The first version of my last MVP had a feature list that would have taken months. I shipped something in a few weeks instead, mostly by deleting things I was sure we needed. Here is what went, and what I regretted.
Accounts and roles
I had planned an admin panel, team invites and three permission levels. The first users were a handful of people I knew by name. I gave them logins by hand and kept a spreadsheet of who could see what. Nobody noticed.
Settings pages
Every setting I had sketched was really me avoiding a decision. I picked sensible defaults and hardcoded them. When two people asked for the same change, that became the first real setting.
Payments
I didn't wire up a checkout. The first people who wanted to pay got an invoice by email. It felt a bit embarrassing, but it told me who was serious faster than a pricing page would have.
Notifications
Email and in-app notifications were on the list. I sent updates myself, by hand, for the first few weeks. That also meant I was talking to every user, which turned out to be the most useful part.
What I kept
The one workflow people came for, done properly. Error logging. A way for users to tell me something was broken. Backups. I didn't want to cut anything that would lose someone's data or leave me blind when it broke.
What I regretted cutting
Basic analytics. I skipped it to save a day, and then spent weeks guessing which screens people actually used. I'd add it from day one next time, even something rough.
Search too, a little. I thought nobody would have enough data to need it. A couple of heavy users did within the first month.
The rule I ended up with
If I could do it by hand for the first group of users, it stayed out of the code. If skipping it could lose data or hide errors, it stayed in.
What did you cut from your first version that you later wished you'd kept?
Top comments (0)