What to cut from an MVP—and what to keep

Write the learning question first

Name one user group, the task it needs to complete, and the uncertainty you want to reduce. For example: “Can a dispatcher assign an incoming request and see whether it was completed?” This is a hypothetical planning example, not an Arttechz client project.

Decide what you will observe during a pilot and who will decide what happens next. Feature completion alone does not tell you whether the problem matters to users.

Candidates to defer

• Extra user groups that do not participate in the core task.
• Multiple integrations when a clearly owned manual step can support a limited pilot.
• Advanced dashboards before you know which decisions operators need to make.
• Cosmetic personalization and convenience features that do not affect the learning question.
• Automating rare exceptions before you understand them, provided a safe manual process exists.

For each deferral, write down who performs the temporary step, how often, and the condition that would justify building it.

Keep the journey complete

A smaller release still needs a clear start, completion state, and failure path. Keep the permissions, data handling, review steps, and operator visibility required for the planned use. Do not remove an essential safeguard simply because it does not appear in a sales demo.

If the question is only about understanding an interface, discuss whether a prototype can answer it before building a live service.

A simple scope decision log

• Feature or task: what exactly is proposed?
• User and assumption: how does it support the question being tested?
• Decision: include, defer, or investigate.
• Consequence: what happens without it, and who handles that?
• Revisit trigger: which observation would change the decision?

Apply the log to the fictional delivery example: basic assignment and status may support a narrow pilot; more elaborate reporting may wait. The correct cut depends on the actual operational constraints.

Connect scope to release planning

Use the cost planning guide to expose dependencies and the handover checklist to prepare for operating the result. Discuss the first useful version through MVP development with Arttechz.