What to develop first
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Develop the one product that best proves your core idea to your core customer, and leave everything else for later.
In MVP to Shelf, Cydney Mar calls this Product Clarity, the first step of her Concept-to-Reality Pathway: define what you are making and who it is for. Clarity comes before samples because every sample, supplier quote and price depends on it.
Pick the product that tests your riskiest assumption at the lowest cost. Usually that is whether a specific customer will pay your price. Choose the version that is simplest to make, easiest to explain, and still shows what makes your idea different.
Describe one person, not a market. Where do they shop?
If you cannot say it in a sentence, the product is not clear yet.
Estimate landed cost and channel price before sampling.
Prefer existing materials and components for the first run.
Definition
Product Clarity, as MVP to Shelf uses the term, is a written decision covering the customer, the problem, the single hero product, its target price and the channel it sells through. It is short enough to fit on one page and specific enough that a sample maker or supplier could quote from it.
Common mistake
Cydney Mar lists jumping into sampling without clarity as one of the main reasons product ideas stall. Samples made from a vague brief tend to be wrong in ways that are expensive to fix, and each round adds weeks.
Next step: plan your sampling.
Cydney Mar offers a free workbook, From Idea to Income, on her main website. It helps you score your idea in about five honest minutes and map your path to launch, which is a useful way to reach Product Clarity before your first call.
Find out where your idea sits on the Concept-to-Reality Pathway and what to do next.
Published by Cydney Mar
