How to make an MVP go viral

Ahead of energy mega conference, ONS, we launched NCS Live, a living, breathing map of the entire energy operation on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Then things went a bit nuts: 10,000 hits in 6 hours and so much input from industry experts that we're now crowd-sourcing how we develop it.

And, while this makes us very excited, there are some BIG lessons for entrepreneurs and innovators everywhere about how to create a successful Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

Lesson 1: Create value immediately 

Dependent on who you are where you are 'MVP' can have very different definitions.

As far as we're concerned, an MVP is the smallest version of your product that can create the most value in the shortest possible time.

Lots of people have started using the phrase 'Minimum Lovable Product', which I think sums this idea up nicely. (FYI: this idea is not to be confused with, or connected to, the vibecoding phenomenon, Lovable.)

Particularly in early days, your users will absolutely not suffer anything that:

• isn't easy to get into - you MUST NOT neglect the onboarding process. We have team members that are specialists in onboarding. That's their thing. Because it's so crucial to engage and retention.
• doesn't give them immediate value. Don't faff about. Don't try to impress them with bells and whistles. People don't have the time and the patience. The customer journey needs to take them the beating heart of your product - your raison d'etre - straightaway. 

Of course, to get this right this, you've got to know your users really well. 

We - and NCS Father Andreas Melvær in particular - have been working in and around the energy industry for some time, so we knew what problems were worth solving. 

In the case of our MVP we focused on:

• Making the areas we focused on really comprehensive: our MVP shows every in-service installation and subsea structure (about 160 surface, 525 seabed), the full pipeline network, live vessel traffic from AIS, offshore helicopter movements, field partners and licence shares, production volumes, seismic survey activity, power-from-shore connections, and bathymetric seabed relief. It’s even got a year slider that replays the shelf building itself from 1971 to today (including showing the value that accrues).
• Helping users tell a story: several people at operators told us this is the clearest tool they have for onboarding new staff and for explaining the shelf to people outside the industry: politicians, journalists, graduates, the public. (The animated fifty-five-year build-out alone is rather better than any slide deck anyone has ever created!)
• Empowering research: using our tool domain experts can look into which surveys have been shot over this field, and when; what is tied back to that platform; who holds the licence and in what shares; which installations run on power from shore rather than gas turbines; what is producing right now, and what it is worth. And every number is labelled with where it came from and how derived figures were derived. This is INCREDIBLY hard to do normally.

Lesson 2: Don't build a monster 

We started small with a minimum viable/lovable product - based on the lesson above - and grew it based on user need.  We also used (documented, reliable) open-source data to drive rapid momentum. 

In short, we worked extremely hard to make the project simple for us to create and simple for users to adopt.

FAR too many entrepreneurs try to build too much, too early, and they drown in their own project. 

If you work with SmplCo we will spend a lot of time challenging you to stay focused. We’ve seen it SO many times: a client has a great idea, but new ideas come to them day and night and that great idea soon turns into a monster. 

Projects like this are doomed.

A start-up recently came to us with an 'MVP' that would take months and months and months to build and cost well into six figures.  We're now talking about something a fraction of the size, cost, and time. And it will give them the momentum, investor interest, and customer engagement they need.  

Small is beautiful.

If you have an idea that has 15 parts, we're going to get you to focus on the best three.  The easiest way to do that is to go through them all and prioritise, leaving out the ones that aren’t new or innovative, or those that won’t influence how it sells in the market. 

There’s a saying: ‘kill your darlings’. We won’t ask you to kill them, but we will ask you to put them aside for now if they’re not core to your idea.

Lesson 3: Don't be afraid to ask your audience for help

So many innovators worry about (or don't bother about) validating their idea with users. 

Some think the idea will get stolen (it hardly ever does). 

Others are so sure of their own genius they're certain of success without asking anyone if they need this. Others worry that people won't engage. 

As our project shows, if you create something of value to users, they will engage and they will help you make it better.

In fact, we’ve had so much community engagement and advice on what to add that the evolution of NCS is basically being crowd-sourced.

One reader, a UK-based engineer, pointed out the map makes visible some of the chokepoints in Britain's energy import infrastructure. (That is a story in itself, and the map is a research tool for it.) We've been contacted by someone from Nigeria asking if we can expand it to West Africa.

The point is, if you've followed the first two lessons above, lesson three should be the easiest of all. 

You'll be fixing a problem you know needs fixing, you'll be doing it in a way that provides instant value, and you'll do it in a way that engages people and makes them want more.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what makes a great MVP and will help ensure you've got a viral hit on your hands.

 If you're trying to figure out what your MVP should be you want a second pair of eyes, book a FREE MVP consultation with the team. We're call happy to help you map it out, without the hype.