How To Launch a Minimum Viable Product As a Version 1.0

Six places to cover your bases

When you finally launch your product to market, is the result going to be traction or chaos?

Companies can spend a lot of time over-perfecting an MVP, and when they finally launch their masterpiece, the damn thing crashes anyway. Instead of product-market fit, soaring revenues, and happy customers, they’re left with a litany of complaints, a string of 80-hour weeks — or even worse, indifference and silence.

In over 20 years of building and launching all kinds of products, I’ve learned that while conventional wisdom tells a startup they need to build a powerful launch rocket, no one ever talks about the multiple stages of lift necessary to get into orbit.

In other words, a successful MVP doesn’t guarantee a successful product. Ever.

Once I learned how to prepare those additional stages before launching Version 1.0, I figured out how to give every product I build its best chance for success.

Here’s how to do that.

Stage 1: Never launch without customers

By the time you’re done with your MVP, you should have a lot of customers.