Karishma Bali���s Post

Building a great product is really hard. As you advance in the journey, countless unexpected challenges pop up—things you couldn’t anticipate beforehand. Edge cases, trade-offs, features you initially thought were nice-to-haves turn out to be critical. It’s almost magical how things that were invisible before become glaringly obvious once you’ve used a new feature for just a day. Ideas are just the starting point. Ninety percent of a great product’s value comes from that journey: week to week, identifying things that don't work as expected and coming up with creative ways to improve every little detail. It's also a never-ending journey. The more you add, the more you realize how these new elements impact existing features, requiring further changes. The beautiful part is, when you look back after some time, it's incredible to see how much these changes compound and how far the product has come. So, if you're thinking about building a cool new product, just start. You'll find most of your inspiration from using that first MVP and discovering things you couldn’t see before.

I will never understand founders who fully commit & launch their product/service… Without first ensuring a solid demand for it. 🤔 If you can nail an MVP - Minimum Viable Product - and even get just a few names on a waiting list… You know you’re onto something. But if you spend 12, 18, 24 months building a tool that you don’t even know people want yet… It’s a hard lesson to learn.

Adding a product person to your early-stage start-up before you have product-market fit? You're just inviting in another voice for disagreement. Why? Because it creates an unnecessary membrane for ideas to pass through from CEO to engineer and customer and back. This at a phase when the concepts are loose and the strategy could be changing daily in response to facts on the ground. This layer generates friction. → It causes misalignment. → It invites disagreement. → It waters down bold ideas. Think about it. You're adding another person to convince. ↳ Another perspective to align with. Early-stage growth is about speed. Often less is more. Leveling up on product skills among founding team members is frequently much more efficient.

Day 5: The MVP – Not a Pop Star, but Still a Rockstar Move A minimum viable product, or MVP, is a product with enough features to attract early-adopter customers and validate a product idea early in the product development cycle. In industries such as software, the MVP can help the product team receive user feedback as quickly as possible to iterate and improve the product. 🎸 Key Takeaways: 👉🏻 Garage Vibes: Don't overcomplicate in the beginning; just grab your instruments (features) and start jamming (developing). 👉🏻 Crowd Test: Play your tunes (release your MVP) to a small, forgiving audience; feedback turns a garage band into a stadium filler. 👉🏻 Evolution, Not Revolution: Build on your initial success; even rock legends started in someone's garage, refining their sound over time. Bonus: https://bit.ly/3sMi6gt by ProductPlan Follow Ashutosh Singh for more #mvp #productmanagement

Think you need a finished product to launch? Think again Chasing perfection pre-launch can actually lead to failure Why? Because too many founders build products no one wants It's the perfection trap Enter the MVP - think of it as your beta test, not the final release Why start lean? → Saves money → Speed to market → Customer-focused Ready to move? → Find the pain point → Craft a basic solution → Launch, learn, iterate You got this, one step at a time Cheers to taking the first steps - keep going

After doing it the top way for a few months I can attest to this:

🚨NOT for the faint hearted MVP has become such a cornerstone of our discipline but one that is often the MOST misunderstood! Scott Belsky I hope you find this alternative view interesting and very much welcome the debate Action : CHUCK OUT this illustration as it in NO WAY defines what an MVP packet of work should be about. WHY?? This old illustration has led to the ‘MVP’ as it was originally devised being misused misunderstood and is likely responsible for many product teams having tricky conversations with their stakeholders. BECAUSE : It’s only focusing on the V for VIABLE For example: in this basic A to B use case a skateboard can of course transfer ONE person from A to B but it in no way enables validation of the value of a car…..🤯 …..it’s not considering the other two definitions of what V must ALWAYS also achieve V = Value V = Validation Let me explain. This misinterpretation of V only representing Viable as illustrated in the diagram - completely deviates away from the methodology : scientific method that was originally intended when MVP as a concept/approach was first introduced by Frank Robinson in 2001 and then popularised/explained in Eric Reis’ book “Lean Start Up” Eric Reis’s definition: “That version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort” So chuck this illustration OUT once and for all!! An MVP is not a product with the least possible functionality needed to launch. In fact it has nothing to do launching a product at all! I know mind blowing right!! MVP is the key to using the scientific method for building products. It is a mechanism for ‘validated learning’, to test a hypotheses to discover what will meet customers’ needs to give them value.

Simple but powerful illustration.

Minimum Viable Product.. explained beautifully..

😱 How I Almost Messed Up My Product Hunt Launch: I'm thrilled to share my first Product Hunt launch experience with you all. It was quite an adventure, complete with ups and downs, and I'm excited to tell you all about it. 🔗 Here's the link to my launch page: https://buff.ly/4cJWp2y As a first-time creator, I made a rookie mistake that almost cost me my launch. Instead of scheduling my product for a later date, I accidentally launched it right away! 😳 Panic set in as I realized that you can't delete a post by yourself on Product Hunt. I had no choice but to reach out to their customer support for help. 😫 The Struggle with Creating a Teaser Page: To make matters worse, I couldn't figure out how to create a teaser page for my product. I spent hours trying to solve the issue, but it seemed like an insurmountable challenge at the time. 🥳 After Hours of Struggle, the Page Was Finally Live: Eventually, after countless attempts and relentless perseverance, I managed to create the teaser page and get my product ready for launch. It was a huge relief to see it all come together! 🌟 Shoutout to the @ProductHunt Team: I cannot express my gratitude enough to the Product Hunt team for being incredibly responsive and helpful throughout this process. They quickly addressed all my issues and resolved them faster than I could have ever imagined. Their support was truly invaluable, and I'm grateful for their assistance. In conclusion, my first Product Hunt launch was a wild ride, but it was also an incredible learning experience. I'm proud of what I've accomplished and excited for what's to come. Thank you to everyone who supported me along the way, and a special thanks to the amazing Product Hunt team! 🙏