minimum viable [audience]

In his latest book, This is Strategy, Seth Godin riffs on the minimum viable product concept from Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup. I like the riff and the deliberate refocus it asks of you. 

A minimum viable product is the cheapest, smallest, fastest version of the thing that can be useful to your people. Instead of spending lots of time and money to make something shiny, you make something that’s a little (or very) shabby. The point isn’t the shine; it’s the shipping. And the point of the shipping is to see what, if anything, your people do with the thing you’ve given them. That’s the information that you’re after. You use that information to shape what ships next. Maybe a whole different shabby thing. Maybe a shinier version of the original shabby thing.

There’s always a risk, though, that you fall a little bit in love with the thing and its features, even when it’s shabby. You lose sight of the customers and community you’re building for. You think your joke is so funny that they should laugh. You build a whole bit around that first joke and forget to tell it, to see if they actually do laugh. Or worse, you tell it, you bomb, and you ignore and explain away the bombing. They should laugh! It is funny!

With the minimum viable audience, your starting point isn’t the thing you’re making. It’s the people you’re making it for. Godin urges you to make something extraordinary for 10 people who share a similar need, something so good that they recommend it to their friends and coworkers without being asked to do that. Just 10. Don’t get wild and crazy chasing after your 1,000 true fans, yet.

-eric