Changing the language of MVPs, AI tekkin yer jerb, the last starship

Howdy! Welcome to this week’s Whiteboard Roundup.

This week I went along to the Angel Stories event at Fuel Studios run by Norwich’s startup incubator programme, Akcela.

I particularly enjoyed the moment when one attendee, having given some money to early-stage businesses, realised live at the event that he was, in fact, an angel investor himself!

Having worked with businesses that have achieved various levels of investment, from angel to seed to a larger Series-level, it was enlightening to hear how serial angels decide what companies to invest in. Often, startups forget that investors are people with motivations, passions and personal objectives, so this was a great reminder.

Also, I’ve been looking into moving the newsletter to Beehiiv so keep an eye out for that in the next week or two!

Cheers.

Tom HaczewskiThe User Story

News

Stop MVPs, start building products

Recently I’ve started describing MVPs as ‘the first of your infinite test-and-learn loops’. MVPs have a terrible reputation, because they’re either seen as the first production-ready version of a product and thus take too long to launch, or they’re a bit of thrown-together engine-on-display interface to test a theory with a user.

If you’re a startup, you’re not learning until you’re shipping. So really, we need to stop thinking about MVPs as a milestone and start pushing product out of the door.

I really like Jorge Valencia’s view on this, and although it might not be for everyone, that’s the point. Every product’s journey is different, but the key is to get out of the building.

Have a read.

AI will enhance your job, not take it

I’m honestly still not sure how much of this I agree with. I’m very sceptical of those that believe that AI will not take any jobs - especially seeing as many in the design industry are losing their jobs due to cutbacks, project cancellations and otherwise, and AI is likely to replace some of those roles as it progresses through maturity.

But I am really enjoying reading the various perspectives on it. Here’s a good one from Jas Deogan who argues that currently, it’s frankly not good enough to replace a human. He’s right of course, for now, but that doesn’t matter to businesses that want to cut costs and struggle to see the value in research or design even when it’s done by humans.

See what you think.

Beautiful SpaceX Starship launch

Check out the video on this page of the latest Starship launch. It’s beautiful.

The latest launch demonstrates the world’s most powerful rocket, and the one that will end up getting us to Mars.

I am very excited about space. It might be a company run by a lunatic but it’s still an incredible achievement.

Watch it here.

Thanks for reading.

My wishes are coming true. Finally, the weather is facilitating my need to constantly be on the motorbike.

As you’re here to the end, here’s my thought for the week to leave you on:

See you next time, friends!

Brought to you by Tom Haczewski, director of The User Story. We’re a product strategy, research and UX agency based in Norwich, working with SaaS teams and startups.