Building the First Version
MVP and MDP Concepts and Practices
Welcome to Week 5! In previous weeks, we progressively refined product ideas from macro vision to specific user stories. Now, it's time to turn these plans into reality. This application will provide you with an in-depth understanding of how to build the first deliverable version of a product—a critical step in validating ideas, gathering feedback, and ultimately achieving success.
Learning Objectives
- •Clearly understand the definitions, significance, and differences between MVP and MDP.
- •Master core methods for determining MVP scope and core features.
- •Learn how to select appropriate work items for Sprint 1.
- •Understand how PMBOK knowledge areas are reflected in MVP practices.
Core Concepts: Viable vs. Delightful
MVP and MDP are two core strategies for early-stage products. MVP focuses on "functional viability" to rapidly validate the market, while MDP adds "delightful experience" to stand out in fierce competition.
MVP: Minimum Viable Product
Satisfy early adopters with the minimum feature set. The core goal is to launch quickly to collect feedback and validate assumptions.
MDP: Minimum Delightful Product
Not only "viable," but also "delightful." Building upon MVP, it emphasizes UX/UI aesthetics and fluidity.
Practical Methods: Determining MVP Core
How do we filter core features for MVP from numerous ideas? The MoSCoW method is a powerful tool that helps us prioritize features to ensure focus on what truly matters.
Interactive Exercise: Prioritize Features for "Campus Second-Hand Trading App"
Drag the features below to the corresponding category area (Must, Should, Could, Won't) to assign them.
Feature List:
Must Have
Critical
Should Have
Important
Could Have
Desirable
Won't Have
Not Now
Case Studies: How Giants Started
Many household-name companies today started with extremely simple MVPs. Here are their early stories and core strategies.
Dropbox
Released a demo video showcasing the file synchronization concept. Before writing any complex code, they validated huge market demand through the video and collected emails from many early users.
Airbnb
Founders created a simple website to rent out air mattresses in their apartment to conference attendees. They personally took photos and handled bookings to validate whether people would stay in strangers' homes.
Zappos
The founder went to physical shoe stores to photograph shoes and uploaded them to a website. When orders came in, he would go back to buy the shoes and ship them to customers. This MVP validated whether people would buy shoes online.
Initially an internal SMS platform called "Twttr" for employees to share status updates. This simple prototype validated the core concept of short-message social networking.
Buffer
Started with just a landing page explaining the product (a tool for scheduling social media posts). The page had a signup button that, when clicked, informed users the product was still in development and invited them to leave their email. This approach validated market demand and pricing strategy.
Agile Connection: From Theory to Practice
MVP/MDP concepts are closely connected to agile development and project management theory. They embody the core ideas of value delivery and scope tailoring.
Product Backlog Intelligent Analyzer
Enter a new product idea, and the system will intelligently analyze core feature backlog based on common product patterns, visualizing their value and risk.
Sprint 1 Backlog:
Connection to PMBOK Knowledge Areas
Delivery Performance Domain - Value Delivery
The core of MVP/MDP is precisely rapidly delivering value to users and learning from actual use to guide subsequent development. This highly aligns with PMBOK's emphasis on continuously delivering valuable outcomes in the "Delivery Performance Domain."
Planning Performance Domain - Scope Tailoring
Determining MVP scope and core features is essentially strategic "tailoring" of the overall product scope. Through methods like MoSCoW, consciously selecting "must have" features is effective scope management to achieve rapid market entry and value validation.