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Spotlight
PAGE: https://alison.com/course/building-a-minimum-viable-product-mvp
PROMISE: Learn to translate validated user needs into a structured testable build plan
WHO: Founders and product managers moving from research to build phase
WHYNOW: Prevents building the wrong thing by structuring assumptions before code
DESC: Learn proven skills to plan, build, launch, and scale Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) with Agile and Lean methodologies in this free online Alison course.
BEFORE: User feedback is scattered across notes with no prioritization
BEFORE: Feature decisions rely on internal debates instead of user data
BEFORE: Testing happens too late in the development cycle
AFTER: Pain points are ranked into a clear product opportunity list
AFTER: Personas and journeys guide feature scope and design choices
AFTER: Prototypes allow early assumption testing before full build
GAIN: A structured method to filter user needs into buildable opportunities
GAIN: Detailed personas that clarify who the product is actually for
GAIN: A prototyping workflow that balances fidelity with testing speed
STEP: You have user interviews but no clear map of which pain points to fix first || Analyse customer needs and pain points to identify potential product opportunities || Prioritize specific opportunities and drop features that do not address core frustrations
STEP: Your team builds features without a shared understanding of user context or journey || Create detailed personas and user journeys to understand target audience behaviours, preferences, and frustrations || Design interfaces that align with observed user behaviors rather than assumptions
STEP: You lack a concrete artifact to test assumptions before writing code || Outline both low-fidelity wireframes and high-fidelity interactive prototypes to thoroughly test product assumptions || Validate core workflows with prototypes to reduce development waste and risk
NOTFOR: Developers seeking specific coding frameworks or technical stack advice
NOTFOR: Teams that need deep financial modeling or marketing budget allocation
FACT: Average duration: 1.5-3 Hours
FACT: CPD-accredited certificate available
FACT: Advanced level
COVERS: Define the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and explain its role in Lean startup methodology
COVERS: Analyse customer needs and pain points to identify potential product opportunities
COVERS: Apply the Value Proposition Canvas to articulate and refine core product offerings
COVERS: Evaluate key metrics like Net Promoter Score and Customer Acquisition Cost
COVERS: Plan effective strategies for user acquisition and retention to scale your Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
COVERS: Assess product-market fit to determine whether to pivot or persevere
COVERS: Create detailed personas and user journeys to understand target audience behaviours, preferences, and frustrations
COVERS: Outline both low-fidelity wireframes and high-fidelity interactive prototypes to thoroughly test product assumptions
COVERS: Entrepreneurship
COVERS: Product Management
COVERS: Lean
MODULE: Minimum Viable Products || Introduction to Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) | Planning and Ideation for Your MVP | Building and Launching Your MVP | Beyond the MVP: Scaling and Growth
What you are probably seeing
You list features in your app spec that nobody actually asked for, and your user interviews reveal that their real pain point is a workflow gap, not a missing tool.
Your build scope keeps expanding because you cannot clearly separate the core problem from the extra polish, leaving you stuck in a cycle of building things that do not drive retention.
Why it happens
You are approaching product design from a technical perspective, focusing on what the code can do rather than the specific job the user is hiring the product to do.
Without a clear feedback loop between user observation and structural definition, you cannot validate if a feature solves the root cause or just treats the symptom.
What changed recently
2026-10-07 · what is digital product design
Source | what is digital product design is now outlining the gap for that skill:
• AI automates the work of the traditional product team trio (PM, Design, Dev)
• Remaining UI/UX expertise is the key differentiation value
Source: autocomplete
Step by step
1. Write down the specific problem your user is trying to solve in one sentence, without mentioning any technology or interface elements.
2. Map the current workaround users use to solve that problem and identify where that process breaks down or feels most painful.
3. Define the minimum viable structure that solves the core problem by listing the three essential interactions a user must complete.
4. Remove any feature that does not directly support those three core interactions, treating extra items as future extensions rather than current requirements.
5. Share this one-page structure with five users to confirm if their described pain matches your defined problem before writing any code.
Ways to go further
Start here: Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) For when you want to move from a validated structure to a testable build. Open the free course on Alison ↗
Better fit: Customer Needs in Product Design Engineering For when you want to translate raw user wants into actionable definitions. Open the free course on Alison ↗
Affiliate links: CHEAPUNO may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.
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