The method of identifying the minimum viable “product” of a business idea helps entrepreneurs identify the minimum requirements for their newly developed business to establish just enough value for customer/users for their business to be viable. It allows participants to highlight the essence of their business and ensure that participants are not focusing on elements that are secondary to their core business.
It is beneficial for participants to have dealt with their business idea for some time and have been able to gather information and expectations of their intended customer/ user. The session should be implemented in connection with the Proposition and Business Model Canvas, which has allowed participants to identify the key pains and gains their business idea is trying to solve.
For the facilitator it is important to first create an overview of the level of requirements their participants gathered in the session. It is important to establish whether the participants are basing the design of their minimum viable product on assumptions or existing needs and interests identified by customers/users during the research stage. It is also important to urge the participants to continuously evaluate the assumptions of the outcome of the minimum viable product and whether this is indeed creating value for their customers/users in its present form, or whether it would have to be re-established. It is important for the participants to be aware of the resources and skills they already possess to implement the minimum viable product and know next steps in accordance.
The participants leave the session with a list of requirements that they would need to establish to run their minimum viable product. In this sense, the requirement relate to customers expectations and product/service features of their business.
They will have had the chance to develop a prioritization of these requirements and have narrowed these down to the next steps they can take to launch their business.
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