Building and Launching your MVP

- Choosing a tech stack for building an MVP
- How to decide on build vs buy
- Documentation required to build it right
- Engaging with Freelancers and agencies
- Launching

Transcript

1. Building and Launching your MVP From a technology perspective.
2. About Me • Working in technology industry for the last 15 years • Worked with startups as well as big enterprises. • Leads Engineering at Internet Mango
3. Agenda • Choosing a tech stack for building an MVP • How to decide on build vs buy • Documentation required to build it right • Engaging with Freelancers and agencies • Launching
4. What is a minimum viable product? • Product limited by scope in- terms of features • Provides value to early adopters • Solves a problem • With the existing technology landscape the bar is set pretty high. For eg. look at products that are being launched in PH
5. Choosing a tech stack • Emphasis on shipping • Which technologies would help you to ship faster? • Cost to build • How would you build this? Code it yourself / Hire a freelancer • Are there open source apps that you can base it of ? • What is the cost to maintain it • Whats the future for you MVP? • Is this going to be a throwaway - how probable is it ? • Are you experimenting with your market?
6. Current Tech landscape - Web • Wordpress • Python / Django ; Ruby / Rails • Node / Js • Java / Spring • JAM Stack
7. Technology landscape - Mobile apps • Native • Tend to be higher cost for multi-platform support) • Hybrid apps - one codebase targets multiple platforms • Ionic / Flutter / React Native • Responsive Web
8. Build vs. Buy • App as a set of components • Usually buying the whole thing might not be a wise idea • Some components can be bought • e.g.. UI / Design • starter apps
9. Build vs. Buy • How customisable is the product that you intend to buy • Availability of affordable talent to customise • Get recommendations from freelancers / agency • Buy from - Themeforest / Codecanyon • Search open source availability e.g.. in Github
10. Build: Finding the right freelancer / agency • Online • Upwork / Freelancer • Get samples of similar work done and portfolio • How well are they communicating • Offline • Local meetups and communities
11. Engaging with freelancers / agencies • Request milestones • Communicate at least once a week. • Keep meetings short and to the point • Clear clarifications / questions as soon as you can. • Ask for possible / better options
12. Documentation to build • Clear Requirements Spec • UI mockups • User Flow • Talk in terms of pages / features • What needs to be shared • Need not share all requirements initially in platforms like upwork • Maybe give them similar example apps
13. Launching • Get ready for multiple launches • Find your online community • PH, HN, reddit, IndieHackers etc.. • Decide on a metric that you should keep track • Can you add some viral components to improve the metric ?
14. Thank You Time for QnA