During my exchange year in Milan, I took a marketing course taught by the brilliant Antonio Ghezzi. One day, we were discussing company strategy optimization using the BCG matrix, and he said something that has stuck in my mind ever since. He said, "Cut the crap." It was the most accurate description of what needs to be done when it comes to any kind of optimization. Since then, it has become my golden rule in product management.

When launching a new product, it often happens that you have a bunch of ideas. Let's take an example. You are developing an app prototype. Let's say it is tinder for cows (I hope you have already read Part 1 and do not think this is a great idea because this app already exists).

What does a typical dating app have? Actually, if you look at today's messengers, they have a whole bunch of features. For example, you can send images, share location, edit messages post-factum, create groups, set custom profile pics for users, or send self-destructible messages. I can name 50 more. Let's imagine you actually want to implement all these features. I would challenge you with one simple question:

- Do you really think that location sharing is a MUST-have feature for your target audience?

This is the point where entrepreneurs usually start having their first doubts. Because unless you have infinite resources, which most of us don't, you gotta set priorities. This is when you start thinking about what's really important and what can be dropped for the time being. This is your enlightenment moment. This is the moment when you realise that not every one of your product's features is vital for its future success. And this is the time for you to take a very sharp imaginary knife and start cutting pieces off your product to create an MVP. As Wikipedia suggests

In my method I suggest that in order to arrive at an MVP, teams should imagine pushing the initial requirements list through 2 filters: UVP and MVP.

I can't count how many times I have asked the same question to early stage startups: what is the unique value proposition of your product? What makes your product special compared to your competition? Why should I choose you over them? Why Tide and not Ariel? Why Pepsi and not Cola? Why Camaro and not Mustang?

A unique value proposition is a set of requirements designed to persuade potential customers that your product or service provides greater value or more effectively solves a problem than those offered by your competitors. It must be

• simple
• concise
• specific

The sad truth is that most startups do not know what their UVP is. And if you do not, then you have no idea what you are doing or why. Do not venture beyond this step until you find your UVP.

These three words may already sound painful to perfectionists, and I can confirm - yes, my dear entrepreneur, it is going to be very painful. You have to once again take your sharp scissors and trim the UVP tree that consists of all those brilliant features you previously carefully selected. You need to do this branch by branch because uniqueness does not guarantee minimalism. Continue until you can safely assume that

• you are able to test the product using minimal resources used
• you can ship it to early customers ASAP and it will still be the same product

If you have not followed these two rules, you are merely wasting your company's resources and are on a slippery slope toward burnout, resulting from the constant postponement of the launch date.

Now that you have moved beyond the stage of generating various ideas and determining which ones possess the greatest potential, you are prepared to make the next sacrifice: TIME. Each product you create could have an unlimited number of features, leading to a continuously expanding list that will only grow over time. This is when you must learn to be rational and select only the most essential features for your minimum viable product (MVP). If you do not, you will find yourself in one of two predicaments:

• Never launching your product due to an excessively large scope
• Spending more money than necessary to achieve the same outcome

Therefore, it is crucial to recognise that you cannot do everything simultaneously and should concentrate on the requirements that make your product unique and do not require an extensive amount of time to deliver. Below, you will find a summary of the most popular prioritisation techniques that have been proven effective over the years by thousands of successful product launches.

The MoSCoW pattern is the simplest yet most efficient technique to sort your ideas by priority and convert them into an MVP. In fact, its application goes well beyond project and product management. I personally use it on a daily basis to sort mundane tasks in private life. If you are creating your first product, I highly recommend starting with this method before getting into more complicated ones.

The idea is simple as a smile - each requirement in your list gets labelled as MUST, SHOULD, COULD and WON'T. I hope it is needless to explain what they stand for. The rule of thumb is to mark your MVP-scope with MUSTs and postpone the rest.

You can read more about it here.

If you are already familiar with the MoSCoW pattern, you already know that one of its biggest downsides arises when the option (opinion?) of multiple stakeholders needs to be taken into consideration. The 100 dollars (or points) method is perfect for such circumstances.

All stakeholders get a virtual 100 dollars, which they can bet on any requirement they like. They can choose to give all 100 points to a single requirement or distribute the points according to their own preferences and common sense. The higher the amount allocated to each requirement, the higher its priority. Eventually, the total is counted and the requirements are sorted based on the number of points received.

More details here.

Asking why 5 times is a simple and powerful technique to use when it comes to problem solving and prioritisation. Unlike the previous 2, it will help unveil the fundamental basis for each requirement (or root cause to a problem) before taking the decision . You simply ask the question "why" up to five times.

- Why do users need to send voice messages?
- Because they cannot type.
- Why can't they type?
- Because they are on the go.
- Why are they using our app on the go?
- Because it's urgent.
- Why do they need to send a message urgently? It's a tinder to match cows.
- You are right, there aren't many urgent situations.

As you see it may take just 4 questions to kick a requirement out of the priority list. The important thing is that you use the Why question to peel away the layers that envelop any problem. When repeated, the question prompts us to think about the problem more deeply. More details here.

This diagram is simple and easy way to find the shortest path to your MVP. All you need to do is draw a big plus sign on your white board and mark the axes with Value and Cost.

Value demonstrates which business and economical outcome the feature can generate for your product. Cost measures the resources needed to complete the task. These resources may include finances or human capital but are not limited to them.

You can find a good guide on this technique here.