Most MVPs are over-scoped and over-built. This guide helps you identify the core functionality that validates your idea — without wasting months and money on features nobody needs yet.
The concept of an MVP — Minimum Viable Product — has been around for over a decade. Everyone knows the theory: build the smallest thing that tests your hypothesis.
In practice, almost nobody does it.
Most "MVPs" we see are actually v2 or v3 products disguised as v1. They have admin dashboards, notification systems, analytics, multi-language support, and 47 features — because the founder couldn't bear to cut anything.
The result? Six months of development. A bloated product that tries to do everything. And no clarity on whether the core idea actually works.
This guide helps you cut through the noise and build an MVP that actually deserves the name.
The "viable" in MVP is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Your product must actually work, be usable, and deliver value. It just needs to do one thing well instead of ten things poorly.
Every good MVP starts with three constraints:
Not "users." One type of user. The person who has the problem you're solving.
If your product is a marketplace (connecting buyers and sellers), pick one side first. If it's a team tool, build for teams of one first. If it serves multiple industries, pick the one you know best.
You can expand later. Right now, focus.
Not "pain points." One problem. The biggest, most painful, most urgent one.
If you're building a project management tool, the problem might be "I can't see what my team is working on right now." It's not "project management" — that's a category, not a problem.
Write the problem as a sentence that a real person would say out loud. If you can't, you haven't found it yet.
Not "features." One flow. The sequence of actions that takes your user from problem to solution.
For a food delivery app, the core flow is: Browse → Select → Pay → Receive. That's it. Not reviews, not favorites, not order history, not loyalty points. Those come later. The core flow is four steps.
Map your core flow. Everything in it is a must-have. Everything outside it is v2.
1. The core user flow. Whatever your app does, the primary path from start to finish must work flawlessly. If it's a booking app: search → select → book → confirm. If it's an e-commerce store: browse → add to cart → checkout → order confirmation.
2. Authentication (usually). Most apps need users to sign up and log in. Keep it simple: email/password or magic link. Don't build social login, SSO, or complex role systems for v1.
Exception: If your product doesn't need accounts (like a calculator tool or a one-time-use utility), skip auth entirely.
3. The core data model. Your app needs to store and display the right data. For a job board: jobs, companies, applications. For a CRM: contacts, companies, deals. Get the data structure right — it's hard to change later.
4. Payment (if applicable). If your business model requires payment, include it from day one. Don't launch with "payments coming soon" — you'll never learn if people will pay until you ask them to.
A simple Stripe Checkout integration takes a day to build and answers the most important question in your business.
5. Basic error handling. When something goes wrong, users should see a helpful message, not a broken page. Form validation, 404 pages, error states — these aren't features, they're basic professionalism.
6. Mobile responsiveness. Your MVP must work on phones. Not "sort of work" — actually work. Over 60% of web traffic is mobile. If your app breaks on mobile, you've lost more than half your potential users.
Email notifications — Transactional emails (welcome, receipt, password reset). Not a complex notification system. Just the basics that users expect.
Basic analytics — You need to know what's happening. Google Analytics or a simple event tracker (PostHog, Mixpanel free tier). Without data, you're flying blind.
Search — If your app has more than ~20 items to browse, users need search. But a simple text filter is fine for v1. You don't need Elasticsearch.
Settings page — Let users update their email and password. Maybe their profile picture. That's it for v1.
Here's the part nobody wants to hear. These features feel essential but are almost always premature:
Admin dashboard. You don't need a custom admin panel. Use your database directly, or use a tool like Retool or Forest Admin. Build a custom admin when you have a dedicated operations person who needs it daily.
Notifications system. In-app notifications, push notifications, notification preferences, digest emails — this is a product in itself. For v1, send an email when something important happens. Done.
Multi-language support (i18n). Unless your day-one market genuinely requires multiple languages, build in one language. Adding i18n later is straightforward. Building it from day one adds complexity to every single feature.
Social features. Comments, likes, follows, activity feeds, sharing — these only matter when you have users. And they're expensive to build well. Ship without them and add when you have traction.
Complex permissions/roles. Admin and user. That's your v1 role system. Not admin, super-admin, manager, editor, viewer, guest, and custom roles. You'll know what roles you need after real organizations use your product.
Offline support. If your users need offline access, they'll tell you. Don't assume it and add service workers and local databases to your MVP.
Native mobile apps. A responsive web app works on every device. It can be installed as a PWA. It doesn't require App Store approval. Build native apps when you have 10,000+ monthly active users who demand them.
AI features. Unless AI is literally the core of your product, don't shoehorn it in. "AI-powered" is not a feature — it's a buzzword. Focus on the problem.
For every feature on your list, ask: "If we launch without this, what happens?"
Be ruthless. Your job is not to build a great product right now. It's to learn whether a great product is possible.
Full vision: Freelancers create profiles, showcase portfolios, set rates, receive proposals, negotiate, contract, deliver work, get paid, leave reviews, build reputation.
MVP: Freelancers fill out a profile form (name, skills, rate, portfolio link). Clients post a brief (what they need, budget). We manually match clients with freelancers and introduce them via email.
What it tests: Do clients actually want to find freelancers this way? Will freelancers sign up? Is the matching valuable?
Notice: the MVP has no messaging, no payment processing, no automated matching. All of that can be done manually while you learn.
Full vision: Search restaurants by cuisine, location, rating. View menus, photos, reviews. Book tables in real-time. Manage reservation. Send reminders. Process deposits. Waitlist management.
MVP: A curated list of 20 restaurants in one neighborhood. Each has a page with name, cuisine, and "Request a Table" button that sends a booking request via WhatsApp or email to the restaurant.
What it tests: Will people use an app to book tables? Which restaurants get the most requests? What information do people need to decide?
Full vision: Connect all your data sources. Custom dashboards. AI insights. Team collaboration. Scheduled reports. Anomaly detection. Goal tracking.
MVP: Connect one data source (e.g., Stripe). Show three charts: revenue over time, new customers, and churn rate. One dashboard. No customization.
What it tests: Is this specific data view valuable enough that people will pay for it? Which chart do they look at most? What question do they ask that the dashboard doesn't answer?
Sometimes the best MVP isn't software at all. It's you, doing the thing manually.
Zappos started by taking photos of shoes at local stores and posting them online. When someone ordered, the founder went to the store, bought the shoes, and shipped them. No inventory. No warehouse. No supply chain. Just a guy testing whether people would buy shoes online.
Before you build, ask: Can I deliver this value manually to 10 people? If yes, do that first. It's free, it's fast, and you'll learn more than any app could teach you.
You might discover that:
All of this is cheaper to learn without code.
If you do need to build software (and often you do), keep the tech boring:
Next.js + Tailwind CSS. Fast, flexible, great DX, massive ecosystem. Works for everything from landing pages to complex web apps. Don't pick a framework because it's trendy — pick it because it ships fast.
PostgreSQL. The right choice 95% of the time. Relational, reliable, free. Don't use MongoDB unless you have a specific reason. Don't use Firebase unless you're building a real-time chat app.
NextAuth.js or Clerk. Don't build auth from scratch. It's a solved problem. Use a library or service.
Stripe or Razorpay. Checkout Sessions for simple payments. No custom payment forms for v1.
Vercel or Railway. Zero-config deployment. Free tier that handles your first 10,000 users easily. Don't think about infrastructure.
Every "interesting" tech choice is a risk. It might not work. It might be slow. The documentation might be terrible. The community might be small.
For your MVP, minimize risk. Use the most popular, well-documented, battle-tested tools available. Be creative with your product, not your tech stack.
If you follow this guide and scope ruthlessly, here's what a typical MVP looks like:
| Phase | Duration | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | 1–2 days | Define scope, agree on spec |
| Design + Build | 7–14 days | Development with daily deploys |
| Launch prep | 1–2 days | Final testing, deployment, monitoring |
| Total | 10–18 days | Live, working product |
Cost range: ₹3L–₹8L for a fixed-price engagement.
That's not a guess — that's what a well-scoped MVP costs when built by a focused team that doesn't over-engineer.
Your MVP is a learning tool. After launch, you're looking for signals:
Strong signals (keep going):
Weak signals (investigate):
No signal (pivot or stop):
The MVP gives you permission to make a bigger investment — or permission to pivot without having wasted months and lakhs on the wrong thing.
A real MVP is:
Cut aggressively. Launch early. Learn fast. Everything else follows.
Need help scoping your MVP? Book a free discovery call — we'll help you identify the core, cut the noise, and plan a build that gets you live in weeks. Or read about our process to see how we work.
If this guide resonated with your situation, let's talk. We offer a free 30-minute discovery call — no pitch, just honest advice on your specific project.
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