In the last few years, especially as the agile methodology became more and more popular, the term “ Minimum Viable Product” has been thrown around quite a bit.
The Minimum Viable Product usually defines the stage at which the first iteration of a product (or service) is ready to be released to the public. When that product has reached a stage where it’s good enough to fit the bare requirements of its intended audience.
It tells you when enough is enough and when it’s time to release get some learnings before moving to the next phase of the same project.
But viable is not super appealing right, you want more than just “viable”, you want something that you’re proud of, something that you are excited to introduce to the world. So other people started replacing Viable with Lovable. You don’t want something that just works, you want something that you love.
But how do you know when you’ve reached that “minimum lovable” and you should stop and move on to the next project? When it’s time to stop refining, adding and testing but simply moving on? Especially when you’re working on your marketing and not on your product or service.
Incrementing vs Moving On
Let me take an example, let’s say you have been working on your business for a little while and you’ve reached the stage when you are ready to create your website.
It’s a tough task, designing and launching your first website. It’s the first thing that most people will see from you, what they will use to decide whether or not to trust you and to purchase from you.
I can promise you that there will always be something you want to rework, tweak, improve.
If you follow the minimum viable or lovable product methodology to a T, you’d be creating a website with the bare minimum functionalities, maybe even just a landing page to gauge people’s reaction. You’d release that then keep on adding more and more content or capabilities, always testing, always refining. You would probably spend time very regularly, looking at your metrics and at what can be improved until you’re fully satisfied with it.
Let’s be honest, that will never happen. And sure, you’ve saved yourself some time at the beginning by going with the minimum amount of work before release, but as time goes on, the time and resources spent working on your website will add up and, 6 months after release, you still won’t be fully happy, still refining instead of working on what actually makes you money.
Here’s another solution.
First, you need to define the content you need for your website to achieve the results you’re after: How many pages? What capabilities? Don’t go too crazy, just list what is needed for your website to work.
It might look something like: homepage, services or shop, about page, contact, legal.
Build those pages the best you can, make sure your content and imagery reflect who you are and are a good fit with your brand. Test your links, your forms, install your analytics. Then stop.
And I mean it. Stop. Release the website and move on. Review it once a month, check your analytics, see what you can do, dedicate a couple of hours to it then stop again. You’ve reached good enough. Congrats, now go and do the work.
The importance of prioritising
The trap with things like social media or website for example is that we tend to want them to be perfect, even though they’re usually not what makes us money.
Sure you need them for a sound marketing strategy, but it should never be at the expense of you actually working for your clients. It all comes back to prioritisation and to properly weigh the time vs impact of each of your tasks.
Unless there’s something seriously wrong with your website, you can’t be spending all of your time looking at it and changing every little thing, At some point, you need to move on.
How do you know if something is wrong? Here are a few pointers:
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it’s been a while and it doesn’t fit your brand anymore
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you’re not getting any traffic
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you’re seeing traffic but it’s not converting
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you have technical errors
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you receive a fair amount of bad feedback
If you have traffic and conversions, you’re probably in the good-enough bucket. Sure, you can always improve and, if you do have the time and resources, you should but never at the expense of something more important.
Sometimes, you do need to leave good enough alone.
Do you want someone to take a look at your website and tell you if major changes need to be made? Reach out for chat!
