Article · ~8 min read

Perfection by Subtraction, The Minimum Feature Set

Steve Blank · steveblank.com Free Intermediate

The customer-development originator's clearest statement on scoping the minimum feature set to reach your earliest believers. The sharpest antidote to feature creep in v1.

  • Ship the smallest set your earlyvangelists will actually pay for.
  • Extra features before fit are engineering waste.
  • The MVP is a Customer Development tactic, get it into users' hands fast.
Open on steveblank.com ↗

It answers 4 questions

  1. How do I decide which features to cut from v1?
  2. Should I charge my very first customers or give it away free to get traction?
  3. What is an MVP and what's the smallest one I can build?
  4. When is the right moment to stop iterating on the MVP and rebuild it properly, and how do I avoid the second-system rewrite trap?

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