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Minimum Desirable Product

This document discusses building a Minimum Desirable Product (MDP) rather than a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It recommends focusing on understanding user goals and creating a product that maximizes engagement and sustainable growth through a few key scenarios. An MDP can be built quickly in 4-6 weeks to test if people will use it daily and recommend it to others. The document cautions that desirability alone may not lead to viability, so MDP ideas still need to consider business feasibility. The goal of an MDP approach is to deliver compelling consumer value through the optimal minimal set of features.

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Minimum Desirable ProductCustomer Development for the“Winner Take All” Consumer Web
My target audienceMass market consumer internet startupsDaily usage, but low value interactionsAd-supported, indirect monetization modelsFirst to 100M uniques/month wins
Executing the “Viability-First” strategyGet a lot of users through viral channelsCreate a Minimum Viable ProductMaximize user acquisition and revenue/userIterate to a great product experience (?)Can this ever lead to a high engagement product with sustainable viral growth?
Scenarios that made me thinkHigh-growth social network that’s profitable but has terrible user retentionDating site with lots of subscribers, but no one can find the dates they were promisedPhoto-sharing site with 100M+ uniques/month organic growth, but unprofitable
Am I testing the right thing with a Minimum Viable Product?
A different approach:Minimum Desirable Product
IDEO design “lenses”
Test the riskiest thing firstDepending on your business:Minimum Viable Product Distribution, Revenue, Business modelMinimum Feasible Product Transistors/inch, Power usage, Cures cancerMinimum Desirable Product Engagement, Sustainable growth, Love <3
Desirable but not viable (for years!)
The “Desirability-First” strategyUnderstand user goalsCreate a Minimum Desirable ProductListen to users and maximize Love <3Iterate to a great product experienceIt still needs to be viable and feasible, so filter your ideas through that!
How to build an MDPUnderstand the target user and their goalsIdentify 2-3 core scenariosMake it 1-4 main pagesTech demo in <2 weeks, MDP in 4-6 weeksAre you using it every day?Will 10 people to use it every day? 100?
If you get stuck,add more features right?(Or, once you have an MDP,add more features right?)
Min versus Max DesirabilityMaximum desirability != More featuresThey probably have less featuresFocus on the “right” scenariosCompelling and refined consumer valueBoiling down the minimal featureset takes more time, not less! (Good design is hard)
“In many ways, it's the things that are not there that we are most proud of” –JonyIve on the iPad
examples and resources
The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan CooperThe Art of Innovation by Tom KellyDesigning Interactions by Bill MoggridgeArtful Making by Robert Austin / Devin LeeThe Design of Business by Roger MartinHuman Centered Design Toolkit by IDEOhttp://bit.ly/8hyn2r
Andrew Chenhttp://andrewchenblog.comvoodoo@gmail.com