MVP Management for Pre-seed Legal Tech
Mikayla Stewart
Product Management - MVP Development January - June 2023
Company Context: A pre-seed startup developing an AI-powered contract analysis tool, working with a lean offshore development team. As the sole Product Manager, needed to guide the development of initial MVP while validating core assumptions with minimal resources.
Challenge Needed to build and launch initial MVP while:
Managing offshore team across time zones
Maintaining clear communication despite language barriers
Leveraging new AI technologies effectively
Validating product assumptions quickly
Operating with limited budget
Meeting aggressive timeline goals
Key Initiatives
User Research & Journey Mapping
Conducted comprehensive user research:
Survey Monkey for quantitative insights
Google Forms for feature prioritization
Google Meet customer interviews
Miro board journey mapping sessions
Used Claude to analyze interview transcripts and identify patterns
Product Development Process
Established workflow in Shortcut:
User story creation and tracking
Sprint planning and management
Bug tracking and prioritization
Feature release planning
Daily async updates via Slack
AI Implementation & Integration
Collaborative AI development:
Used Claude for initial prompt engineering
Iterative testing with development team
Regular performance monitoring
Feedback loop implementation
Created evaluation metrics for AI accuracy
Results Quantitative Improvements
Delivered MVP within 4 months
Achieved 85% accuracy in contract analysis
Maintained 90% sprint completion rate
Secured first 5 beta customers
Qualitative Outcomes
Successfully validated core product hypothesis
Built foundation for scalable AI implementation
Established efficient remote collaboration
Created repeatable development process
Key Learnings
AI Collaboration: Using Claude for both product planning and development accelerated timeline
Visual Documentation: Miro boards significantly improved team alignment on user journeys
Tool Integration: Shortcut-Slack integration streamlined development communications
Research Methods: Mix of surveys and video calls provided comprehensive user insights
Tools & Technologies
Slack: Primary team communication
Shortcut: Project and sprint management
Miro: User journey mapping
Survey Monkey & Google Forms: User research
Google Meet: Customer interviews
Claude & OpenAI: AI development
GitHub: Code repository
This lean approach enabled rapid MVP development and market validation while maintaining low burn rate and team efficiency.
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Posted Dec 8, 2024
By aligning the goals of software and business teams, Mikayla facilitated seamless communication which led to a 30% increase in project delivery speed.
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