Don't just describe features; state the benefit that the end user will get.

For us, What makes Blogmate different? Why would someone choose our solution?

Example, "Blogmate helps businesses grow their business through blogging by providing content strategy, eliminate writer's block and generate creative, SEO-friendly blog post outlines in minutes.

Step 4: Map the Essential User Journey

User Journey will help you design and build user flows. Mapping the essential user journey is very critical for customers to experience the value of your product. Aim for a very short time-to-value. The earlier a customers experiences the value, the better.

Outline the minimal steps your ideal user needs to take to experience the core value of your product.

Example:

• User inputs their website url
• Blogmate extracts target, goals, brand personality from website
• Based on that, we generate several topics matching their goals
• User selects the topic they want to write on and we generate an outline for them
• Blogmate writes the initial draft and offers optional SEO keyword suggestions

Step 5: Ruthlessly Prioritize Your Feature List

When building the product, it's very easy to get distracted with "Nice to haves". Not everything you think is a good feature might not be a good feature. Be ruthless while cutting down the features you want to build for MVP. The goal is to get the products in the hands of customers, as early as possible to get real feedback.

Think, What is the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM set of features needed to complete the user journey and demonstrate your products core value?

• Extract business details from website
• Topic suggestion and Outline generation algorithm
• Article Draft Writing Solution
• Basic SEO suggestions and Improvement

Step 6: Get Early Feedback

Never trust your instinct while building features for the user unless you yourself are the user. Your goal while building MVP is back every assumption with customer feedback.

How will you collect feedback on your MVP to validate (or disprove) your assumptions? Implement these at the start:

• Implement In-product feedback from users
• Send emails to customers every week asking feedback
• Send Interview invitation to customers

Conclusion

Avoiding working on features that sound interesting but are NOT essential to that core user journey. Saying NO to all these "Nice to Haves" is the key.

Building an MVP Spec is very crucial. If you think you start the development while you figure out the features, you might already fail. Building a Startup is a game of focus and Writing down the MVP Spec will help just focus on the right thing.