-6

our company wants to outsource the development of MVP. Since it is my first project as a product manager, I am expecting

  1. story map
  2. ERD
  3. Technical specifications i.e. language, database, DevOps & development methodology.
  4. Roadmap
  5. human resource and financial analysis.

I was wondering if anyone could help me and tell me what kind of data am I missing to get from the development company?

Improve this question
4
  • 1
    Noooo.. That is not what MVP is meant to be. MVP is real product that the team that built it can continue working on it. Outsourcing it defeats the whole purpose of MVP.
    – Euphoric
    Commented Jul 6, 2020 at 5:53
  • but it's in our contract that the development process should be in a way that any other developer could continue it to other versions.
    – product_n
    Commented Jul 6, 2020 at 6:13
  • 1
    It may be in the contract but it sounds like your organization doesn’t have the technical sophistication to ensure it is so.
    – James McLeod
    Commented Jul 6, 2020 at 8:54
  • 1
    Switching development teams during product development is a pretty good way of ensuring skyrocketing costs or project failure (most likely both.) There are more satisfying ways of wasting money. Seriously, productivity doesn't come from paperwork and procedures but from developers who build experience and knowledge around the product and work towards a goal that will ultimately benefit their organization. If you pay for getting paperwork all you'll get is paperwork.
    – Hans-Martin Mosner
    Commented Jul 6, 2020 at 15:08

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The purpose of an MVP is to learn. An MVP should be the smallest version of a product needed to uncover key learnings that your business needs in order to either build a successful product or avoid failures.

Outsourcing this work has two major risks:

  1. you're trying to outsource your own learning
  2. most outsourcing software companies have a business model that runs directly against doing the least work possible.

For both of these, I'd be very careful about who to partner with. Avoid companies that are built on lowest man-hour cost. Remember, a business that drives unit cost to its lowest possible rate is relying on selling a lot of units. I'd be very apprehensive about outsourcing an MVP, but if I had to for some reason, I'd want the vendor to bring in a framework they use to create fast learning and I'd want to see case studies of how they've delivered that in the past. Again, it's critical to understand that the thing you are buying from the vendor with an MVP is not software, it's learning. If the vendor doesn't lead with that, I'd avoid them.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.