Not all parts of a product are equally risky

When teams plan an MVP, they tend to design around the idea — the features they’re excited about, the experience they want to ship, the version they’re aiming for.

That’s natural. But a better starting point is risk.

Some parts of any product idea are well understood. You know how they’ll work. You’ve seen them work elsewhere. You can build them confidently.

Other parts are uncertain. Maybe you’re assuming users will pay a certain price. Maybe you’re assuming a model will be accurate enough. Maybe you’re assuming the audience will care about this specific framing. These assumptions could be wrong. If they are, the whole product changes.

Designing around risk means putting the uncertain parts of the product in front, where they get tested first. ...

Designing around risk, not just ideas