Software Development Priorities
In the early stages of a software company, as I mentioned in the Founder’s Priorities guide, the goal is to fail fast and fail forward.
In business, there is a choice between speed, quality, and price.
Startups have to move fast, especially early on, and there isn’t an unlimited budget. So naturally, quality is going to suffer.
In the beginning, since the company’s priority is speed and cost effectiveness, as a developer, you have to make decisions on how to deliver the product to users in a way that works well enough to solve their problem and get accurate feedback for the stage of development you’re in.
There are 3 main stages of product development.
- .Stage 1: Prototyping
- .Stage 2: MVP
- .Stage 3: Product-Market Fit
I’ll be going through each of these stages to provide helpful tips for both non-technical founders and developers to keep in mind.
Initially, you’re building for short term effectiveness rather than long-term scaleability and quality which is most evident in Stage 1: Prototyping.
Stage 1: Build a Prototype in Days, not Weeks
Your goal in this stage is to build a demo to put in front of users as fast as possible.
What this looks like:
- Clickable prototype in Figma
- A combination of low-code tools or AI that can help to build a prototype in a day
For my software, I built a basic front-end in Webflow, connecting the Webflow CMS to Notion with Whalesync to use Notion as a backend. It took me 2 days and was enough to not only demo but be used and paid for by my first customer.
Common Mistakes
- Overbuilding before showing users
- Thinking you need an MVP before getting feedback
- Refusing to let go of ideas users clearly don’t want
Speed beats polish.
Your only job is to create something good enough to start conversations.
Stage 2: MVP — Build Just Enough to Launch
After the prototype has validated interest from potential customers, it’s time to build something users can actually use.
What this looks like:
- Building a minimally viable product in weeks, not months.
- Get your first real commitments (ideally paid)
For my first product, it took me about 8 weeks to finish the MVP. It was my first time building front-end and back-end functionality, so progress was slow, but I wanted to learn.
With my development skills today, I’d be able to finish it in a week and with greater quality. This is why having an experienced developer is so important.
After it was complete, I transitioned Aebly Studio over from using the prototype to using the MVP and had a paying user day 1.
What to Prioritize in MVP Development
- .Do things that don’t scale
- Manually onboard users
- Process requests by hand
- .Create a 90/10 solution
- Focus on what matters now, not what will matter at scale
- Cut scope aggressively: limit by user type or feature set.
- .Choose tech for iteration speed
- Use what you’re productive in, not what’s cool
- Rely on third party tools (Stripe, Firebase, Webflow, etc)
Stage 3: Launch — Iterate towards Product-Market Fit
Now that the MVP is live, the real work begins.
What this looks like:
- Use data and feedback to discover what people really want
- Find the core experiences that keep users coming back
Prioritize Insights: Combine qualitative and quantitative data
- Set up basic analytics with Google Analytics or PostHog
- Talk to users often
- Ask: Why are people staying? Why are others churching?
Prioritize Launching
- Continue to follow the mantra fail fast fail forward and keep building new features and listening to feedback
- Build to learn not to make things perfect, each launch teaches you what matters
Learn to Balance Fixing and Building
- Technical debt is okay at this stage
- Don’t over-prioritize bugs that don’t block usage
Final Takeaway
Startups move quickly. Your job as a developer is to match that speed with small shortcuts, user empathy, and relentless iteration.
This wraps up our third guide following the prioritization manifesto. Our hope is that now you have a better understanding of how to properly think through what to prioritize in the early stages of building a software.