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Build an MVP

Get a real product in front of real users, on foundations worth keeping

You have a validated idea and a deadline, and you need something users can actually use.

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What we deliver

  • Deployed application on your infrastructure and domain
  • Authentication, roles and core data model
  • Complete primary user journey with real states, not happy path only
  • Analytics and error monitoring instrumentation
  • CI/CD pipeline with preview environments
  • Written scope-deferral list for the next phase

Common challenges

What tends to go wrong

These are the failure patterns we see most often in this situation — and what our approach is designed to avoid.

  • Scope keeps expanding

    Every conversation adds a feature. Without a forcing function, the first release drifts a quarter at a time and learns nothing in the meantime.

  • Throwaway code becomes permanent

    A prototype built to be replaced almost never is. When it works, it goes to customers, and its shortcuts become your platform.

  • No signal after launch

    Shipping without analytics or feedback capture means the next decision is made on opinion rather than evidence.

  • Technical decisions made by default

    Choices about auth, data and hosting get made implicitly under time pressure, and quietly set a ceiling on what comes next.

Recommended approach

How we would run it

  • Cut to one journey

    We identify the single path that proves the core value and build that end to end. Everything else is written down and consciously deferred — you get a list of what was cut and why.

  • Production standards from day one

    Real authentication, sensible data handling, automated deployment and error monitoring. These cost little at the start and are expensive to retrofit.

  • Instrument the learning

    Product analytics, session feedback and a defined success metric are part of the release, so the next iteration has evidence behind it.

  • Weekly working software

    You get an environment you can open every week. Direction changes are cheap when they happen early, and impossible to make cheaply when they happen late.

Deliverables

What you receive

  • Deployed application on your infrastructure and domain
  • Authentication, roles and core data model
  • Complete primary user journey with real states, not happy path only
  • Analytics and error monitoring instrumentation
  • CI/CD pipeline with preview environments
  • Written scope-deferral list for the next phase
  • Architecture notes and handover session

A deliberately small production stack

The MVP stack is chosen for speed now and headroom later: managed services where undifferentiated, your own code where the product lives.

  1. Web appNext.js on managed hosting, server-rendered
  2. API layerTyped server actions or REST endpoints
  3. DatabaseManaged PostgreSQL with migrations in code
  4. AuthManaged identity provider with roles
  5. Files and emailObject storage plus transactional email
  6. TelemetryProduct analytics and error monitoring

Delivery roadmap

The sequence of work

  1. Week 0 — Definition

    Journey mapping, scope cut, success metric and architecture decisions agreed in writing.

  2. Weeks 1–2 — Foundation

    Repository, environments, pipeline, authentication, data model and base interface.

  3. Weeks 3–6 — Core build

    The primary journey built in weekly increments, reviewed live with you each week.

  4. Week 7 — Hardening

    Edge cases, error states, accessibility pass, performance check and security review.

  5. Week 8 — Launch

    Production release, monitoring verified, feedback loop live, handover completed.

Indicative timeline

Roughly how long this takes

Indicative only. Timings assume reasonable availability for decisions and access to the systems involved — we confirm a specific plan after discovery.

Indicative timeline for Build an MVP, with a note on what affects each phase
PhaseIndicative durationWhat affects it
DefinitionAbout 1 weekDepends on how settled the product direction already is
BuildTypically 6–8 weeksVaries with integration count and journey complexity
Launch and stabiliseAbout 2 weeksIncludes a monitored early-user period

Engagement model

How this work is usually structured

Fixed-scope project, or a company-managed delivery pod for teams expecting to continue straight into a second phase.

Compare engagement models

Related

Where to go next

Questions

Build an MVP — questions we are asked

That is exactly what we design against. The MVP is narrow in scope but production-grade in construction, so growth means adding to it rather than replacing it. We are explicit during definition about which shortcuts are safe and which are not.

Other situations

Build an MVP

Book a consultation

Thirty minutes with an engineer who has done this before. You leave with an approach, whether or not you engage us.

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