Ability to pivot and agility is what separates the losers from the winners. In evolution, it is not the strongest that survives, it is the one that can adapt to changes. Building an MVP is being agile.
I was leading engineering at a finance company that offered ways to invest in an ESG fund that the company managed. The product had no traction. We had 6 months of runway left in the bank and no investor would even touch us with near 0 growth. This was when Wells Fargo scandal hit and people were angry at their banks. We pivoted to online banking and released a banking app in 4 months. 10x our customer base and raised $40m in under a year. If we kept just building out the investment product, we would have failed.
I was leading engineering at a finance company that offered ways to invest in an ESG fund that the company managed. The product had no traction. We had 6 months of runway left in the bank and no investor would even touch us with near 0 growth. This was when Wells Fargo scandal hit and people were angry at their banks. We pivoted to online banking and released a banking app in 4 months. 10x our customer base and raised $40m in under a year. If we kept just building out the investment product, we would have failed.