Nivi · March 28th, 2009
Fliggo does it right:
Fliggo Pro is a minimum viable product in action. MVPs reduce time to market. It’s a good sign when people sign up to be notified. And if nobody signs up, you build the next iteration and see if that’s the minimum viable product.
How would you modify this MVP to collect credit card numbers? Could you promise to not charge customers until Fliggo Pro is delivered? Could you give customers a discount for buying early? What do you think?
Add links to your favorite minimum viable products in the comments.
Topics Customer Development
Is Twitter a minimum viable product?
What has been added to Twitter since it launched?
This one looks totally awesome, and there’s been lots of demand!
http://www.3drealms.com/duke4/
Test marketing is fine but you have to deliver.
Excellent idea, must try it at once. Really excellent. I feel somehow stupid to not had it myself.
Cheers
Stephan
http://twitter.com/codemonkeyism
This can backfire when you end up with customers waiting for the product they bought or are expecting to be actually developed, and they end up being unwitting beta testers for a late product. When the product is just a variation or alternate configuration or pricing plan, no big deal, but it gets worse fast with real new products.
Instead of “notify me when this account becomes available” I would write:
Join a beta-tester community …. (and the rest).
After they click on this choice I would have a benefit page that explains the benefit of being part of this community (space limited, discounts down the line, perks, etc.) and reassure my audience that they will only be charged if the premium features (the beta community) goes live.
To get credit card numbers, I’d charge them a small amount to deliver a small amount. The small amount could be an alpha tester spot, or a seat on the customer council, or a copy of the current development plan to review. Being in on the development process is valuable to early adopters.
This can backfire when you end up with customers waiting for the product they bought or are expecting to be actually developed, and they end up being unwitting beta testers for a late product. When the product is just a variation or alternate configuration or pricing plan, no big deal, but it gets worse fast with real new products.
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