Perfection over MVP? A new approach for idea-stage startups in lockdown

It’s fairly standard in the ‘startup world’ to be told things like “if you wait until you’re ready to launch, then you’ve launched too late” adhering to the idea that starting out barebones, small and scrappy is better than aiming for a polished product before going live.

The thinking behind this is sound — if you spend too much time perfecting a product or experience before launching something that people might not actually want then it may be more time wasted than needs be. You’re also likely missing valuable input from customers/users early on which can guide product development into something with more mass-appeal.

However, these are strange times we’re currently in. The world is a little upside down right now and the startup world is very much the same. So what does this mean for the status quo of the MVP-launch?

Never before (in my lifetime, at least) have we had circumstances like this.

A time when launching a business may get lost among the noise of so many others trying cut through. A time when many working professionals are furloughed, with minds racing around innovations or beavering away on side-hustles they’ve had building up for a while.

The economy is all over the place, people are looking after their pennies while that is so, and as such, gaining new customers may be difficult (unless you’re launching something remote/affordable/incredibly helpful).

So, consider for a moment, the chance to perfect — or at least polish, more than you might usually be told to — the business you want to launch, ready for the world when we settle back into the norm (or as close to normal as we can get).

Maybe that scrappy startup doesn’t have to be quite as scrappy. Maybe you can take a little more time to dot a few more i’s and cross a few more t’s before getting it out there into the world.

You might want to take the community of raving fans you’re building before launch and make it even bigger. Perhaps add more content to your pre-launch backlog so that you can focus on other things in the early stages. Maybe schedule a few months, rather than weeks, of social content to help you manage ongoing marketing if you get busy. You could also build that extra feature you were saving for v2, right now, to make v1 of your product even better

Hopefully, these can jog some ideas on what you might be able to indulge yourself with while we’re all confined, safely, to our homes.

Obviously, this advice doesn't negate the need to actually launch so keep that in mind. Don’t hesitate to get your business into the world at the best time you can.