MVP development for companies in Germany

What an MVP is for your company

An MVP, a minimum viable product, is the first version of a product that real users can use for one job. It shows whether they use it, which a concept or a survey cannot show.

For a smaller company the risk of a new product lies in the money and the time spent before the first user arrives. An MVP spends them on the one job that matters and puts the rest on a list for later. The list is part of the result: it records what the company decided to leave out, and why.

How I take an idea to a first version

I start with the job the user wants done and write the concept around it, with the screens and the data model. At the Frankfurt-based company Blocksize Capital I wrote the concept of a real-time market data product in summer 2022, coordinated the development, infrastructure, product and sales teams and led the rollout. I onboarded its first institutional customers myself. Details: Real-time market data for digital assets.

Today I build with AI coding agents. I help a client break up a monolithic platform with Claude and Codex, and the work has produced more than 300 RESTful API endpoints. The agents work under rules that bind the human developers too, so a team can take over the code without first learning my habits.

After the launch I look at what users do. For the shops of Lidl and REWE I programmed order funnels and ran their conversion optimization. I measure an MVP the same way, step by step along its main job, so you see where users stop.

Launch checklist for an MVP in Germany

What a first version needs on the day real users arrive. Bring the list to our call, and we mark what applies to your product.

1. One job that a user can finish from start to end.
2. A sign-in only where the job needs one.
3. An imprint and a privacy notice. German law requires both for a commercial website.
4. Consent before tracking, where your data protection officer requires it.
5. Measurement of each step of the main job.
6. A way for users to send feedback from inside the product.
7. Backups of the data, with one restore tested before the launch.
8. Error messages that reach a person on your side.
9. A written list of what was left out, with the reason for each item.

Who I am

I am Michael Wutzke, and I have worked in IT and media for more than twenty years, as an employee and as a consultant. I trained in mechanical engineering and build digital machines today: applications that people use for their work. I hold the Professional Scrum Master I certificate. Details: Managing projects.