as a small viable product, a very common concept in the startup world. A small functional product is actually a simplified version of a product that represents an idea. It is usually used whenever you have a startup idea and want to prove your idea and how it works without spending a lot of time building a full product.
With the release of coding agents, building effective MVPs has become much easier as you can write code much faster than ever before. However, there are still many things to think about when building an MVP, such as which suppliers to use, what are the real needs of your product, and so on. In this article, I'll discuss how to create an effective MVP and the mistakes you should avoid when creating one.
Why build an MVP
The main reason you want to build an MVP is that building a fully specified product takes too much time. In the early stages of an idea, you don't have time to produce all the products. Instead, you want to build a small product to ensure there is a demand. And once you've confirmed the need, you can spend more time building your product.
This allows you to test several ideas without spending too much time on one idea. In addition, it helps you to avoid spending too much time on one idea before you have confirmed any need for it. A common mistake many startups make is to work too hard on what they think is a good idea. And after a long time, after talking to potential customers, they learn that there really isn't that much demand for the product. Then they spend a lot of time working on this product, which is not really necessary, which is what you really want to avoid.
How to build an MVP
Now it's time to start building the MVP. The first thing you should do is create a complete spec for all the features you need. It is very important that you keep this to the minimum number of necessary features. Try to avoid features that are generally good to have or create only must-have features to showcase your product.
My high-level overview, the plan for building an MVP is as follows:
- Create a spec for all the features and requirements you have.
- If you are given an initial spec, have Claude Code or another coding agent build the spec, which will be your MVP.
- One more time. The iteration process includes self-testing, of course, to make sure everything is working as expected, but also testing with potential customers to ensure that this is indeed the MVP.
I simply start building the MVP by writing the spec. I write everything I need to do, usually generated by interviewing Claude Code, researching on the Internet, interviewing potential clients or colleagues, and so on.
I think that at this step in the process, it is very important to talk to others. You don't want to hide your opinion; Your idea should be discussed with others, and you should try to get as much feedback on it as possible.
Second, you simply give the spec to Claude Code and have it build the first version. This is the easiest step in the process, since coding agents have become so powerful in the last few months that, in most cases, they are only able to execute one shot. If you want to learn more about how to use one-shot solutions with Claude Code, you can read my article on the topic.
The last step in my MVP building process is iteration, which is, in most cases, the most time-consuming step. In this step, you both test your product that Claude's Code is building, and then discuss it with others, preferably potential customers, to see if this MVP really adds value.
I think that in many cases, the definition of MVP is underestimated. Many consider the MVP to be just a version of our product, but it is very important to remember that the MVP needs to provide value to potential customers. It is not enough that it represents the concept of value; it really needs to create value itself.
Mistakes to avoid when building an MVP
In this section, I will discuss common mistakes to avoid when building an MVP. These are mistakes that I have discussed with others and that I have made. In general, mistakes are very common to be made, and even though you are aware of them, you will probably make the same mistakes yourself. So I urge you to read the following, understand why it happened, and remind yourself of these mistakes to prevent them from happening in the future.
Scope travel
The most common mistake here is to increase the width. You realize you want more features and the middle ground between nice to have and must have. You then end up building more features, making your app even more complex.
Creating features for the first time is not really a problem. Code agents like Claude Code can do this for you very quickly. However, the added complexity may cause different challenges in the future, such as:
- It will take more time to add more features because of the added complexity to the codebase.
- Additional code to maintain and ensure that it works. Now you need to test a lot of code. Testing is usually a very time-consuming process because you have to do it yourself and it's not always easy to have a code agent do the testing for you.
Therefore, the cost of building a feature is not the only initial cost of building a feature. And it's the cost of the complexity that the feature adds, and the cost of maintaining the feature. Note that this information is only general software engineering information and does not apply only to building small functional products. However, I think it's very important to remember whenever you're building small functional products.
It doesn't get a response
I think one of the most common mistakes many people make when creating MVPs is not getting enough feedback. Claude's code is incredibly good at creating products given a clear information or specification document. This is an area where coding agents thrive because they're tasked, they're incredibly good coders, and they know how to take an idea and turn it into code.
However, what coding engines are not so good at gathering feedback, understanding exactly what they need to build, or, in general, less specific tasks. Very open tasks with many different solutions often require a human touch to get good results.
Therefore, I urge you, once you have built an MVP with Claude Code, to try to get as much feedback as possible and iterate on it. The amazing part about Coding Agents is that iterating on your product is so easy, right? You just take the feedback, put it into a code model, and have it generate new code, updating the product based on the feedback.
The speed of iteration you can achieve with coding agents today is one of the reasons why it is easy to build MVPs and why you can achieve building really good and valuable MVPs without much work, at least compared to 5-10 years ago.
The conclusion
In this article, I discussed how to successfully build a small working product with Claude Code. I discussed my approach to building MVPs with coding agents like Claude Code, and then went on to discuss common mistakes made when building MVPs, such as scope constraints and not getting enough feedback. These are key mistakes you can avoid when building your next MVP by simply reminding yourself not to make these mistakes and seeing how many other developers have made those same mistakes. I believe that creating MVPs has become much easier with the release of clothing agents, which opens the door for many more valuable products to be created, as you can easily present the potential value of a product idea.
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