Should You Build a Minimum Viable Product?

Do you need a Minimum Viable Product to sell that product?

Last week, I got a bunch of questions via my website from “Devin,” a smart young entrepreneur in the healthcare technology space. His MVP, a mobile app, was about six months from completion before he realized he needed to do more work around his business concept.

Now his MVP is about a year out, and he’s frustrated because he wants to reach out to his target market to gauge interest in his solution. He wonders if he should wait for his MVP to be built or should he just get out there and validate his idea. And if the latter, what the hell is he going to put in front of potential customers?

Wait. Stop. Take a Breath.

Before we go any further, let’s make sure we understand Devin’s dilemma, because I didn’t myself until we spoke a little more at length. The first question is: Should Devin be building an MVP? And the very important answer is: It depends.

Devin is going back to his business concept and maybe reinventing a little bit. That alone tells me stop building right now and harden the concept before spending another minute or dime.

But beyond that issue, should he be building an MVP before he gets in front of potential customers?