#3 – MVN – MVP Core Features

Last week, we discussed  about 2 out of the 5 key elements of defining and building a killer MVP: Motivation & Audience.

It's time we get our hands dirty and discuss about VIABLE CORE REQUIREMENTS and The Efficient (Tech) Stack.

Making sure the right functionality makes it into your MVP is the fine line between failure and success. So let's go ahead and see how we define the Viable Core Requirements of our MVP.

To define the main functionality that will make it into our MVP, it's important to understand the problem you are trying to solve for your customer. So how do you do that?

The customer problem statement template helps you focus on what matters. You can figure out how your product or service meets your customers’ needs, allowing you to create experiences people will love.

You need to identify your customer problem statement that helps you map out your client needs, so you can address them properly.

Here’s a template you can use once you’ve reached this phase of your process.

There are five quadrants in the template with different propositions. Answer each of them to create your problem statement:

As you can see, it's quite easy to understand how to serve your customers. Here are some quick tips for creating a strong Customer Problem Statement:

• Don’t mention your product or service in the statement itself. You’re focusing on the problem, not the solution.
• Articulate the status quo. Remember, that’s what you’re trying to disrupt.
• Think about limitations your potential customers may have.
• Target a specific group with whom you can build empathy.
• Provide measurable outcomes. This makes it easier to come up with metrics you can use to track your progress.

Still not sure how to define that? Here are two examples:

Example of a poorly-written Customer Problem Statement
“Customers need this product because it would allow them to access their textbooks on their phone.”

Example of a well-written Customer Problem Statement
“Customers find it cumbersome to carry their textbooks around and risk forgetting their textbooks when they need to bring them to class.”

As you can see, defining the customer problem statement sheds clarity on what is the true minimum level of functionality required to deliver the most value for your customers.

Once you have defined your targeted market, and mapped out your customer’s problem statement, it’s the time to find out what is a feature canvas and how you can use it before committing to a new feature based on its fesability and whether it truly solves customer pain points.

A feature canvas typically has seven segments:

• AN IDEA DESCRIPTION – How would you describe the product feature in 2-3 sentences?
• WHY – How would implementing this product feature help your customers and your organization?
• CONTEXTUAL SITUATIONS – When do people need this feature? How do internal and external factors impact how they interact with the feature?
• PROBLEMS TO SOLVE – What are the customer and business problems this feature addresses?
• THE VALUE PROPOSITION – What value will you deliver to your customers? Revisit a relevant methodology like a lean canvas or business model canvas to help craft a definition.
• TEAM CAPABILITIES – What resources are immediately available to you to help build new solutions to these problems?
• RESTRICTIONS AND LIMITATIONS – What obstacles could stop your team from building these features right away?

By considering these different factors, you can decide what feature requests are worth building, and which ones aren’t worth following through. This is the basic version of a feature canvas, which can be adapted for any product feature idea.

At this stage you should also define your technical requirements and architecture, but this is a process we'll cover in the next issue.

See you next week

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