Customer Discovery and MVP

We are going to dig deep into our users needs and observe how they want to use the software, this will ultimately lead us to our MVP. We will know exactly what to build!

Customer Discovery consists of one or more customer discovery sessions, where all users and owners of the software will be interviewed for their expectations, needs and desires for the upcoming software project.

Don’t just stop at the first answer, it will be too vague. Dig deeper and start peeling back the details. This great article on the Five Why’s

User Stories

The information gathered from these sessions are then articulated in a series of non-technical descriptions of how the software is used by everybody.

These descriptions of the software requirements are often referred to as User Stories. Basically, each story walks through one of the ways in which the planned software will be used.

Keep Language Plain

The project can be discussed and understood best when the conversation is had in terms that the user is comfortable with.

It is important to keep the language common and avoid tech talk such that everybody involved with the building and using the software can participate in the conversation.

These user stories will later get broken down into specific tasks.

The real value to user stories is to create them like they are recipes. Essentially software is about writing recipes with very specific rules.

The Good ‘ol Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

An important result of the customer discovery session is a mutual agreement on what the minimum or useful (viable) piece of software is and which can be delivered as soon as possible.

The primary purpose of the MVP is to get stuff out the door. We specifically want to avoid disconnected development teams.

Software can be properly managed just like construction project. That’s only if the right processes and tools are established and enforced throughout the product lifecycle.

Read The Lean Startup to really understand how to get specific about building a product your target market will be crazy about.

This is an involved and very important topic. I’m not going to attempt to repeat or summarize them in this document, but we will assume that we have a pretty clear picture of the application we are developing, at least enough for now.

Tasks Are Small and Measurable

The tasks that we come up with must be completed within a day or two. Any task that requires three days or more should probably be broken down into smaller bite-size tasks.

We do not want to create tasks so that they’re too big, ambiguous or subject to misinterpretation. If your team is not making progress in a day or two you should be able to know that immediately.

Keeping the granularity of tasks small allows the team to start stacking victories quickly and more important, gives everybody a chance to see when a software project is about to make a left turn.

Goals are Most Effective When …

Goals do not have to be obnoxious, obtuse, vague or pendantic. Just be real and reasonable.

If you want working software, provide a working set of goals.

  • Few in number, very targeted
  • Communicated in normal people language (user stories)
  • Provide users quick and immediate value
  • Prioritized to deliver usable value incrementally
  • Measurable and easy to determine when they are complete
  • Everybody understands and agrees with the Goals
  • Tasks should be 1-3 days max if possible (there will always be exceptions)

All these tasks have to add up to the MVP. Anything that does not directly and immediately get the software project closer to an MVP must be avoided.