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How to scope an MVP
Minimum means one core workflow in a real user’s hands. It does not mean half of everything. A 90-day shape you can actually calendar.
Minimum means one core workflow in a real user’s hands. It does not mean half of everything. Vision: monitor every mill. First product: run/idle and five reason codes on one cell. Sell the first product. Keep the vision in a drawer until the first one is boring to deliver.
If you cannot name the one workflow and the named person who will use it in week one, you do not have an MVP timeline. You have a wish. SINLE will not put “the platform” in a statement of work. Pilot is a small site. Invent is one job. The next slice is a second page and a second price.
The sequence below is a 6–12 week shape you can actually calendar. Longer usually means you snuck the vision back in.
A scope you can calendar
One workflow. One named person in week one. Six to twelve weeks. Acceptance is that person completing the job on staging without you. Reports, a second role, and an agent wait. The next slice is a second page and a second price. “The platform” is not an MVP. It is a wish with a date on it.
Vision: monitor every mill. First product: run, idle, and five reason codes on one cell. Sell that. Leave the vision in a drawer.
The sequence
Do these in order. Skip a line and you are back to a workshop.
- 01
Write the one workflow
Intake, book, pay, dispatch — pick one. “The platform” is not an MVP.
- 02
Write who will use it in week one
A named person. If you cannot name them, you are scoping a demo day.
- 03
Cut anything that is not that workflow
Admin, reports, a second role, an agent. Those wait until the first path is boring to deliver.
- 04
Calendar 6–12 weeks for the thin slice
Longer usually means you snuck the vision back in. Shorter is a site, not a product.
- 05
Define acceptance as a click
The named person completes the job on staging without you in the room.
- 06
Price the next slice separately
MVP that “includes the roadmap” is not minimum. It is a hostage scope.
Keep these
- MVP is a sentence, not a date.
- If you cannot name the one workflow, you do not have an MVP timeline. You have a wish.
Do this before you spend
- 01Write the one workflow in a sentence.
- 02Name the person who will use it in week one.
- 03Cut everything else off the page. Price it as its own scope.
Send the one workflow. If it is a site, it may be a Pilot at $3,500. If it is the core job, it is Invent. We will say which, in writing.
Questions
- How do you build an MVP?
- Scope one core workflow, put it in a real user’s hands in weeks, cut everything else, and write what done means. Launch to that user. Then decide.
Next how-to
- How to budget for custom softwarePrice the job, not a platform. Site vs workflow vs product, five-year cost, and what a $750 Spark is actually for.
- How to go from prototype to productionProduction means auth, real data, a kill switch, and a URL the company can send. The path in between, without a two-year programme.
- How to write an innovation briefOne page, not a deck: the stuck job, the unknown, what you already tried, the kill rule, and what you will not fund.
Next
Scope the one workflow. Not the platform.
Invent is $10–25k for one core job. Pilot is $3,500 when it is a small site. The next slice is a new page.