The Art of Building an MVP

The Art of Building an MVP

This guide is written from real founder experience — building, shipping, failing, iterating, and scaling multiple products to millions of users.

Over the years, I've built products that went nowhere, products that quietly made money, and products that crossed millions of users. What changed everything was not better tech or better ideas — it was learning how to build the right MVP. An MVP is not about building less. It's about building right.

1. MVP Is a Learning Tool, Not a Product

Most people treat an MVP as a smaller version of their final product. That's the first mistake.

An MVP exists to answer one critical question:

Will users care enough to use this if it barely exists?

Your goal is not polish, scale, or even retention. Your goal is signal.

If your MVP doesn't teach you something uncomfortable or surprising, it's not an MVP — it's a demo.

2. Start With a Pain You've Personally Felt

The fastest MVPs come from problems you've lived with.

Why?

  • You already understand edge cases
  • You don't need market research to validate pain
  • You instinctively know what not to build

Most of my successful products started with something painfully personal.

For example, MagicSlides started because I hated starting presentations from scratch. Blank slides were the real problem — not design, not templates. That insight only came because I faced the pain myself.

The same pattern repeated with other products:

  • Blurweb came from a personal need to quickly hide sensitive info
  • Sheet-based tools came from repetitive manual work I was already doing

If you're not the first frustrated user, you'll struggle to understand what truly matters.

If you can't explain the problem in one frustrated sentence, stop.

3. Ruthless Feature Elimination

Write down everything you want to build.

Now delete:

  • Anything that requires onboarding
  • Anything that needs settings
  • Anything that sounds impressive but isn't required

Your MVP should feel almost embarrassing to ship.

Some of my early MVPs had:

  • Barely any UI
  • Zero onboarding
  • Manual fixes behind the scenes

But they solved one painful problem end-to-end — and that was enough.

A good rule:

If you can explain the product without using the word "and", it's MVP-ready.

4. Build the Core Loop Only

Every product has a loop:

Input → Magic → Output

For MagicSlides, the loop was brutally simple: Paste content → Generate slides → Download PPT

No collaboration. No advanced editing. No template marketplace.

Once users got value from that loop, everything else could be layered later.

If the loop works, users will forgive everything else.

5. Speed Beats Architecture (Early On)

Early MVP mistakes:

  • Over-abstracting
  • Over-optimizing
  • Over-engineering for scale

You are not Google yet.

Bad code that ships today beats perfect code that ships next month.

In my early products, I rewrote entire systems multiple times — and that was fine. What mattered was speed of learning, not elegance of code.

The only rule:

Can this be rewritten later?

If yes — ship it.

6. Charge Earlier Than You're Comfortable With

If users won't pay for your MVP:

  • They won't pay for v2
  • They won't pay for v10

Charging early does two things:

  • Filters real users from free curiosity
  • Forces you to focus on value, not features

Even ₹199 tells you more than 10,000 signups.

The moment people paid for my MVPs, conversations changed. Feedback became sharper. Expectations became clearer. That's when products started improving fast.

7. Ignore Vanity Metrics

Early MVP metrics that don't matter:

  • Total signups
  • Page views
  • Likes and comments

Metrics that matter:

  • Did they complete the loop?
  • Did they come back once?
  • Did they complain when it broke?

Complaints are a better signal than compliments.

8. Launch Ugly, Publicly

Don't wait for a perfect launch.

Launch when:

  • Core flow works
  • Payments work (if applicable)
  • You can manually support users

Launch channels that work best for MVPs:

  • Twitter/X
  • Indie communities
  • Personal network
  • One honest post describing the problem

Your first 10 users matter more than your first 10,000.

9. Talk to Users Before Writing Code Again

After launch, stop coding.

Instead:

  • Read every message
  • Watch users struggle
  • Ask: "What almost stopped you?"

The second version of your product should be shaped by real friction, not ideas.

10. MVP Success Looks Boring

A successful MVP doesn't go viral.

My best-performing products didn't explode on day one. They grew quietly — a few users here, a few there — but those users kept coming back. That repeat usage mattered far more than any spike.

It looks like:

  • A few users using it repeatedly
  • Manual fixes behind the scenes
  • Revenue that feels too small

That's how real products start.

Big outcomes come from boring consistency.

Final Thought

An MVP is not about proving you're smart.

It's about proving:

  • The problem is real
  • The solution is valuable
  • You can move fast when it matters

Build less. Learn more. Ship sooner.

That's the art of building an MVP.