I lost 400k and finally learned how to build an MVP for a SaaS product

After I founded my own SaaS product this year, I was extra cautious about the investment of funds. Making decisions under the pressure of limited funds is a very difficult exercise for people, and it also forces us to do things right the first time; because there is no second trial. If we can’t fix it at one time, the company may be gone; so we have to find a TOB MVP method to improve the matching rate of each product function/module and the market.

1. The core of MVP is to verify

That's right, "verification" is the most essential value of being an MVP.

We don't want to make an MVP for the sake of making a small product, nor do we make a product very small to be an MVP; a real MVP doesn't even need to make a product, so we say that as long as we can focus on the "verification" thing A series of low-cost verification methods, we can all consider excellent MVP.

for example:

I have a good friend who is an interior designer. One day she approached me and said that she wanted to make a system tool that can help interior designers quickly solve the construction of model rooms - by combining the high-quality soft furnishings provided in the product The product can quickly build a design plan, and pay a certain fee to get the design plan; and place an order for the corresponding soft-packed products together, so as to efficiently produce designs and complete commodity purchases efficiently.

We put aside the commercial feasibility of this case, and analyze it from the perspective of MVP; if we do this project, what is the key question that should be "verified"?

At first glance, this project needs a lot of dimensions, and it needs tools, rich commodities, and online payment. In fact, these are not important.

The core point to be verified in the final analysis is very simple - to see if it is possible to replace the original working method of interior designers by combining templates, think about it carefully.

So from this point of view, the verification method is actually very simple. You can use a third-party tool to make a template through a form; the soft-packed products involved are directly posted from the Taobao purchase link, and then use Youzan Mall as a sales node to sell , push and describe in the designer group; you can also write an article on the public account to introduce this way of working. If there is a designer to buy, we will go to Taobao to place an order; this will make it easy and fast to verify, the designer Accept this new way of working.

Well, let’s quickly end this case. After all, talking about the MVP of the B-side is the focus of this article. After the above case, everyone has reached a consensus on the core concept of MVP; but in fact, this case is still relatively light, often when we do industry SaaS or Other TOB products will encounter more complex and diverse problems. For example, you will hear the merchant say: "You don't have any XX function, and I definitely won't be able to use this function." Yes, this is typical in the B-side scenario. The problem: "Missing closed loop".

2. The B-side MVP first considers the minimum business closed loop

What is the minimum closed loop? In fact, it is not difficult to understand. If an event has a clear landing point and can end, it can be simply understood as a closed loop. How should we understand our closed loop in TOB products?

SaaS products must serve certain business scenarios, and a certain function point of SaaS products can solve the complete support operation process of merchant staff in a specific scenario, which is a closed loop, but we may face a common phenomenon, that is " The closed loop is too large".

For example, in the case mentioned above, if such a soft decoration designer SaaS cannot be implemented at all, the closed loop is too large; therefore, finding the smallest "business" closed loop is the way for B-end products to go to MVP.

So how to find the smallest business closed loop?

When we are planning a SaaS product, the most common mistake is to mistake a complete large closed-loop for a small business closed-loop; so the business closed-loop is based on the user of the product, not a company. of.

Let me take a long-term rental apartment as an example. We are looking at a certain business link of the operation and management personnel in the long-term rental apartment format, such as signing a contract for guests and activating a series of hardware, etc., rather than looking at the entire company. business flow.

A closed loop focusing on a certain behavior under one role is the smallest business closed loop.

In this way, we have come to a conclusion that there is no "small step, fast iteration" for B-end products. If the minimum business closed loop is not satisfied, it is difficult to verify the accuracy of the requirements, which may be caused by functional defects. The merchant gave bad feedback; we mistakenly thought that the verification failed, it is likely that the closed loop was not closed, and it was abandoned before the verification step.

Now that we have found the verification point and completed the minimum business closed loop, the next step is to talk about products.

3. MVP products should be like "needles"

We all know that a good product must be a product with a high extreme value. If a product satisfies a little of everything, it must not be a good product - this is common sense, and it is necessary to make this point more important when it comes to MVP products. Ultimate, which is why the MVP product is a needle.

The product design should be very small and precise. If a needle is pierced, it will either not penetrate through, indicating that it is not right, or it will hit the nail.

Let's first take a look at the difference between TOC and TOB's business - the C-end is oriented to consumers, the behavior chain is short, the B-end is oriented to enterprises, and the links are multi-behavior and the chain is long; so when making C-end products, we can activate users through a very perceptual dimension In order to get feedback results, this result is often data-oriented; on the other hand, it is the opposite of being a B-side. To be reliable, safe and reasonable, this is very rational, and the rationality of the group does not allow you to take any risks; the MVP of the B-side As a result, it is relatively difficult to be reflected by data, and it is more subjective experience and subjective choice.

There is another problem on the B side. The needs of service companies are completely different. A and B are different. B and C are different, and A and C are also different.

This requires us to have a stronger standardization ability, and we need to find the common dimension under the point verified in the products we want to do in these enterprises.

There is another keyword that has to be mentioned, "cost". The essence of our MVP is to verify. If there is no cost limit, mvp will lose its meaning and not lean enough; but we can't do it for the sake of small products. And small, must be able to meet the smallest business closed loop.

I was going to write a case here, but when I finished writing our three failed MVPs, I found that there was some content that couldn’t be made public, so unfortunately I couldn’t find a better pure TOB or SaaS case to describe.

There are many cases on the C side but I don't want to write this article.

4. How to do MVP for cross-industry entrepreneurial TOB products

When making products across industries, no matter how in-depth we understand the industry and the merchants, we will definitely not be able to match the cognition of senior practitioners in the industry. So what good way do we have to solve the MVP problem of cross-industry products?

You can try the "core user backtracking method". We first thoroughly understand the operation mode of the merchants, find the most suitable merchants for the problems you need to verify, and then go to the brainless to meet their needs - this method is very risky, but relatively It is suitable for cross-industry entrepreneurs; this idea comes from "trust weighting", which means that we need to listen to the opinions of surrounding professionals for everyone, and then attach a weight to different professionals in different dimensions, which can be used when we make decisions. To give up some of your own obsessions and choose to trust the opinions of people with higher authority, this can improve the overall success rate.

When a cross-industry entrepreneur is doing early product verification, this method can be used - we give different merchants a weight score in different dimensions, and then throw out the questions we want to verify, and absorb opinions from various merchants And demand; some are positive and some are negative, and then hedge according to the merchant's weight score, and finally come to a conclusion, this conclusion is probably not the best answer in the mind of the entrepreneur, but it is an answer worth trying.

5. Present value and value are the measure of MVP results

How to verify whether our core problem is worth doing?

From two dimensions - present value and value.

The present value means that the value of this function in the current market is the value in the current market, and the demand in the current industry may indeed exist; but whether it will begin to shrink with the development of the market, what we are doing now, on the future development trajectory Whether it will still exist and whether it will be directly covered by higher-dimensional requirements will test the founder's decisiveness.

Value is simple and understandable. Recently, the book "Value" is also very popular. We value value as long-term value, that is, we ignore the current interests and focus on the long-term future - this is the SaaS vendor perspective on this end.

Another perspective is the explanation of the merchant. We all know that the merchant will not choose the cheaper product because you are 10,000 yuan cheaper than his product. The merchant will see who brings me the most value; this merchant The value in our eyes is more difficult to measure, including cost reduction and efficiency increase, brand premium, or simply the founder's preference. There are too many dimensions, and we can just have a feeling.

So what is the relationship between these two dimensions and the verification results of MVP?

Our company is still in the start-up stage, and it has not yet reached the time to increase growth. The biggest feature of SaaS at this stage is that the demand is incomplete, and merchants cannot get solutions to multi-dimensional problems in your family; A single point has become the largest value output product in the industry. From this core perspective, plan MVP to verify various product functions.

After we get the verification results, we need to make a comparison. The comparison between the present value and the value. A complete bias towards long-term value may lead to weak early growth and PMF will continue to fail. Too much bias to the present value will lead to scattered experience, and a large number of MVPs will be lost. After the verification is passed, the pressure on the team increases sharply, the short-term data is considerable but the growth limit will soon be reached, and the difficulty of acquiring customers will also increase. You find that the merchant thinks you are good but you can’t use it.

So to balance the present value and long-term value of the results brought by a verification point, the best state is that the results are impartial in our desired strategic development path.

6. Finally

What does this article have to do with 400,000 yuan? Our team has spent about 400,000 yuan since its establishment. We have stepped on a lot of pits and made a lot of product features that can’t be said to be bad or good.

So on a night of anxiety and sleeplessness, I decided to make amends and summarize my past reflections and attempts into this article, hoping to stimulate your deep thinking.