This document discusses how to develop a minimum viable product (MVP). It emphasizes properly documenting the product vision through business models, personas, maps, and stories to gain stakeholder feedback and avoid costly mistakes in design and development. An ideal process involves a product management coach reviewing documentation before starting wireframes or engineering. Benefits include more accurate estimates, stakeholder alignment, and cheaper prototyping. Common mistakes include weak teams, solely technical focus, and lacking commercial objectives or go-to-market strategy. The document provides a case study and recommends accelerators and advisors to cheaply validate products.

1. Innovation Workshop - How
to Develop a Minimum
Viable Product (MVP)
By Tristan Senycia
Startup Vault Accelerator

2. How your Product Fits
into the World
Difference between:
Product vs
Venture vs
Startup
Ecosystem

3. How your Product Fits
into the World

4. You are building a Venture…
not just a Product
Rule of thumb is:
Getting to market = 3x Cost
of Minimum Viable Product
Typical Scenario:
Tech Founders develop their product
& then run out of cash to
commercialise
Time / opportunity cost
Product Development
Commercialisation

5. Product vs Venture
Two different mindsets

6. Terms relating to Minimum
Viable Product
Minimum Viable Product (Candidate) - more speculative/less certainty
Minimum Viable Product
Minimum Viable Process
Minimum Loveable Product
Minimum Marketable Product
Minimum Viable Team
Minimum Viable Business

7. How risky is the Product
Venture?
How many assumptions are we making?
How speculative are we being overall
Founder’s reality distortion field

8. Purpose of MVPs
Product Concept Testing / Testing Assumptions
First Commercial Sales
Formation of a strategic partnership/channel partnership
Technical Proof of Concept
Raising Capital
Business Case Formulation
Pertinent Questions
● What is your next Commercial / Technical Milestone?
● What answers do you need to de-risk your business model?

9. Who else is involved?
Necessary initial stakeholders
○ Domain experts
○ User Representatives (if you don’t have a clear idea who this is,
this can be a problem)
○ Product Strategy (Commercial/Behavioural Product Manager) -
GTM Strategy
Other necessary stakeholders
○ UX/UI Designer
○ Tech Lead
Optional stakeholders
○ Chief Marketing Officer
○ Investors (if applicable)

10. What is a Product Vision
A series of documents created to brief/receive feedback from:
○ Product Designers
○ Product Developers
○ All Other Stakeholders

11. Typical Documentation Set for
SaaS/Marketplaces/Apps
Business Model Canvas / Lean Canvas
Early Adopter persona (Demographic/Psychographic)
Product Map / Customer Success Journey Map
MVP Map (Inclusive of sales website)
Wireframes
Roadmap (Release Planning)
Feature list/ Time/Cost Estimate
Tech Stack Selection / Software Architecture
High-Level User Stories

12. Idealised Product Development
process
Domain Expert (DE) identifies clearly defined problem in their Industry
Appoints Product Management Coach (PMC)
PMC creates Product Vision documentation list, provides templates
DE onboards Co-founders /Advisors
DE Documents Product Vision in accordance with PMC’s instructions
PMC reviews Product Vision documentation
PMC requests review of Product Vision from all other Stakeholders
○ Multiple perspectives therefore multiple reviews

13. Idealised Product Development
process
Product Vision is ‘authorised’ by Product Management Coach (PMC)
Wireframes are created by UX/UI Designer
Time & Cost estimation undertaken
Commercial Viability assessed
Venture given the green light
Product Development commences

14. Benefits of Properly
Documenting your Product Vision

15. Benefits of Properly
Documenting your Product Vision
Time & Cost estimations are much more accurate
Enter the Product Design / Development phase with more clarity
Review possible by variety of stakeholders/advisors
● The product vision can be shaped with expert input
Saving a lot of money on UX/UI Design and Software Development by avoiding
abortive works, caused by inexperience.
Engineering out a lot of cost through Product and Business Model innovation
Learning about Product Management from an experienced Product Management
Professional

16. Benefits of Properly
Documenting your Product Vision
The opportunity to make changes a very low cost, before we have committed to
heavy design or engineering works
Enriching the product vision through Product, Market and Competitor research
Finding quicker and more cost effective paths to market, by prototyping using existing
solutions, APIs, plugins etc etc.

17. MVPs are Multi-Perspectival
Go-To-Market
Product
Technical
Marketing
Sales
Customer Service
Time / Cost
Validation
Pertinent Questions
● Can we imagine a successful commercialisation?
● B2C or B2B2C?

18. Classic Mistakes
Wrong/Weak Team/Stakeholders
● Not involving the right people in the Product Visioning process
Having an exclusively Product/ Technology Focus
Having the wrong commercial objectives for the release
Weak/Highly speculative Product Vision
Going straight to product

19. Classic Mistakes
Not thinking through Path to Market & Go-To-Market Strategy
Getting addicted to Product Development… more features = more traction
Feature shock
Outsourcing Product Visioning phase to Design/Development firm
Obsession with Solution instead of Problem Space

20. Case Study - HR Tech Venture from
Virginia/Washington DC
Product Development heavy founding/investor team
Raised $671k in Pre-Seed
Weak/unfocussed Product Vision - nebulous platform
Founders very coachable

21. Reshaping Product & Venture
Selected a clear product category - Candidate Sourcing
Stacked Advisory Board
● Domain Expertise / User Representatives
● Add Product Acceleration/ Commercialisation Strategists
● Appointment of Head Advisor
Ruthlessly remove a lot of extraneous features
Went from Chaos to a strong product and a well structured venture

22. Getting to Market cheaply
Appoint High Quality Advisors
● Join a Product Accelerator
Create killer wireframes & collaborator pitch deck
● Attract CTO/Developers
● Grants
● R&D Tax Credit
● FFF Round
Formulate collaborator agreements
Appoint Startup Coach, grow yourself quicker
Ensure Product Management, CTO, rest of stakeholder team are happy
with the Roadmap

23. Novel Models & Go-To-Market
Strategies for your ventures
Chicken Feeder
Sustainability Platform
Upmarket Op Shop

24. Recommended Reading
Crossing the Chasm
Lean Product Playbook
Lean UX
Bill Balfour Blogs
Lean Customer Development
The Mom Test
Marketing Warfare

25. Thank you!
Feel free to get in touch if you have a project which is:
● High-Growth Potential
● Potentially Viable
● Potentially Investable
You can send your pitch deck/wireframes to us:
tristan@investable.london
letitia@blackstargold.co.uk