Build Measure Learn
Designing Your MVP
AgileDC 2015
October 26, 2015

•Managing Agile Consultant
@Lithespeed
•Experience: 9 years industry
• Specialties: Agile, Team,
Program & executive level
Coaching and training
•Practitioner, consultant,
trainer, author, speaker and
community organizer
•Agile Coach @eGlobaltech
•Alumni, General Assembly
Product Management
•Experience: 5 years Industry
Specialties: Product
Management, Enterprise
Coaching & Training
Practitioner, meetup
speaker/enthusiast
Beth Miller Jennifer Hinton

Today’s Outcomes
1. Design a Minimum Viable Product
1. Learn how to use a Lean-Startup tool called the Javelin
Board to identify customer segments, assumptions, and
experiments.
1. Understand what makes a good problem statement, or
hypothesis

The Lean Startup

Minimum Viable Product
“an MVP can be defined as the least amount of work we
can do to in/validate a hypothesis, or problem a solution is
designed to solve”
Small, earliest point
to gather feedback
Must have utility
(e.g. not only the
login feature)
Must be cohesive
(e.g. not a random
collection of
features)
Minimum Viable Product

Why?
1. Reduce risk
1. Maximize success (learning)
1. Faster feedback
1. Reduced overhead
1. Measurable progress
“Success is not delivering a feature;
success is learning how to solve the
customer’s problem.”
-Mark Cook, Former VP of Kodak

Problem: Syncing files across systems and
computers.
Customer: People who have multiple
systems, or computers.
Riskiest assumption: If we provide an
extremely easy to use product, people will
try it.
Experiment: Video demonstrating ease of
use and sign up page. CEO, Co-Founder - Drew Houston
Dropbox

Problem: Syncing files across systems and
computers.
Customer: People who have multiple
systems, or computers.
Riskiest assumption: If we provide an
extremely easy to use product, people will
try it.
Experiment: Video demonstrating ease of
use and sign up page. CEO, Co-Founder - Drew Houston
Dropbox

MVP Key Questions
1. What is your riskiest assumption?
1. How would you test that riskiest assumption with
minimal work & maximum learning?
1. What would you measure?

How to design an MVP
See how customers respond.
Pivot or persevere?
Define a problem statement; Turn
it into an experiment.

Types of MVPs
•VIDEOS
• LANDING PAGE
• WIZARD OF OZ
• CONCIERGE
• MOCK-UPS/WIREFRAMES

Start with a problem
statement!
Think about What, when, where, frequency &
gaps
Between August 1st & 15th on the company
webpage, the web analytics tool failed to track
clicks on the homepage. The goal is to receive
daily reporting
Courtesy of Jason Tanner

Design your MVP - fill in the
blanks!
– Review the problem statement and customer you
are solving for.
– List your riskiest assumptions you are making with
your problem statement.
– Design an MVP to test your riskiest assumption(s).
Activity

Let’s Share
Let’s share how you iterated through the
assumptions using experiments &
feedback.

What did we learn again?
● Designed an MVP(s)
● Turned your assumptions into a list of
possible experiments
● Learned important metrics for
understanding MVP success
● Collaborated with agilists who will help
you formulate your MVP concept and
experimentation ideas

Reference(s)
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard
Startup Lessons Learned - MVP Guide
General Assembly - Product Management
Javelin Board - Lean Startup Machine

TODO Before
Create Javelin Board(s) Flip Charts (6). This will include problem statement
example
Gather supplies for the boards, sharpies, & sticky notes

Facilitation Guide
Step Time Activity Outcome Agenda Question Materials Owner
Power Start 2 Share our backgrounds & today’s outcomes for
the Build Measure Learn Session
WiiFM Why are we here today? Slide Jennif
er-
Beth
Define MVP & its
benefits
3 Share the love for Shark Tank; Tell a story about
Eric Ries and why the MVP approach works.
Why MVP’s help
teams/organizations rapidly
What is an MVP? Why
does it matter?
Slide Jennif
er
How-to design an
MVP
2 Outline the 5 steps in designing an MVP. How do I design an MVP? Slide Beth
Example of how it
works
3 Tell the story of DropBox and the its MVP
approach
Real world example of an
MVP and how the learning
validated their problem had
a market and customer fit
before building
How could this work ? Slide Jeenife
r
Example of Problem
Statement
5 Give an example of a good problem statement
and its mechanics.
Understand how to create a
problem statement
What makes a good
problem statement or
hypothesis?
Slide Beth
Javelin Board
Explanation &
Activity Instructions
5 Outline how to use a Javelin Board. Give
directions to form into groups at your tables. On
each table are supplies needed to use the
Understand a tool for
designing the MVP
What is a technique or
tool to use for defining
MVP?
Slide Beth
Exercise 20 Walk around tables to provide feedback on their
Javelin board.
Collaboration &
participation by the
participants; practice!
How can I use the Javelin
Board?
Sharpies,
Stickies,
Boards
Jennif
er-Bet
De-brief 5 Walkthrough an example of Get Out of the
Building for the problem statement
What would happen next
after starting the Javelin
board?
Slide Jennif
er-
Beth
Re-cap 1 Share references & what we learned today; What did we learn? Slide Jennif