Defining a Minimum Viable Team

If you have ever spent any amount of time hanging around Start-Up circles, or otherwise have held an interest early-stage business development, then you will be familiar with the term 'Minimum Viable Product' (or MVP, as it were).

The precise meaning of this term varies so for the sake of both simplicity and clarity let us consider MVP to refer to a product that has reached that stage in its development where it both offers value to customers as well as generates returns sufficient to ensure its continued development.

Some problems are more complex than others and the process of developing a product to successfully and profitably tend to such problems can vary significantly in terms of the skill sets and resources required. The importance of functioning within a good team increases dramatically as this complexity level increases as there is an ever greater chance that these shall exceed that which an individual is able to provide alone.

And yet, how much 'Team' is required to achieve the goals concerned? In other words, what is the 'Minimum Viable Team' (or MVT) for a particular venture?

In truth the answer to this question is trickier. Not only does one need to determine the full skill set required to produce the aforementioned MVP, but one would initially find it more difficult to scale with the development of the business. The increment of development would be greater and may feature a situation of inertia such that a significant acceleration would need to be noted so as to justify the any sudden bump-up in potential and costs.

In delving into the question of what the anatomy of an organization involves, the following structure was reached.

Granted, the structure is more representative of the way in which I perceive such as is could be than it is representative of that which actually is. I am also aware that this structure shall hold more true to some and less to others. Let us take this to be a generic illustration.

For the sake of both simplicity and clarity one may take a leaf from the MVP's definition stated earlier so as to propose the following definition for a 'Minimum Viable Team': That such refers to a team for which the members (qualitatively and quantitatively) contribute sufficient value to all relevant aspects of a project such as to make its progression and further development viable.

In the context of a StartUp it is typically an unviable proposition to dedicate individuals for each of areas within the illustration. However it is arguably crucial to cover the three central roles, and that these central roles shall to some degree dabble within their respective periphery areas of expertise.

Especially at the tender Startup phases 'The Value of Teaming up' should be more evident, regardless of the type of player one is. Conversely organizations that have achieved a greater scale should recognize the importance of not losing sight of the 'Vision & Mission' of their endeavor.

This is to be considered a work in progress and I do welcome any proposed improvements upon the illustration model, as well as other feedback.

(Images edits courtesy of commons.wikipedia.org)