Your newest MVP
This is a sponsored post on behalf of the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Certificate in Entrepreneurship program but opinions are my own.
In the entrepreneurship world, MVP equals Minimum Viable Product.
This week’s class was another big one (and to me by far the best). We spent the class learning about and actually creating Business Model Canvases for our business ideas.
A Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a widely known tool that startups and many of the largest companies in the world use to make better strategic decisions.
“[It's] a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model.”
And it's simple - with only nine key components.
But while it’s simple - it’s powerful.
These nine components or building blocks have been tested and tested and help organizations describe the rationale of how their organization creates, delivers, and captures value. Over the Summer at Ladies Learning Code, I spent weeks (probably even months) creating a strategic plan - a ten year roadmap or strategy for the organization. I didn’t use any framework per say (although I researched several) but our strategic plan (and how we plan to create value for our learners and achieve our mission and vision) touched on every one of these components. The components make sense.
And, although I didn’t start out using this framework at Ladies Learning Code - the beauty of it is that it can be applied at any time to any organization or project - new or old. And, that’s what I’m most excited about. I'm excited about having a tested, simple and effective framework for our organization to use to evaluate ourselves as a whole (it’s important to always be reviewing your strategy) and for any new programs or products we decide to launch. Plus, it's visual. It's great to be able to see your organization on one page, in one place, in a really organized way.
But it gets better. A company's MVP can actually be created using select components of the BMC like the Value Proposition, Customer, Relationships and Channels which makes it extra powerful.
At Ladies Learning Code, we're constantly innovating and trying new things. But, as a not-for-profit we don't always have the resources to execute everything or to the fullest extent we'd like. That's where Minimum Viable Products are important - and especially one's that are aligned with your strategic vision.
We can use different components of our BMC to help determine if our program or product has product/market fit - or in other words if it's something our community wants and is willing to participate in.
The components are*:
Value Proposition: what problem are you solving for your customer?
Customers: who are you solving a problem for?
Channels: how are you getting them that solution? how are you solving it?
Relationships: relationships you have with customers
We can test an idea by testing these different components and creating and launching something with just core features. At Ladies Learning Code, we've done this often. Our camps are a perfect example. In March 2012, we launched our first offering for girls - a March Break camp. It was a one week, relatively low commitment (compared to a 3 month after school program) but it was a perfect learning opportunity to test whether our community wanted programming for youth (they did!) and whether this format (and which others) might work. After March Break camp, we piloted one-day workshops (in a similar MVP way), re-ran camps (we now do 7 camps a year) and launched after school programs - all once we could identify with the MVP that we had the right product/market fit. Launching with an MVP that you can validate means that you have something people love and want or you don't. But, you didn't have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to figure that out. You can then focus your energy (and saved resources) on building that something people love out or re-focus and try a new MVP.
It's simple but it works.
And, if you dedicate yourself to the BMC - to the process and to the tool it may just become your organization's newest MVP (most valuable player).
Next week is our last day of class but the entrepreneurship journey never ends. Follow me as I try to build something really special at Ladies Learning Code @melsariffodeen.
*You can find out more about this stuff in one of the suggested books for the course: Business Model Generation. A preview of the book is available here. I definitely recommend it.