Every founder I talk to has a vision for the full product. That's good: it means they care. But the MVP isn't the vision. It's the smallest version that lets real users validate the core assumption.
Step one: name the one thing
Before features, before tech stack, before timelines: what's the single assumption this product needs to prove? If you can't answer that in one sentence, you're not ready to scope.
Step two: draw the line
List everything the product could do. Then mark each item as must-have for launch, nice-to-have, or later. Be ruthless. Admin dashboards, analytics, integrations: most of it can wait.
- Must-have: without this, the product doesn't work
- Nice-to-have: improves experience but isn't blocking
- Later: valuable, but not for v1
Step three: define done
A scoped MVP has a clear definition of done: not 'when it feels ready' but specific user flows that work end to end. We write this down together before writing code.