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Why we picked it Before building any shoe inventory or logistics, Nick Swinmurn photographed shoes from local stores, posted them online, and manually bought and shipped whatever sold. It shows how to test a completely new behavior (buying shoes sight unseen) by faking the back end and watching real purchase decisions, not opinions.
Zappos MVP Case Study: How a Wizard of Oz Test Built a Billion Dollar Shoe Empire
From What Is MVP by What Is MVP ~10 min read
- Fake the operations behind a new offering so customers experience it as real while you learn cheaply.
- Real purchase behavior, even at a loss, is a far stronger signal than a survey saying yes.
- Let the ugly, manual, unprofitable version run long enough to see if demand is real before you scale it.
