Ask HN: Anyone have an MVP?

7 pointsHackrNwsDesignr15y ago10 comments

Is anyone working on an MVP they want to share/get feedback on? I'm reading a lot about lean startup methodologies and would love to see a few.

10 comments

10 comments · 6 top-level

damoncali15y ago· 2 in thread

http://trackjumper.com is more or less the first version that was released.

You'll notice the design is less than inspired, there is only one subscription plan, and the product tour is weak. The product itself is a little disorganized, but functional. All in all, it was good enough to release and get paying customers, but not good enough to be proud of or convert at the level I'd like to see.

Check back in about a week, and you'll be able to see a fairly major design upgrade. I redesigned the UI and the entire sales funnel based on customer feedback and will be wrapping that up later this week.

rcavezza15y ago

I'm always interested to see where the first design comes from.

Did you guys have any inspiration?

Did you start with a template and tweak it?

Do you have a solid design guy on your team?

damoncali15y ago

My team is just me. And I'm a lousy, but improving designer. I essentially find a site I like, and then "borrow" design elements from it. I don't scrape or steal - just take some direction. Without it, I'd never be able to get started.

I'm slightly ashamed to publicly admit this, but my design is a poor imitation of what I think is a rather good design here:

http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/

I took some cues from them, simplified it so that I could actually do it myself, and then stopped improving it when it was no longer absolutely embarrassing.

The logo is just Arial. Go figure.

I have since redone it almost completely, and I think the new one is much better, but like I said, you won't be able to see it until sometime later this week/next week.

The new design is much more focused and less scattered. Each page has a clear point to get across. Aesthetically, it's nicer as well, although I've confirmed that with precisely zero people.

As far as the app itself, I just made that up from scratch.

guynamedloren15y ago· 1 in thread

http://letspocket.com - my first app, MVP stage. I posted in on HN 2 weeks ago and got an amazing response with hundreds of signups and thousands of hits. Now I'm working on a premium version so I can monetize and start marketing heavily, hopefully within a couple weeks. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

HackrNwsDesignrOP15y ago

nice. what will the premium version have? is it a place to scribble notes?

HackrNwsDesignrOP15y ago· 1 in thread

I'm looking to see a few bare bones MVP's, early stages, or different MVP's at different stages perhaps, I know what they are, just trying to get a post / resource going for HN to see real people's MVP's, not like, facebook, flickr, etc.

rcavezza15y ago

Here's one I made a while ago for a lean startup machine event - http://crowdmarkup.com/

rcavezza15y ago

http://easyunsubscriber.com/removeemails.php was our version 1a. It's a working prototype without any payment mechanisms. ####Edited to add This version is no longer functional - it will say you unsubscribed, but it doesn't actually unsubscribe you.

Version 2 is now at http://easyunsubscriber.com and has a few payment plans. We're still doing a lot of testing and tweaking.

We plan on doing a lot of multivariate testing on the current version (2) to find out the best pricing plans to maximize our revenue. We're also testing to see if users are more likely to buy if we have a video demo or just a screenshot.

We also bought version 2's design from http://www.chimerathemes.com

rcavezza15y ago

I'm working on a few right now, but I'm keeping it limited to only Adwords Traffic so I have good benchmarks for future changes.

Here are some resources.

http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product-exam...

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-examples-of-Minimum-V...

veb15y ago

http://www.lifelitup.com is just the landing page, while we get the alpha up to date. Basically it's like Steam Achievements, but real-life. Mix that with tourism, and boom.

I'm hoping to have an alpha by the end of this week, but I'm never sure when it's "alpha-ready" :(

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

10 comments

10 comments · 6 top-level

damoncali15y ago· 2 in thread

http://trackjumper.com is more or less the first version that was released.

rcavezza15y ago

I'm always interested to see where the first design comes from.

Did you guys have any inspiration?

Did you start with a template and tweak it?

Do you have a solid design guy on your team?

damoncali15y ago

I'm slightly ashamed to publicly admit this, but my design is a poor imitation of what I think is a rather good design here:

http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/

I took some cues from them, simplified it so that I could actually do it myself, and then stopped improving it when it was no longer absolutely embarrassing.

The logo is just Arial. Go figure.

I have since redone it almost completely, and I think the new one is much better, but like I said, you won't be able to see it until sometime later this week/next week.

The new design is much more focused and less scattered. Each page has a clear point to get across. Aesthetically, it's nicer as well, although I've confirmed that with precisely zero people.

As far as the app itself, I just made that up from scratch.

guynamedloren15y ago· 1 in thread

HackrNwsDesignrOP15y ago

nice. what will the premium version have? is it a place to scribble notes?

HackrNwsDesignrOP15y ago· 1 in thread

rcavezza15y ago

Here's one I made a while ago for a lean startup machine event - http://crowdmarkup.com/

rcavezza15y ago

Version 2 is now at http://easyunsubscriber.com and has a few payment plans. We're still doing a lot of testing and tweaking.

We also bought version 2's design from http://www.chimerathemes.com

rcavezza15y ago

I'm working on a few right now, but I'm keeping it limited to only Adwords Traffic so I have good benchmarks for future changes.

Here are some resources.

http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product-exam...

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-examples-of-Minimum-V...

veb15y ago

http://www.lifelitup.com is just the landing page, while we get the alpha up to date. Basically it's like Steam Achievements, but real-life. Mix that with tourism, and boom.

I'm hoping to have an alpha by the end of this week, but I'm never sure when it's "alpha-ready" :(

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse