Be bacon

The web is littered with misad-ventures, abandoned concepts and MVPs that didn't hit the sweet spot.

The construct of a MVP (minimum viable product) is well understood and well proven. But there's an edge you might be missing. A competitive advantage that's yours to exploit.

Don’t stop at a minimum viable product. Bake in your minimum viable personality.

Without a minimum viable personality, most MVPs are bread. Vanilla. They’re forgettable. They don’t stand for anything. The world is full of stuff like this.

Your MVP can be bread or bacon. Being bacon is a competitive advantage.

A minimum viable personality gives you fighting chance. It's a reason for prospective customers to care and for customers to talk about you and refer others.

Here's how. When you're creating anything, you need to be clear on:

• How do you change your customer’s life?

• What do you stand for?

• Who or what are you against?

In other words: Mission, values, enemy!

Here's an example based on Slack, the workplace collaboration tool. I don't like Slack one bit; it's banned at my company. I hate synchronous communication tools like Slack and instant messaging – they interrupt the flow of deep, real work. Generally I don't think Slack, instant messaging, or anything else that dings and interrupts your day is a good software choice.

When it launched, I didn’t think Slack was very different to competitors and I didn't like it. But Slack did a masterful job of branding and positioning to look and feel like something new, and it got traction. I admired the story Slack told and it helped enormously with customer acquisition. Customers weren't just buying a tool, they were buying into a bigger mission of organisational transformation. They were part of a movement.

Here's how I'd describe Slack's minimum viable personality:

• How do you change your customer’s life? By transforming their organisation.

• What do you stand for? Better teams, stronger culture, faster work.

• Who or what are you against? Email, meetings and indecision.

Being bacon helps to find the blue ocean – the clear market space where there are less competitors. It gives prospects more reasons to care and customers more reasons to talk about you. It stokes virality and drives referral. Sometimes, it's the difference between a hit and a miss.

From a product and user experience perspective, it also provides a meaningful starting point for your north star; the guiding principles to shape your product around and steer your mission.

Be bacon.