Minimum Desirable Product

Minimum Desirable Product

Customer Development for the“Winner Take All” Consumer Web

My target audience• Mass market consumer internet startups• Daily usage, but low value interactions• Ad-supported, indirect monetization models• First to 100M uniques/month wins

Executing the “Viability-First” strategy

1. Get a lot of users through viral channels2. Create a Minimum Viable Product3. Maximize user acquisition and revenue/user4. Iterate to a great product experience (?)

Can this ever lead to a high engagement product with sustainable viral growth?

Scenarios that made me think

• High-growth social network that’s profitable but has terrible user retention

• Dating site with lots of subscribers, but no one can find the dates they were promised

• Photo-sharing site with 100M+ uniques/month organic growth, but unprofitable

Am I testing the right thing with a Minimum Viable Product?

A different approach:Minimum Desirable Product

IDEO design “lenses”

Test the riskiest thing first

Depending on your business:

• Minimum Viable ProductDistribution, Revenue, Business model

• Minimum Feasible ProductTransistors/inch, Power usage, Cures cancer

• Minimum Desirable ProductEngagement, Sustainable growth, Love <3

Desirable but not viable (for years!)

The “Desirability-First” strategy

1. Understand user goals2. Create a Minimum Desirable Product3. Listen to users and maximize Love <34. Iterate to a great product experience

It still needs to be viable and feasible, so filter your ideas through that!

How to build an MDP

• Understand the target user and their goals• Identify 2-3 core scenarios• Make it 1-4 main pages• Tech demo in <2 weeks, MDP in 4-6 weeks

• Are you using it every day?• Will 10 people to use it every day? 100?

If you get stuck,add more features right?

(Or, once you have an MDP,add more features right?)

Min versus Max Desirability

• Maximum desirability != More features• They probably have less features• Focus on the “right” scenarios• Compelling and refined consumer value

• Boiling down the minimal featureset takes more time, not less! (Good design is hard)

“In many ways, it's the things that are not there that we are most proud of” –Jony Ive on the iPad

EXAMPLES AND RESOURCES

• The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper• The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelly• Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge• Artful Making by Robert Austin / Devin Lee• The Design of Business by Roger Martin• Human Centered Design Toolkit by IDEO

http://bit.ly/8hyn2r

Andrew Chenhttp://andrewchenblog.comvoodoo@gmail.com