1. Tathagat Varma
thoughtleadership.in

2. About.me
Tathagat Varma
• Career: Tathagat started career in 1991 as a Computer Scien6st with
Defense (DRDO, India) and has worked with Siemens Telecom, Philips,
Huawei, McAfee, NetScout, Yahoo! and [24]7 Innova6on Labs in senior
leadership and technical roles. He has developed products across
Telecom, Datacom, Healthcare, Networking and Consumer Internet. In
Oct 2014, he started “Thought Leadership” which offers high-end
consul6ng and coaching for large organiza6onal transforma6ons.
• Experience: 24+ years of soZware product development; 17+ years with
Incremental and Itera6ve Development, Agile and Lean
• Companies trained: can’t disclose due to client NDAs, but mostly
Fortune100-500 companies
• Prior Roles: SoZware Architect, Project Manager, Engineering Manager,
General Manager, VP, Agile Coach
• Educa:on: MS Computer Science, Exec MBA in HR
• Cer:fica:ons: SPC, CSP, CSPO, CSM, M3.0, PMP, PRINCE2
• Author: Agile Product Development (2015)

3. Let’s do the checklist…
• Cool idea ✔
• Prototype ✔
• Funding...yay! ✔
• (aBer many quarters and several $$$s later)
• Product 1.0...yay! ✔
• Launch...we will all be rich very soon! ✔
• ...wait......wait.........wait............
• where are my customers...are the servers up?
• ...

4. But…NPD Failures abound!!!

6. Growth Stages of a Startup

7. Story #1: Zappos
hSp://www.bullethq.com/blog/lean-startup-zappos-how-zappos-validated-their-business-model-with-lean/

9. Story #2: iPod, 2003
hSp://www.bullethq.com/blog/lean-startup-zappos-how-zappos-validated-their-business-model-with-lean/

10. hSp://everystevejobsvideo.com/itunes-music-store-introduc[on-apple-special-event-2003/

11. Story #3: Obama, 2008
hSps://blog.op[mizely.com/2010/11/29/how-obama-raised-60-million-by-running-a-simple-experiment/

12. Analy[cs of 24 combina[ons…

13. Sign-up rates…

14. The winner…and $60m+!

15. What were they doing…
differently
???

18. Business Model Canvas

19. Business Model Canvas on Day 1?
? ?
? ?
? ?
? ? ?

21. So, how to validate, especially the key
ac[vi[es?
OBVIOUSLY…
build’em all?

24. Minimum Feature Set
• Steve Blank:
– The reality is that minimum feature set is
• a tac[c to reduce wasted engineering hours
(code leB on the floor) and
• to get the product in the hands of early
visionary customers as soon as possible.
– You’re selling the vision and delivering the
minimum feature set to visionaries not
everyone.

25. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
• Eric Ries in The Lean Startup:
– An MVP helps entrepreneurs start the process of learning as
quickly as possible.
– It is not necessarily the smallest product imaginable, though; it
is simply the fastest way to get through the Build-Measure-
Learn loop with the minimum amount of effort
– Contrary to tradi[onal product development, which usually
involves a long, thoughmul incuba[on period and strives for
product perfec[on, the goal of the MVP is to begin the process
of learning, not end it.
– Unlike a prototype or concept test, an MVP is designed not just
to answer product design or technical ques[ons. Its goal is to
test fundamental business hypotheses.

26. Build-Measure-Learn Loop

27. hSp://star[tup.co/guides/376/mvp-minimum-viable-product

30. Coffee Shop MVP
• Good MVP: You have a menu with only a few selec[on of coffee,
but all of them taste great. Your shop is clean and [dy with white
painted walls and decent looking coffee tables with comfortable
seats. Your cashier is polite and you take Visa and Mastercard. No
American Express though (we're cool with that).
• Bad MVP: You have a menu with a few selec[on of coffee, but most
of them taste horrible. Your shop is below par and your seats are
uncomfortable. Also, your store only takes cash and your cashiers
are flir[ng with each other.
• Horrible MVP: You have 40 items on your menu - Coffee,
frappuccino, espresso, cakes, croissants, biscuits, tea, fried rise,
chicken nuggets, etc (you get the idea). You gold plate your store
front and your store interior is pimped out with the most expensive
furniture and coffee mugs. You put Samsung LCD TVs at every table
and the chairs are massage chairs. You take Visa, Mastercard,
American Express, and Home Depot giB cards.
hSp://star[tup.co/guides/376/mvp-minimum-viable-product

32. hSp://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-product/

33. “Diffusion of Innova[on”
EvereS Rogers, 1962
hSp://authen[cgraceforlife.blogspot.in/2012/11/the-process-of-organiza[onal-change.html
Who is the customer for your
“New Product MVP 1.0”?

34. “Earlyvangelists”
hSp://steveblank.com/2010/03/04/perfec[on-by-subtrac[on-the-minimum-feature-set/

35. Selling to Earlyvangelists…
• Minimum feature set (“minimum viable
product”) is a Customer Development tac[c to
reduce engineering waste and to get product
in the hands of Earlyvangelists soonest.
• Earlyvangelists require a 18 – 36 month
product vision past the minimum feature set.
• You’re selling the vision and delivering the
minimum feature set.

36. So, just one MVP, right?
hSp://www.romanpichler.com/blog/minimum-viable-product-and-minimal-marketable-product/

37. MMP, MVP, MMF and Stories
MMP: Minimum Marketable Product
MVP: Minimum Viable Product
MMF: Minimum Marketable Features
User Stories

38. Release Planning in Scrum
hSp://www.informit.com/ar[cles/ar[cle.aspx?p=1928232&seqNum=3

39. However…
• A tradi[onal one-direc[onal product
backlog might not help build a “ver[cal
product slice” that (eventually) leads to a
good MVP
• It might not help uncover the key risks
regarding integrity of the product
• It might not help demonstrate the en[re
tech stack un[l it is perhaps too late

40. User Story Mapping

41. Backbone and the Skeleton
hSp://jpaSonassociates.com/the-new-backlog/

42. Building the soBware incrementally

43. What is (SoBware) Architecture?
• The soBware architecture of a program or compu[ng
system is a depic[on of the system that aids in the
understanding of how the system will behave.
• SoBware architecture serves as the blueprint for both the
system and the project developing it, defining the work
assignments that must be carried out by design and
implementa[on teams.
• The architecture is the primary carrier of system quali[es
such as performance, modifiability, and security, none of
which can be achieved without a unifying architectural
vision.
• Architecture is an ar[fact for early analysis to make sure
that a design approach will yield an acceptable system.
• By building effec[ve architecture, you can iden[fy design
risks and mi[gate them early in the development process.
hSps://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/

44. Goals of Architecture
• Expose the structure of the system but
hide the implementa[on details.
• Realize all of the use cases and scenarios.
• Try to address the requirements of
various stakeholders.
• Handle both func[onal and quality
requirements.
hSps://msdn.microsoB.com/en-in/library/ee658098.aspx

45. Architectural Levels of Scope
hSp://www.bredemeyer.com/pdf_files/MinimalistArchitecture.PDF

46. Spectrums of Design
hSp://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-eaed1/

47. Tradi[onal Approach
hSps://xkcd.com/974/

48. Waterfall and Architecture
hSp://www.infoq.com/ar[cles/towards-agile-soBware-architecture

49. Principles of Agile Architecture (SAFe)
• Design emerges. Architecture is a collabora[on.
• The bigger the system, the longer the runway.
• Build the simplest architecture that can possible
work.
• When in doubt, code or model it out.
• They build it, they test it.
• There is no monopoly on innova[on.
• Implement architectural flow.

50. Inten[onal Architecture &
Emergent Design
in SAFe
hSp://www.scaledagileframework.com/agile-architecture/

51. Architectural Runways in SAFe
hSp://www.scaledagileframework.com/agile-architecture/

52. Minimum Viable Architecture (MVA)
Speed Architecture
Too slow,
costly,
and risky
Too
adhoc
and tech
debt
M
V
A

53. Minimum Viable Architecture?
• Addresses the “inten[onal architecture” to
help validate the MVP
• Solves the “here and now”
• “Just enough”
• Supports fast development of high-quality
working soBware
• Modular and open to changes
• Adequate instrumenta[on to help answer A/
B tes[ng
• Always deploy-ready

54. Examples
hSp://www.slideshare.net/RandyShoup/minimum-viable-architecture-good-enough-is-good-enough-in-a-startup

55. Recap
Solving “unknown-unknown” problems requires addressing mul[ple
hypotheses at technology, product and business levels
You could test by building-out the en[re solu[on but it entails significant
risks, apart from long lead-[me and huge upfront costs
Or, build a Minimum Viable Product that allows to incrementally validate
the key hypotheses around product vision
Building an MVP is a mindset that requires Minimum Viable Architecture
to validate major interac[on points of the system with its environment
MVA addresses “here and now” by incorpora[ng emergent design into
high-quality deploy-ready code

56. References
• An Introduc[on to Minimum Viable Architecture,
hSp://www.infoq.com/news/2014/11/minimum-viable-architecture
• Towards an Agile SoBware Architecture,
hSp://www.infoq.com/ar[cles/towards-agile-soBware-architecture
• The Minimum Viable Product and the Minimal Marketable Product,
hSp://www.romanpichler.com/blog/minimum-viable-product-and-minimal-marketable-product/
• Good Enough is Good Enough,
hSp://www.slideshare.net/RandyShoup/minimum-viable-architecture-good-enough-is-good-
enough-in-a-startup
• Crea[ng a highly available minimum viable architecture on AWS,
hSp://alanhollis.com/crea[ng-a-highly-available-minimum-viable-architecture/
• In Search of Agile Architecture,
hSp://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/in-search-of-agile-architecture/240169245
• Minimum Viable Architecture, hSp://www.kavistechnology.com/blog/minimal-viable-architecture/
• A Proven Methodology to Maximize Return on Risk,
hSp://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-product/