This document discusses building a Minimum Desirable Product (MDP) rather than a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It recommends focusing on understanding user goals and creating a product that maximizes engagement and sustainable growth through a few key scenarios. An MDP can be built quickly in 4-6 weeks to test if people will use it daily and recommend it to others. The document cautions that desirability alone may not lead to viability, so MDP ideas still need to consider business feasibility. The goal of an MDP approach is to deliver compelling consumer value through the optimal minimal set of features.

1. Minimum Desirable Product Customer Development for the“Winner Take All” Consumer Web

2. My target audience Mass market consumer internet startups Daily usage, but low value interactions Ad-supported, indirect monetization models First to 100M uniques/month wins

3. Executing the “Viability-First” strategy Get a lot of users through viral channels Create a Minimum Viable Product Maximize user acquisition and revenue/user Iterate to a great product experience (?) Can this ever lead to a high engagement product with sustainable viral growth?

5. Scenarios that made me think High-growth social network that’s profitable but has terrible user retention Dating site with lots of subscribers, but no one can find the dates they were promised Photo-sharing site with 100M+ uniques/month organic growth, but unprofitable

6. Am I testing the right thing with a Minimum Viable Product?

7. A different approach:Minimum Desirable Product

9. IDEO design “lenses”

10. Test the riskiest thing first Depending on your business: Minimum Viable Product Distribution, Revenue, Business model Minimum Feasible Product Transistors/inch, Power usage, Cures cancer Minimum Desirable Product Engagement, Sustainable growth, Love <3

11. Desirable but not viable (for years!)

12. The “Desirability-First” strategy Understand user goals Create a Minimum Desirable Product Listen to users and maximize Love <3 Iterate to a great product experience It still needs to be viable and feasible, so filter your ideas through that!

13. How to build an MDP Understand the target user and their goals Identify 2-3 core scenarios Make it 1-4 main pages Tech demo in <2 weeks, MDP in 4-6 weeks Are you using it every day? Will 10 people to use it every day? 100?

14. If you get stuck,add more features right?(Or, once you have an MDP,add more features right?)

15. Min versus Max Desirability Maximum desirability != More features They probably have less features Focus on the “right” scenarios Compelling and refined consumer value Boiling down the minimal featureset takes more time, not less! (Good design is hard)

16. “In many ways, it's the things that are not there that we are most proud of” –JonyIve on the iPad

17. examples and resources

21. The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelly Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge Artful Making by Robert Austin / Devin Lee The Design of Business by Roger Martin Human Centered Design Toolkit by IDEOhttp://bit.ly/8hyn2r

22. Andrew Chen http://andrewchenblog.com voodoo@gmail.com