You can’t have PMF until you have proof.

To value what should be considered “proof”, use the following:

<aside> 💡 Words < traffic < email signups < beta testers < free customers < paying customers

</aside>

Your MVP should have value, but it shouldn’t be perfect. You can optimize UI/UX and signups flows after you establish interest. Speed is your competitive advantage when you’re starting out, and you’re sacrificing that when you waste time optimizing for the final 10%.

1. Talk to potential customers that would use this. This should have been covered before you start building. Make sure that you are building something where there is existing demand.
2. Make sure your MVP has value. This seems obvious, but you only have one chance at a first impression. If your product is invaluable (or it takes too long to get value from it), people will never set up recurring payments for it.
3. Solve one pain point for one person. The product should resonate with a specific audience. Solve for one of their specific pain points, prove demand, and build other features as you go.

Notes

• Building your MVP should not cost more than $5k. Western engineers are expensive investments.
• SaaS Pegasus + good UI kits will help build 80% of your product. Use engineers to build the remaining 20%.
• If you hire freelancers, pay them by project milestones (not hourly). Lay out what should be completed by certain dates, and compensate accordingly. Encourage progress and not time spent.
• Require documentation. If not and things go wrong, you’ll have to start again from scratch.
• Try to talk to your engineering team daily if you can. If you can’t do this, you should be communicating no less than 2x / week.
• Use a project management board. Keep track of what needs to be done so you can focus on bigger items during meetings (Trello works well for this).