Insight
A first product should stay small enough to ship
A first version is the one workflow a customer can finish. Extra modules you are proud of usually delay that.
Sumit Phule · · Updated
The short answer
A first product is one path a real user can complete without a phone call to you. If you cannot describe that path in a paragraph, you are not ready to build ten screens.
The problem we see
Founders bring a map of a competitor. The map includes admin, analytics, roles, notifications, a mobile app and a marketplace. The budget is a first-year services budget. The honest output of that mix is a stall, or a demo that nobody can operate.
Startup product development at OneGO is scoped work for that first path. Gavali Technology Services is an example of a founder who needed a usable first version without hiring a full tech department. FitKit is an example of treating catalogue, variants and checkout as the product, not a brochure with a cart attached.
We do not invent traction numbers for either. The test is whether a customer can finish the job.
What belongs in version one
- the objects that already exist in the business (order, booking, file, job)
- the one status change that means “done”
- login for the people who will actually type
What usually does not belong: a second user type you do not have, reports nobody asked to read, and integrations with tools you do not use yet.
What to do next
Write the paragraph: who the user is, what they arrive with, what “done” looks like. Send that. If it takes more than a paragraph, cut until it does not. We will say whether that is an MVP we can build, or still a wish list.