{"id":77875,"date":"2022-03-01T16:58:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T16:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?p=77875"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:04:25","slug":"minimum-viable-product-mvp-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/minimum-viable-product-mvp-example\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Experiment – The Handy Guide Example"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)<\/a> is a foundational approach to tech products today, but it\u2019s often misunderstood to always mean technical <\/em>iterations<\/strong>, to always involve coding and development.

That\u2019s far from the truth!

Experimentation starts long before any developer is involved.<\/strong>

In fact you can use the MVP concept in areas of your company that have nothing to do with code, but could have a big positive impact on your business.

To prove this point, let\u2019s explore the MVP process through the example of something not exactly tech-y. ProdPad used the approach on one of our most popular pieces of brand collateral: The Handy Guide for Product People<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong>

You\u2019ll probably walk away with new ideas<\/a> for your company and a solid way to test them! But first, we need to cover the basics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minimum Viable Product definition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A Minimum Viable Product, or MVP, is a product with the least amount of effort put into it \u2013 the least you can get away with, so to speak \u2013 in order to test, collect feedback, and learn.

\u201cDoing the least\u201d seems counterintuitive in our modern work culture, but it\u2019s the most efficient and effective way to discover the right product to build.

When building a product, every idea you have is a hypothesis<\/a>. As part of The Lean Startup<\/a> build-measure-learn feedback loop, you build the bare minimum of your hypothesis in order to validate it.

If you\u2019re right, then you can put more time and effort into building \u2013 you iterate on it and measure again. If you\u2019re wrong, then you\u2019ve saved all that time and effort, you\u2019ve learned something new, and can immediately move to the next hypothesis (or pivot altogether).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Handy Guide MVP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Minimum Viable Product is a process of experimentation that you can apply to almost any part of your work or business \u2013 including free marketing materials, whether they\u2019re designed for brand awareness or concrete lead generation. It\u2019s how we developed our free booklet, the Handy Guide for Product People<\/strong>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did it launch as a complete, comprehensive, perfectly designed and polished book? No.

It started out as pieces of scrap paper stapled together. 
We started this in the early days of the company, back when it was just me and my co-founder Simon. We needed a brand play to get people\u2019s attention on ProdPad. Over the years, the Handy Guide has iterated and evolved alongside our product and the business as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Version 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You should frontload the testing and prototyping before you ship a product, especially if it\u2019s a physical product. So Version 1 is where the bulk of the experimentation is done, after you\u2019ve identified your problem or goal.

Our goal was brand awareness. Once we could go to conferences as ProdPad, we wanted to leave people with something other than a business card\u2013something with higher value, but not as time-consuming as writing an actual book!

We decided to test something that was cheap and cheerful. So the Handy Guide began as an in-hand booklet with 28 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build<\/strong>
It was just me testing the content, which was repurposed from ideas we\u2019d write about on the blog. I started with the most broad question, \u201cWhat things would I want to teach somebody in this guide?\u201d Then could focus on defining the principles of product management (what the guide calls \u201cpillars\u201d) and map it all together on sheets of paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Test<\/strong>
I would then show the actual papers to people in my product circle and say, \u201cThis is the kind of content I want to create. Is this right?\u201d People would respond with new ideas or concepts I\u2019d left out. They\u2019d suggest quotes or other valuable stuff to include.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iterate<\/strong>
In those early days, when it was just a piece of scrap paper stuck together, I could experiment with order and structure without upsetting the design. I was interslicing quotations and visuals, adding valuable tidbits and removing other stuff that didn\u2019t work as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn<\/strong>
All the while, I was trying to figure out\u2013and starting to understand\u2013how it fit together as a prototype. All of this experimentation and research revealed how much space the content needs, and how many pages the guide needs to be.

And most importantly, from the feedback in my product circle, I knew it was worth advancing this guide to the next stage of development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Versions 2-5<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

During this phase, iterating from Version 2 to 5, the guide really took shape.

Build<\/strong>
With the bulk of the content settled, we could focus on design. We upgraded to a digital version of the design, but the process was still pretty scrappy. I downloaded a template from the web and edited it myself in Adobe InDesign. I\u2019d do a self-print run just in time for a conference.

Learn<\/strong>
When we\u2019d hand out the guides, I\u2019d tell each person that we\u2019d love their feedback on it. And we got lots of feedback, largely via email. We collected feedback<\/a> in our ProdPad backlog like anything else.

During this phase, the quality and quantity of feedback starts to shift.<\/strong> The earlier in the MVP<\/a>, the easier it is to iterate \u2013 and the more crucial! You\u2019re sensitive to feedback, because you know the product is probably incomplete. There\u2019s lots of low-hanging fruit and easy wins.

As the versions mature, feedback is less about the core usability of the product. For the guides, we\u2019d hear about a missing comma or a subjective opinion about the branding. You learn how to tell if this feedback is actually important. Does it address a core problem about the guide\u2019s readability, or is it a minor typo or personal preference?

Iterate<\/strong>
We did have to do some release planning when it came time to print a new version! We\u2019d need to understand how much feedback we collected, review it all, implement the worthwhile stuff, make any design adjustments, review the new version, then ship to the printer. We\u2019d have to do all of this by a deadline to get to the conference on time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Versions 6-7<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This phase was more of the same building, learning, and iterating. We leveled up the design and had the guides professionally printed, but we still kept the release efforts as simple as possible. We continued using InDesign and saved the guide as a PDF that we could send to a local printer at a few days\u2019 turnaround.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Version 8+<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We went digital, baby! The guide proved so popular that we put it online. Now you can sign up for it<\/a> on the website, and get a PDF of the e-book in your inbox.

The digital-only offer makes more sense for a few reasons. It\u2019s cheaper and eco-friendly. Updates and iterations are easy to republish. Plus, now we\u2019re able to reach product managers from all around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Measuring and validating the Handy Guide MVP<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Measuring and validating your hypothesis<\/a> \u2013 your idea, your direction, your feature \u2013 is a big part of developing an MVP. But this can be a gray area if you\u2019re working on projects that don\u2019t have quantifiable data or user insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


At ProdPad, we felt that people loved the Handy Guide! But this was hard to validate and track with data because the guides were a brand play more than anything else. So we used our own anecdotal forms of validation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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