#minimum-viable-product

Let's recap: a MVP is the Minimum Viable Product that you need before you start generating revenue.

Buffer is a Twitter app that want's to make scheduling tweets simple. This feature is included in a lot of Twitter clients, but Buffer thinks that by focusing on this one feature alone, it can do it better. 

The author wrote an article on how he built Buffer from scratch and got his first paying customer within seven weeks. I love his methodology on idea validation.

First he created a landing page that sold the value proposition. The landing page has a button that says "see plans and pricing." When people would click it, there would be a message that said "you caught us early, please leave your email address..." See below:

People left their emails. But would they pay? He created a pricing page and used the same strategy as described before. See below:

People would click a pricing plan and leave their emails. Buffer the idea that people would pay for was validated. Genius. Checkout the post and checkout Buffer. [I have no affiliation with Buffer or the author, they just deserve some Google link-juice for sharing their awesome methodology.]

One thing he doesn't address is how to get people to the site in the first place. I wrote about a technique before. The idea is simple, signup for Google Adwords. They frequently send out $100 coupons for new advertisers to use. Purchase some keywords, and deploy your Adwords campaign. You can even take advantage of Google Forms for your email input.

When it's all said in done, you should be able to validate an idea with at most four hours of work. That's four hours well spent.

You might also enjoy:

It's Time to Get Scrappy

It's All About the MVP, Obey Gall's Law

Startup Idea Filter

Follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson