Building a better Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The best advice I've seen on building a better MVP.

From Menlo Ventures. Read the entire story here

---

It’s commonly believed that the top two reasons startups fail is because “there’s no market need” and “they ran out of cash.”

These reasons, however, (and many more listed) are mental gymnastics to avoid a plain truth: startups fail when they don’t build a simple solution to a problem many people have.

Many startups fall into the trap of building toward a “mission” rather than a minimum viable product (MVP).

Your mission is your baby. It’s the North Star that got your people on board and inspires them daily. However, solely focusing on your mission is the same as being unfocused.

Read the entire story here

The Purpose of Life

The purpose of life is not to be happy.

It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate,

to have it make some difference that you have lived, and lived well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Product Invention

Product Invention is a magical process, a dark art. 

Here is how Jason Fried (37 Signals/Basecamp) describes it:

I'm often asked how I know when an idea might make a good product.

First, I never know. It's always a guess, a bet. I'm just trying to do what I can to increase the odds, to beat the house.

But more specifically, it's always a feeling. It's never a number. It's never a quantity of yeses. It's never about early feedback. It's never about research.

What does this feeling feel like? It feels like gravity, like magnetism.

An idea starts somewhere. Low density, like interstellar gas.

And often times it just stays there. Particles too far apart to attract one other, forces too weak to bind. Just a set of disparate ideas, no product to be had.

But sometimes, a few things start to come together. Excitement, insights, concepts start to spin. Potential begins to orbit the idea. And then the initial idea grows. It gains mass. And more and more things are attracted. Concepts tie together, cases become clear. And then... Snap! Stuff begins to snap into place. Pulled into the core by a force that feels like gravity. A strong magnet. Snap! Ah, this could work with that, and that feature begets this one. Flows materialize. A name might even be pulled in. Snap!

That's when I feel like I'm on to something. It pulls.