Ep. 19 - MVP

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is not just a concept for entrepreneurs. And, it doesn't just have to be applied to products or physical items. What if we use the concept of MVP to start implementing concepts or bringing new pieces of ourselves to work? Start with the smallest possible, viable concept, implement, and see how it goes. Maybe it will help us all get "unstuck" a bit.

Transcript

Tara 0:04

This is It's Only in Trying, a weekly podcast about the beautiful messiness of becoming. Okay, so the thing I've been thinking a lot about lately is this concept of minimum viable product. I don't know why, but it switched this light bulb on in my head, and it's just so genius. And all the great business people know it, do it. That's how they figure out where they can begin a business and scale. So minimum viable product is the smallest version of the thing that you want to sell. For instance, Netflix, they had tried a bunch of different products and scenarios and business types. And then when they came to mailing DVDs to people's homes, mailing movies, all they did was run out, buy a CD, go to the post office, put their address on it, mail it to themselves as the minimum viable product to figure out whether or not mailing DVDs to consumers was viable. That's all they did. And now Netflix is what it is today. So when we think about business, maybe starting a business, working within a business, it actually doesn't have to be the end product that you start with. It actually just has to start with the minimum viable product, MVP, which makes this concept of being an entrepreneur or starting your own business or even just being entrepreneurial within your current job in the corporate world way less scary. It makes it something that is so much more possibly attainable. And maybe MVP or minimum viable product doesn't just apply to products themselves, like things you can sell or something that you produce, but also concepts that you introduce in the workplace. So say you're not going to be an entrepreneur or business owner. Totally fine. But you want to figure out how to continue to figure out how to be your most authentic self within the corporate structure, but introduce these new ideas and concepts to make either your work-life balance better, your employees or direct report's work-life balance better, or just like make corporate world happier. So what is the minimum viable product that you can introduce to say relieve some stress instead of coming up with an entire project plan? And maybe you do that, but pick the smallest item to start with first and integrate slowly. I feel like so many of us hit this roadblock at work where we're told, like, no, that's too big, we don't have IT resources, we don't have project management resources. And I totally get that. Everybody has a million projects that they need to do and implement, and all of them use IT or software of some kind. So what can you do to integrate things and not stall yourself or your team in the meantime? What is the minimum viable product that you can integrate right away? I think it's just this incredible concept that can be used not just in the entrepreneurial or business space, but also within the corporate structure as just a concept to think small, think atomic. Think the very smallest thing that you can start and do it for three to six weeks. If that works, try the next step. And then all of a sudden everything will be flowing, and you're not just stuck waiting for your turn at the project helm. And we don't feel so stuck in, well, that's how it is. It's a really exciting concept to think about like I don't have to do it all at once. I just have to do maybe one step or implement one small change. So, what I want everyone to do, think about the small tweaks that you can make, the minimum viable product, the MVP that you can start implementing at work to make it a little bit easier. Maybe it's that you tell yourself at every meeting I am going to speak once, and you start doing that. And then all of a sudden, everyone starts seeing you as the person in the room who has something to say, and it takes off from there. So go ahead, find your MVP, and let me know how it goes. Tell me all the things that you're doing, all of the things where you're starting small, your MVP. I can't wait to hear about it. And as always, just remember, you're doing better than you think.