Day 16: Build

[Day 16/30: Product Manager to CEO 30 Day Challenge] YIt's time to start building the product you've been dreaming of. You have a vision, you've done the research, and now it's time to get to work. You'll need to start with a plan—so what should that look like? If you did our previous exercise, your MVP definition and product spec (or PRD) will guide what the product needs to do, features to start building and such.

When you're trying to figure out how to plan development for a product, you want to take into account all the things that will make it easier for you to get the product on the market. Planning development for a product is a big deal. It's a time of change, growth, and learning for everyone involved.

If you're an engineer, or have any experience with writing code - this is for you. If you don't, we'll share resources on how you can get your product developed even without any technical background.

1) Be Agile. Based on your goals for this product, break down the product requirements into engineering tasks. Your tasks, epics or user stories ultimately need to be measured by what kind of impact you want it to have on the world? Have your success criteria top of mind for each feature. This will help keep you motivated throughout the development process.

2) Set milestones along the way so you can stay on track and make sure that progress is being made on schedule. These milestones should be specific enough that they can be easily measured (i.e., "develop first prototype" or "launch beta version"), but general enough that they cover all aspects of the project (i.e., "develop first prototype" doesn't mean just one prototype).

3) Don't push too hard! It can be tempting when things aren't going as planned. Refrain from scope creep - i.e., even though you know you can do so much more with the feature you are developing, the MVP and time to market is key. You can always gather feedback and iteratively evolve the feature. Focus on getting an MVP in the hands of your customers.