One of our assignments for class has been to write product assumptions. In that assignment I learned about minimum viable product (MVP). MVP is a proof of concept, the act of “getting something” out there. Some people go as far as defining it as 6-20 customers and most folks agree that by releasing an MVP, you give your company credibility. Yes, it’s important to get a product to market, but I wondered if there were some things companies shouldn’t do when launching a product.
Entrepreneur magazine is a trusty source for a lot of my research given they tailor content to start-ups and small business owners. Today wasn’t the day to let me down. Contributor Cory Levy wrote an article called, Starting Up Wrong: 6 Product Testing Mistakes You Need to Avoid. Spoiler alert, there are 6 things he says to avoid in this process and you’ll have to read the article for the details but here are the headlines:
- Letting Bias taint, the process
- Data problems
- Relying on technology to test
- Ignoring the competition
- Waiting to ‘sell’ until it’s built
- Leaving assumptions untested
While it’s important to get a minimally viable product to market, it’s also important to balance that with testing.
Blue Ridge Mtn Mama 
Hi Nancy,
Great post! I was intrigued enough to follow the link. Your blog is full of intrigue, I guess! I think the one that stands out to me is the data section, specifically the idea that you need to have a large enough sample of people that you would get the same data with a group 100 times the original size. Thanks for sharing!
JOY
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