TEI 007: Simple Steps for Using the Minimal Viable Product Approach

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you another
episode of The Everyday Innovator. The podcast is all about helping
people involved in developing and managing products become more
successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our
Guest:  Andrew Warner is the master of learning from
entrepreneurs. As the founder of Mixergy, he has interviewed over
1000 entrepreneurs, sharing what they did to become successful.
Prior to Mixergy, he was an accomplished entrepreneur with an
internet business selling greeting cards that generated over
$30M/year in revenue. However, his path was not always paved with
successes – he learned from his costly failures and mistakes – and
eventually created Mixergy to discover how successful products and
companies are created. Highlights from the discussion include:
Product innovators and entrepreneurs struggle with the
“counter-mind” that tells us our plans will not workAn example of
the “counter-mind” is wanting to go for a run but your counter-mind
telling you that you don’t have time, or knowing that you need to
contact customers but your counter-mind telling you that they won’t
be interestedAfter spending $300,000 developing an invitation
system for events, Andrew realized it was a failure. He had not
asked for feedback on the product concept before developing itTalk
with potential customers about the product concept to learn about
their real problems and how your product can provide valueUse an
iterative approach to develop and refine product concepts, learning
from customers as you goAndrew shared his minimal viable product
(MVP) approach he used for creating a training product.