Ideas & Opportunity

What is an MVP and what's the smallest one I can build?

A starting point

An MVP is the least you can build (or fake) to learn whether your riskiest assumption is true. Often it isn't software at all: a manual service, a spreadsheet, a Notion page, a single landing page. Ask 'what's the one thing I must learn next?' and build only what tests that.

Go deeper

Read

📖 Book
Paid Beginner

The Lean Startup

From theleanstartup.com by Eric Ries ~330 pages

Why we picked it

The book that gave the world 'MVP', 'build-measure-learn', and 'validated learning'. It reframes a startup as a series of experiments, not a bet, the mental model everything else in this category builds on.

  • Progress = validated learning, not features shipped.
  • Build the minimum that produces a real learning loop.
  • Decide pivot-or-persevere on evidence, on a schedule.
Open theleanstartup.com →
📖 Book
Paid Intermediate

Running Lean

From LEANSTACK by Ash Maurya ~240 pages

Why we picked it

The most systematic step-by-step process for de-risking an idea, built around the Lean Canvas. Where The Lean Startup gives philosophy, Running Lean gives you the exact sequence of experiments to run this month.

  • Capture your business model on one Lean Canvas before building.
  • Rank and attack your riskiest assumptions first.
  • Run problem interviews, then solution interviews, then an MVP.
Open leanstack.com →
✍️ Essay
Free Beginner

Do Things That Don't Scale

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham ~15 min read

Why we picked it

The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few customers. The cheapest, most honest way to validate demand is to go get it one person at a time.

  • Recruit your first users manually, don't wait for them to come.
  • A tiny group of users who love you beats a big group who like you.
  • Manual, unscalable effort early is a feature, not a failure.
Open paulgraham.com →

People also ask

What does 'validating an idea' actually mean? Validation is gathering real-world evidence that a specific group of people has a painful problem AND will change their behaviour (pay, sign up, sw... Beginner 3 resources → How do I know if my idea is any good? Judge it on the problem, not the solution: is it a real, frequent, painful problem for a reachable group of people, and are you unusually well-plac... Beginner 4 resources → How do I validate an idea without building anything? Replace the product with a conversation, a manual service, or a landing page. Interview people about the problem, hand-deliver the outcome yourself... Beginner 3 resources → How do I talk to customers without getting false positives? Never pitch your idea in the interview, it invites polite lies. Ask about their real life and past behaviour: the last time they hit the problem, w... Beginner 3 resources → How many people should I talk to, and how do I find them? Aim for enough that patterns repeat, often 15-30 focused conversations before signal stabilises. Find them by going where the problem lives: your o... Beginner 3 resources → How do I run a landing-page / 'fake-door' test? Put up a simple page that describes the offer as if it's real, drive a bit of targeted traffic to it, and measure whether people take a costly-to-t... Intermediate 2 resources →