A practical checklist for scoping an MVP

Teams tend to reach for this after something has already gone wrong. Run through this the next time scoping an MVP comes up.

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. The practical test is whether someone new to the project could tell, in a minute, that it had been handled.

The checklist

• Minimum means uncomfortable, viable means it works
• Cut features, not quality
• The point is to learn something specific
• Someone is named as the owner
• There is a date to review it again

Why this earns attention

Minimum means uncomfortable, viable means it works. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

In practice

The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Three things worth confirming about scoping an MVP before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Cut features, not quality — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.