When I meet founders who are just launching their MVP often a common point of discussion comes up. How did you know what core features should be in your MVP and what to prioritize?
So here are a few of my thoughts when we launched Buildpeer…
Taking the idea for Buildpeer from concept to MVP was all about solving a clear problem:
Improving communication in the construction industry.
First, I started by mapping out inefficiencies I saw firsthand on job sites—at Build Group, I was switching between various tools like Dropbox, Asana, drive, Whatsapp, and many more, which weren’t built for construction workflows.
The key for us was focusing on simplicity.
Instead of tackling every problem, we zeroed in on communication—streamlining RFIs, drawings, inspections, and daily reports. We knew that to truly solve this issue, we needed both web and mobile versions from day one.
Building both a web and mobile version from the start was essential (Yes, I know this might sound counterintuitive). If simplicity was our guiding principle, what could be simpler than being on-site and having the flexibility to draft an RFI on your phone and easily share it with your teammates? It’s a game-changer to access your project's information anytime, anywhere.
Employees on the job site are the ones entering real-time data and the teams in the office need that data to keep projects running smoothly and to make key decisions. Without both, communication would still be broken.
After our initial launch, how did we know which product features to build next?
Customer feedback played a crucial role in shaping our MVP.
While I had experience in the construction industry and understood some of its pain points, I knew that building something truly valuable required input from the people who live it every day. From day one, we made it a priority to talk with general contractors, subcontractors, developers, and architects to get a clearer picture of their daily challenges.
To this day, a majority of the features we prioritized at Buildpeer come directly from feedback and insights gathered directly from our current customers.
