Evan Carmichael explains why entrepreneurs should build a Minimum Viable Product instead of chasing perfection. He shares how his first software company wasted resources on a feature customers didn't want, arguing that speed and early feedback matter more than launching a flawless product.
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Should you focus on speed or perfection? I got a great question from one of my YouTube viewers, Pak Media, who wrote in a long comment basically saying he developed an idea with a professor, uh, could have a huge impact. Professor's saying, wait, make it perfect, plan it all out before you launch. And Pak Media wants to get started, make it fast, get it out there right now, entrepreneur mindset. And what do I do? What should I do is the question. So here's the thing. You want to embrace the genius of the ant and do both. And the best way to marry that concept is what's called a minimum viable product. So this is a product that is good enough to get out there. It's not some crappy thing you've thrown together that nobody's interested in because you had to go speed. It's good enough to make a difference. But it's not fully out-researched, everything planned out. If you talk to academia, and not to slam on academia, but they're very research-driven, right? They want everything done. If you look at what they have to do in their daily lives and create papers and journals, everything has to be cited, everything has to be perfect. If you don't have a great paper with everything cited, you're not gonna get published. So that's the mindset they're coming from. But there aren't too many academia who are great entrepreneurs. So keep that in mind where you're getting your advice from. I know you want to get out there, and that's one of the best ways to start getting feedback, is start talking to your customers. Build it around their problems. So think about what your minimum viable product is. What does that look like? You have a huge feature list, and, and we all have this in our business. We all have a to-do list this big. Of things we want to add in, things we want to make better. Think about though what needs to be in this product for people to start picking it up and finding value in it. That's what you launch with. And launch as fast as you can with that product and get feedback, because no matter how well you think you're planning it out, you're never gonna do a great job. I was a victim of this in my business. My first software company, we had a great product. It was super easy to use. It's biotech software helping find cures in research for cancer and AIDS and diabetes and doing great work. The thing that I spent a ton of time on and the thing that my development team spent a ton of time on, we thought was really helpful, really valuable, super useful. Turns out that our audience didn't really care about it. They cared a little bit, but it wasn't great. And my researchers, the people on my team, they were in the field, right? They knew this stuff. It's not like we're just designing for some customer base that we don't know about. They were the customers, and they built around something they felt was a need. But we didn't test it with the market, and we ended up spending a ton of time on this feature that nobody really cared about, where it could have been better spent on something else. So if I had to make my great plan from the beginning, what I think the product should look like, that would have been in, and a bunch of other stuff would have been in, and we would have made a mistake. Because you can only really judge when you start talking to your customers and get their feedback and see if they're willing to buy it or not. You can have the greatest plan in the world, but if nobody pays you, then it's a sucky plan, and you don't know until you get out there. So don't spend 2 years making this great plan only to find out that it doesn't work. On the flip side, you need something to go and show people. So start talking to them. Get out there. Make your minimum viable product. Figure out what features you need to have in that product for people to be willing to try it out. And then take their feedback, see what they say, and make your product better. And what they suggest may be completely different than the roadmap you set up for yourself. And that's okay, 'cause you're building it around people who are gonna pay you. And that's going to be your lifeline and help you build a great company. I know it's a struggle. I know as entrepreneurs we want things out quickly, but you gotta balance speed versus perfection. It's a question that'll keep coming back over and over and over again, and the best way to solve it is building around your customers. Believe, and good luck. For those of you watching, like the video, thumbs up below. Thank you guys. And I wanna hear what you have to think. Please leave a comment below. I love seeing them. They make my day every day. Really, I, I love the comments. Even if you've never left a comment, today's your day. Leave a comment, please, just saying you love the video or whatever you have to think. And if you have a question for your business, leave it below. I'll make a video response. Thank you guys. I'll see you soon.
