MVP
MVP, aka Minimum Viable Product, is my favorite concept in business. It is the idea that in order to progress in an effective way - not wasting time and gaining valuable insight as you grow and improve a product or concept - you need to work in iteration. When we start we ask the question: what is something I can get to quickly? What’s the minimum? We don't do this to be lazy or take short cuts, but because getting to a stopping point allows us to ask the next question: what do I need to change? This directly conflicts with what most businesses have historically done which is encourage teams to spend a lot of time up front making a detailed plan, and then executing on that plan. This is known as the Waterfall strategy: Aim, plan, then execute.
After a perfect plan was put in place, they would spend several years building something only to deploy and discover what they created is no longer relevant or not what their audience actually had in mind. When we aim for perfection we are relying on limited information to get there, which means even if we get to perfect, the perfect we had planned may not be the perfect that we need. Rather, if we aim for an MVP, and then Version 1… V2… V however many we need to get it right… then we can spot adjustments along the way that we didn’t even know we needed. We know the MVP won't be perfect at all, but that's the point; it gives us the freedom to fail quickly and adjust.
After many years of attempting to reach goals, succeeding at some, failing at many, and writing a whole book on it, I am now a firm believer of the need for an MVP. Many transformation initiatives fail, whether in business or our personal lives, because we try to make and execute on a plan before we have all the information we need to succeed. In today's ever changing world, that doesn’t work anymore. You can’t possibly have all the information when you start. You must aim, execute, and iterate.
Aim. Execute. Iterate.
Most of us are wired to Waterfall our goals, which means the road to the finish line is really long and we expect perfection when we get there. Unfortunately, due to an ever changing environment and poor self awareness for what it takes to succeed, this makes some very achievable dreams near impossible.
Think about any New Years Resolution you've ever set… Did you set a goal for the entire year? You likely did, because it's what we all do. Or maybe you're trying to get in shape and so you declare you're going to go to the gym every day for the rest of your life. It's great to be ambitious, but going to the gym every day isn't the real goal. The goal is being healthier; the gym is a means to an end.
When we Waterfall our goals, it makes everything about the plan and we forget why we're even there in the first place. Next time you want to achieve something, try to imagine what the MVP would be. Don't look 52 weeks ahead, first see what healthy looks like after 1 week. If it looks good, keep going. If it failed, then iterate and try again.
