Opinions, teardowns,
and build notes.
How we think about the way MVPs get scoped and built, written by product managers who do it for a living. Arguments, not instructions. If you want step by step help, the guides are the other door.
The question every founder opens with.
How much does an MVP cost in 2026? Real numbers.
What founders actually pay a dev shop, a freelancer, a no-code agency, and an AI studio for a first version, and why the cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest outcome.
Read the postLatest
Newest first. Opinion pieces, product teardowns, and notes from real builds.
How much does an MVP cost in 2026? Real numbers.
Market rates for every route to a first version, and where the money quietly goes.
Why no-code did not remove the need for product thinking
Cheaper building made bad builds faster, not rarer. The bottleneck moved, it did not disappear.
What most MVP studios get wrong about scoping
Taking the brief at face value is the most expensive habit in this industry.
Teardown: the fourteen feature brief that should have been five
A walk through a real scoping exercise, and the reasoning behind every cut.
The features founders always ask for, and almost never need in v1
Referral programmes, admin dashboards, dark mode, and other things that can wait.
Notes from a two week build
What actually happened day by day, including the parts that did not go to plan.
More posts are being written. Published ones are linked.
Blog or guides, depending on what you need.
The blog
Opinions, teardowns, and notes from real builds. Dated, specific, and argumentative. Read this to see how we think about scoping decisions.
The guides
Evergreen explainers on writing a PRD, defining an ICP, cutting a feature list, and everything else version one demands. Read those to actually do the work.
Browse the guidesNot sure what to cut from your own idea?
That is the first week of every Firstspec engagement. Book a free call and we will tell you honestly what version one should be, and what can wait.
Get a free consultationReading about it is cheaper than building it wrong.
Two weeks from now you could have a live product, scoped properly. Book a free call and find out if your idea is ready.
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