In the early days of the startup journey, it's tempting to daydream about what a product or service will look like out in the world—how an app will revolutionize an industry or an artificial intelligence (AI) platform will streamline users' lives. But before diving into the technological bells and whistles, it's critical to remember the golden rule of entrepreneurship: You have to create something customers actually want.
A minimum viable product (MVP)—the first, most bare-bones version of a product or service that potential customers can interact with—can help entrepreneurs stay focused on this surprisingly easy-to-overlook goal. Jack McGourty, adjunct professor of business in Columbia Business School's Management Division, notes he frequently sees startup founders developing solutions for the sole sake of solutions.
“The biggest mistake at this stage is not linking MVP features to specific customer behaviors that drive desired outcomes,” says McGourty. “Most MVPs don't need technology to show-case these links.”
What an MVP Is - and Isn't
MVP development requires critical thinking and iterative testing, explains McGourty. Founders should ask pointed questions: What behavior do they hope to influence? What barriers are in the way? What could remove these obstacles?
Answering these questions doesn't always require building out a fully functioning product. “The key word here is minimum, emphasizes Lara Hejtmanek '99, managing director of CBS's Eugene M. Lang Entrepreneurship Center. She notes that an MVP can be as simple as a piece of cardboard with stickers on it to emulate hardware features. It might be a paper mock-up of a website that people can flip through to get a sense of the user experience, or a simple, low- code landing page.
For entrepreneurs at this stage of the startup journey, Hejtmanek recommends resources like the Summer Startup Track, an accelerator program at CBS, as well as McGourty's Launch Your Startup course, which leads students from opportunity identification to launch readiness.
Finding Problem-Solution Fit
In McGourty's course, entrepreneurs learn that product-market fit in the context of an MVP is somewhat of a misnomer. “Market fit encompasses more than just the product—it's the whole business model,” clarifies McGourty. What you're really looking at is problem-solution fit.
Customer discovery interviews, questionnaires, and surveys—a significant number of them— play a key role here. “I can't stress enough how important it is to speak to not just one potential customer, but 50, 100, 300, or more, depending on your idea,” says Hejtmanek.
Beyond surveys and interviews, an MVP's efficacy can be gauged by observing or taking video of users engaging with it, as well as monitoring repeat usage. A Net Promoter Score, a metric used to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty, may also provide valuable intel.
When the data suggest weak problem-solution fit, it's time to revisit assumptions about the links between behaviors and outcomes. Ask, “Am I sufficiently prompting desired actions? Do my product's features leverage behavioral design? How has my understanding of the target customer changed?”
When it's time to finally introduce technology, resources like the Columbia Build Lab can provide a launchpad. The program matches CBS student founders working on technical products with engineers across other Columbia schools. Teams spend around 10 hours per week together building out prototypes and iterating upon their MVPs. Hejtmanek explains this is a win-win for both parties.
“The engineers get to build up their credentials and their resume, and the business school students don't pay a thing for access to world class engineers,” she says.
Putting the Product On For Proof

Carly Bigi '17 launched Laws of Motion in 2019 with a specific pain point in mind: the challenges women of all sizes and shapes face in finding clothes that fit well.
The Laws of Motion team crowdsourced feedback from the CBS community via in-person events and surveys, gleaning Edge into the aesthetic and fit their target audience desired. Bigi took the MVP process a step further by wearing early versions of the brand's first product, the Alpha dress, in various settings - even to her CBS graduation - a form of real-world testing.
The company's sizing tool prototype, the Fit Quiz, offered users enough utility for Bigi to uncover valuable information–namely, that the company's eventual AI would need to factor in a user's unconscious body image distortion.
The time spent developing its MVP paid off handsomely, with a community of more than 10,000 people pre-launch and a significant win: The summer after Bigi graduated, Laws of Motion raised $1 million in funding, including investments from the Lang Fund, pre-seed VCs, and several angels in Bigi's CBS class.