MVP brief template
Validation plan
Test whether people want your product before you pay to build it: the problem, the alternatives, your riskiest assumptions, the experiments, the pass marks and the decision they lead to.
About this template
A validation plan is for the stage before the build. It sets out what must be true for the idea to work, ranks those assumptions by risk, and lists the cheapest tests that would prove or disprove each one: interviews, a landing page, a clickable prototype, pre-orders, or a concierge version where you deliver the result by hand.
It covers seven sections: the summary, the problem, the value proposition, the alternatives, the validation plan, success metrics and the roadmap. The point of writing it down is to decide in advance what result counts as a pass. Without that, it is easy to read any result as good news.
Who it is for
- Founders with an idea and no product yet.
- Anyone about to spend serious money on a build.
- Co-founders who disagree about what users want.
- Founders preparing for an accelerator or grant interview.
- Teams testing a new product inside an existing business.
What the reader checks
Write with these in mind: they decide whether your brief gets a careful read and an accurate answer.
- The riskiest assumption, stated plainly.
- Experiments that test behaviour, not opinions.
- A pass mark for each experiment, set before it runs.
- Where the first users will come from.
- A date for each test.
- What you will do with each result: build, change or stop.
The sections, in order
The builder sets these out for you, each with hints and an example answer.
MVP summary
The idea in two sentences and the single belief you must test first.
Problem and users
Who has the problem and how they cope today. This is what your interviews will explore.
Value proposition
The promise you will test, including the price.
Competitors and alternatives
The alternatives, including doing nothing. Your tests should show why users would switch.
Validation plan
The experiments table, riskiest first, each with a pass mark and a date.
Success metrics
The numbers that would make you build: sign-ups, pre-orders, repeat use of the concierge version.
Roadmap
Each test with a date, then the decision point.
Mistakes to avoid
- Asking people whether they like the idea instead of how they handle the problem today.
- Testing the easy assumptions and leaving the risky ones for later.
- Setting the pass mark after seeing the result.
- Only asking friends and family.
- Running tests with no decision attached to them.
Worked examples
Complete briefs for fictional products, with realistic numbers. Open one in the builder and make it yours.
Questions about this template
How many interviews do I need?
There is no magic number. Keep going until you stop hearing new things about the problem, which often happens somewhere between ten and twenty conversations with the right people. Quality matters more than count.
What is a concierge MVP?
You deliver the product’s result by hand to a few users, without software. If people will not use or pay for the result when it is delivered by hand, an app is unlikely to change that.
Can a landing page validate demand?
It can show interest, especially if visitors give an email address or pay a deposit. It cannot show that people will keep using the product, so treat it as one test among several.
Write your validation plan
Choose this brief type on the builder’s first step. Your answers save as you type, and your budget and runway are worked out for you.