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Cut risk by fixing scope, proving architecture early, automating the boring parts, and measuring what matters. This playbook shows the exact backlog, checklist, and pipeline to ship an MVP in ~6 weeks.Cut risk by fixing scope, proving architecture early, automating the boring parts, and measuring what matters. This playbook shows the exact backlog, checklist, and pipeline to ship an MVP in ~6 weeks.

The MVP Engineering Playbook: Ship a Useful 0→1 in 6 Weeks

Author: Hackernoon

Source: Hackernoon

2025/10/31 14:46

A practical scope, sprint, and CI/CD blueprint any small team can copy.

Why another MVP guide?

Most MVPs fail from scope creep, fragile infrastructure, or slow feedback loops—not from lack of ideas. This guide focuses on a minimal but reliable path to get real users touching a real product quickly, with just enough quality gates to avoid rewrites.

Week 0: Define “done” and remove uncertainty

Problem statement in one sentence
Three primary use cases
One success metric (e.g., first task completion or first payment)
Non‑negotiables: auth, audit logs, basic observability, backups
Nice‑to‑haves explicitly parked

Artifacts: a one‑page PRD and a simple system sketch (client → API → DB → third‑party).

Weeks 1–2: Ship a running skeleton

Repos: monorepo or two (web/mobile + API)
Choose boring, proven stack (e.g., Next.js/React + Node/Laravel + Postgres)
Implement: auth, roles, seed data, feature flags, error tracking, health checks
Deploy to staging by day 3

Quality gates: lint, unit tests for core domains, pre‑commit hooks, CI under 10 minutes.

# .github/workflows/ci.yml (example) name: CI on: [push, pull_request] jobs: build_test: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - uses: actions/setup-node@v4 with: { node-version: '20' } - run: npm ci - run: npm run lint && npm test -- --ci

Weeks 3–4: Deliver thin vertical slices

Ship features as user‑visible slices, not layers.

Slice template

Small spec (Given/When/Then)
API contract + happy‑path test
UI with states: empty, loading, error, success
Telemetry: event feature_used
Docs: 5 lines in CHANGELOG + a short GIF for QA

Weeks 5–6: Stabilize and prove value

Add acceptance tests for the top flows
Load test the slowest endpoint (target p95 < 500 ms)
Backup + restore rehearsal
Observability dashboard: errors, latency, signups, first‑success rate
Release notes → pilot users

The MVP baseline checklist

Authentication with rate limiting and secure password storage
Authorization (least privilege)
Input validation and request size limits
Centralized logging + error alerts
Daily backups + restore tested
Feature flags for risky changes
Basic privacy page + terms; collect minimal PII

Estimation that doesn’t lie

Estimate only the next two weeks. Use t‑shirt sizing for backlog and convert S/M/L to hours after splitting stories. Track only completed story points to set the next sprint’s capacity.

A note on architecture

Prefer simple: a single Postgres, a single API service, a single web app. Add queues or microservices only for real bottlenecks. Complexity taxes you every day.

Example backlog (first 6 weeks)

Sign‑up/sign‑in, email verify, password reset
Org + roles (owner, user)
Core object CRUD + search
Import CSV (happy path)
Event tracking + simple dashboard
Stripe test payments (if relevant)
Admin toggles via feature flags
Docs: getting started + FAQ

What to measure (and why)

Activation: % of signups completing first core task
Latency p95: user‑perceived speed
Error rate: alerts per 1k requests
Retention (week‑over‑week): are users coming back?

Releasing without fear

Every PR passes CI
Staging auto‑deploys on merge; production behind a manual approval and feature flag
Rollback plan = previous container tag + DB migration down steps
Post‑release audit: top errors, time‑to‑fix, next mitigation

Common traps (and exits)

Endless polishing: fix a time box; ship to 5 real users
Framework shopping: pick one you already know
Premature scaling: more instances don’t cure poor queries—profile first
Analytics soup: track 3 events tied to your success metric; nothing more

Resources to copy

OWASP ASVS (baseline security)
Twelve‑Factor App (ops sanity)
GitHub Actions marketplace test/lint actions

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