What to put in an MVP (and what to leave out)
By FluxsStudio Team. Published . 2 min read.
An MVP (minimum viable product) should do one job completely, for real users. Its purpose is to test the assumption your business depends on, as cheaply and quickly as possible. Every feature that doesn't help a user finish that one job, or help you measure it, should wait.
Start with your riskiest assumption
Write down the one thing that must be true for the business to work. For example:
- "Small gyms will pay monthly to let members book classes online."
- "Finance teams will connect their data to get a weekly report automatically."
The MVP is the smallest product that can prove or disprove that sentence with real users.
What should go in an MVP?
- The core workflow, end to end. For the gym example: a member opens the app, sees classes, books one and gets a confirmation. All of it working, not mocked.
- Sign-in. Usually email or Google sign-in. Keep it simple.
- Payments, if payment is the assumption. If you're testing whether people will pay, they need to be able to pay.
- Analytics. Events for each step of the workflow, so you can see where people drop off.
- A way to talk to users. An email address or in-app feedback link is enough.
What should you leave out?
- Admin dashboards. Use the database or a simple internal tool at first.
- Settings and preferences pages. Pick sensible defaults.
- Multiple user types, unless the workflow needs them to work.
- Edge cases that rarely happen. Handle them by hand for now.
- Native apps on every platform, if a web app can test the same assumption.
How do you know the MVP worked?
Decide before launch what success looks like, as a number. For example: "20% of gyms that sign up take a paid plan within 30 days." Then measure it. Whether the answer is yes or no, you've learned what to build next, which is the point.
The short version
One workflow, complete, live, measured. Everything else is version two. For a done-for-you version, our MVP development service turns a scope like this into a live product in 4 to 6 weeks, and our UI/UX design service tests the key flows with users before they're built.
Questions people ask
One complete workflow that real users can finish, plus what that workflow needs: sign-in, the core action, payments if you're testing willingness to pay, and analytics to measure what happens. Nothing else is required.
A prototype shows how a product would work, usually as clickable screens with no real data. An MVP is a live product real users can use and pay for, built to be measured and extended.
For each feature, ask: if this is missing, can a user still finish the core workflow, and can we still learn whether our main assumption is true? If the answer is yes, it waits for a later version.