Product. Users. Feedback. Iterate.
Build something users love. Then get more users.
Build a Minimum Viable Product embedded with User DNA — minimalistic to the core. Test, tinker, get first users, get feedback, iterate. Repeat until you find product-market fit. Resist the temptation for perfection. Just launch.
Lecture 04 of 08 · Taught by Ali Sina
"Minimalistic. Simple. Manual. AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE."
PRODUCT — Start with the smallest subset of the problem. Build a slice across, not layer by layer. Manual before automation. Don't worry about scalability yet. The first prototype can be a simple manual website. Test the engine offline.
USERS — Recruit by hand. Find a small group ASAP and make them LOVE your product. Better to have a small number who love than a large number who like. Amazon started with textbooks. Facebook with Harvard. Uber/Airbnb in San Francisco.
FEEDBACK — Turn users into champions. Don't just survey — meet them. Run customer service yourself. Reach out to churn users. Tight feedback loop. Track NPS — pay-to-feedback gets honest answers fast.
ITERATE — Optimize for now (first 10–100 users, not your million users). Manual before automation. Beware Frankenstein features — go to the bottom of WHY users asked. Temporary brokenness > permanent paralysis.
Take these to heart.
- Resist perfection. Just get your idea out fast so you can test it.
- Find a small group of users ASAP and make them love your product.
- Beware the Frankenstein approach: don't blindly stack every user request — find the underlying need.
Your homework.
- Select MVP Type
- Design MVP
- Build MVP
Insolar MVP — manual, minimal, magical
Launched 'Integrated Solar Homes' with a Get Proposal button — basically a Google Form. Proposals built offline, emailed manually. No algorithm, no backend, no installers, no panels. Just a concierge brokerage. Pivoted from 'smart home' (Vivint owned it) to solar-only. Abbreviated to Insolar. The user? Solar sales reps — the 'Uber driver' side. Gave them 50% commission split. Game changer. Grew from zero to 2,000 reps. All organic. All word of mouth.
Lecture 04 of 08 · Back to curriculum