MVPs can be a valuable and a beneficial way for companies to test and verify their visions for new products or business models. That’s why, driven by our experience, we decided to organize a Meetup where we could share all our insights, expertise and other experts opinion about the creation of an MVP.
So with the topic in mind, we invited a panel with whom attendees could explore key components of the MVP process. We contacted General Assembly, in San Francisco, and booked our day: 8th of November.
Our meetup topic?: “How to define a true Minimum Viable Product (MVP)”.
Our Distinguished Panel
We gathered professionals from the area who could provide a balanced and informed discussion with the audience about creating an MVP. Scott Lambridis, Director of UX at Redshift, was one of them.
Scott built a UX department at Eveo and designed numerous mobile and desktop applications for doctors, patients, and healthcare reps. Scott is also an award-winning writer with an MFA from San Francisco State University, and has published stories in Amazon’s Day One, Slice, and other journals. He also co-hosts the “Action Fiction!” performance series.
Another panelist was Mark Montalban, a Silicon Valley native currently working at the Founder Institute. Through his role as Head of Global Partnerships, he has experience with the entire spectrum of entrepreneurs from people with ideas to successful serial entrepreneurs. Mark also provides business development mentorship to entrepreneurs in FounderLab, a Founder Institute funding accelerator. In his free time, he is working on a mindset for aspiring entrepreneurs called iDEAQUEST.
And finally, our very own CEO, Cesar DOnofrio. For more than 20 years Cesar has been applying leadership combined with his expertise in software development and User Experience.
Cesar has participated as a speaker at various IT events, including World BPO-ITO Forum, SXSW, and more. He was also selected among the Nearshore Americas’ Power 50 Leaders and in 2016, he was chosen to take part in the Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Leaders Program. This past September, he was honored as the Top Midmarket IT Executive of the Year.
The Meetup
Our MVP Meetup had all the right ingredients for becoming a huge success: a great panel full of knowledgeable and passionate professionals, a great location, and a fantastic gathering of people from the Bay Area development community. We knew it was going to be exciting the minute we saw the room was filled with entrepreneurs and people eager to learn.
Our panel was guided to share their experience in regards to three themes:
- How to streamline the creation of an MVP
- Why it is critical to have the right priorities in place to guide the team
- Why creating a distinguible product from the beginning will make the difference in the future
Of course we can’t recreate the buzz or provide a full transcript, but here are some of the highlights of the discussion.
Highlights of the Discussion
- Starting with an MVP is going to ensure there is no wasting time, resources or money
- All three panelists agreed that the UX role in MVP is the most critical
- People think that their ideas are original, but ideas are worthless without execution
- It is OK to talk to other people to validate ideas
- It is not necessary to have an MVP to raise money… ideas can be discussed with Angel investors
After the discussion, everyone took the opportunity to get in on some networking. With so many great ideas circulating around the panel discussion, everyone had a lot to say so there was a great buzz in the room! Add drinks and pizza to the mix and it was the perfect way to end the Meetup.
It was really a very good experience and of course we are already thinking about the next one. Stay tuned on our social networks and we will soon be letting you know about our future meetups :) In the meantime, please take a look at the full photo album!