What the first version of your product must have, and what can wait

The core of the product

The one thing the customer pays for. A report, a match, a booking, a document, access to a tool. Designed and built from scratch, because it is the only part you cannot buy ready-made.

The core has to work end to end in one scenario. If the product generates a report, the report has to generate, display and download. If it connects two sides of a market, both have to be able to find each other and talk. Without the core, the rest of the list is pointless.

Accounts and access

Sign-up, login, password reset. If the product sells to companies, also team invitations and roles: who sees everything, who sees only their own. Login with Google or a company account is added when customers ask for it.

An account is not always needed before purchase. A one-off product can take payment without registration and create the account afterwards, so the customer has access to what they bought.

Payments and invoicing

One-off, packages or subscription. A payment provider the customer sees: Stripe, Przelewy24 or Paynow, depending on where you sell and how you want to settle. The customer pays by card, bank transfer or a local method and gets what they bought straight away.

The invoice is issued automatically after payment and emailed to the customer. Without that, after the first hundred customers someone spends evenings on invoices.

Admin panel

The screen where you run the product without a developer. A list of users and orders, a view of what a customer bought, a refund, blocking an account, changing content and prices. If the product has user-generated content, moderation too.

The panel is what separates a product from a prototype. Without it, every small customer issue becomes a message to the developer.

Emails the product sends on its own

Account confirmation, payment confirmation, the invoice, password reset, a notice that what was ordered is ready. Short and from your domain. Newsletters and campaigns can wait.

A sales page and the basics for search engines

The page a customer lands on from an ad or from Google: what they get, what it costs, a button to buy. Plus page titles and descriptions for search engines, and tracking of how many people went from arriving to paying. Without that you do not know whether the product sells or merely gets visits.

Terms, privacy policy, consents

Terms of sale, a privacy policy, consents where the law requires them, and a cookie notice if there is tracking. A lawyer or proven templates supply the text. I place it in the product so the customer has to accept it at the right moment.

What can wait

• An app in the stores. A product in the browser works on phones from day one. The stores come when customers ask for push notifications or offline use.
• Several languages. One language at the start. Each additional one means translating every screen, email and document, which makes sense only once you know customers from another country are coming.
• A referral programme and discount codes. They work when there is someone to refer. They are added after the first customers.
• Detailed statistics. At the start, visits, purchases and revenue are enough. Charts by customer group come when there are groups.
• Integrations “just in case”. A connection to accounting, a customer database (CRM) or an email tool is added when there is data worth moving between programs, not before.

Checklist before the start of sales

1. A customer goes all the way from the sales page to the thing they bought without a person helping.
2. Payment works for cards and transfers, and the invoice arrives on its own.
3. You can refund, block an account and change a price in the panel.
4. Terms and the privacy policy are wired in, consents work.
5. You know how many people arrived, how many bought and how much money that made.

If any item fails, the product is not ready to sell, however many other features it has. How to build a first version step by step is on the main page of the guide, and what drives the cost is on the page how much a first version costs.

Describe in the form below what your product should do and what the customer pays for. I will get back to you with a list of what would have to be in the first version.