MVP Feature Prioritisation: What to Cut Before You Build
The most expensive mistake founders make is building too much. Feature bloat is the number-one reason MVPs run over time, over budget, and over scope — and it is entirely preventable with the right prioritisation framework before a single screen is built.
The Feature Bloat Problem That Kills MVP Timelines
MVP feature prioritisation is the process of deciding, before development begins, which features are essential to validate the core hypothesis of your product and which can be deferred to post-launch iterations. A well-prioritised MVP contains the minimum set of features required to deliver value to the first user and generate meaningful feedback — typically 30-50% fewer features than founders initially plan. The goal is not to build the smallest possible product but to build the smallest product that can answer the question: do real users want this enough to pay for it?
Every founder has a vision for their product. The MVP is not the vision — it is the fastest, cheapest test of whether the vision is grounded in reality. The discipline of feature prioritisation forces the question: which single problem, solved well, would make someone pay for this today? Every feature that cannot be traced back to that question is a candidate for the cut list.
How to Classify Every Feature Before Development Starts
SA uses the MoSCoW framework in every Discovery Sprint to force a clear classification of every feature the founder has in mind: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won’t Have (for this version). The Must Have list is completed last — after Should Have and Could Have have been populated — which prevents the natural tendency to classify everything as essential.
| Classification | Definition | What Happens to It | Typical % of Ideas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Must Have | Without this, the MVP cannot deliver core value to any user | Built in Version 1 | 20-30% |
| Should Have | Significantly improves product but MVP can function without it | Version 1.1 or 1.2 | 25-35% |
| Could Have | Nice to have; adds polish or secondary value | Version 2 or later | 20-30% |
| Won’t Have | Out of scope for now — explicitly deferred | Backlog; revisited post-PMF | 15-25% |
The single most useful test for any feature in the Must Have column: If this feature is not in the MVP, is there any scenario in which a real user would still pay for the product? If the answer is yes, the feature is not a Must Have. On average, 40-60% of initial Must Have items move to Should Have or Could Have after this test is applied.
🔗 Related reading on sasolutionspk.com
How to Build an MVP Without Coding: The Smartest Path for Founders
SA’s complete guide to no-code MVP development — the build process that starts after feature prioritisation is complete.
What SA Asks in Every Feature Prioritisation Session
Does this feature directly address the core user problem?
The MVP exists to solve one problem for one user type. Every feature should be traceable back to that problem. If you cannot explain how this feature makes the core problem easier, cheaper, or more reliably solved for the target user, it is not a Must Have for Version 1.
Would a user abandon the product without this feature?
There is a difference between a feature that makes the product better and one that makes it usable. Must Have features belong to the second category. If a user completed the core workflow and this feature was missing, would they churn immediately, or accept it as a known limitation of an early product?
Can you simulate this manually for the first 10-50 users?
Many features that feel essential can be faked manually at low user volumes: an admin manually assigns a match that an algorithm would eventually handle; a spreadsheet tracks the analytics a dashboard would eventually display. If you can fake it manually, the feature does not need to be built to validate the hypothesis.
Does this feature require another feature to be built first?
Features that create dependencies extend the build timeline disproportionately. Mapping dependency chains often reveals that a seemingly small feature addition has a tail of 3-4 dependent features behind it — which is typically enough to move it out of Version 1.
Is this feature for users or for your comfort?
A significant proportion of ‘essential’ features are essential to the founder’s peace of mind, not to the user’s ability to extract value. Analytics dashboards, admin panels with extensive filtering, and custom export modules are common examples — valuable eventually, but not what makes the first 10 users decide to pay.
What SA Typically Removes From MVP Scope
Analytics dashboards
Founders want to see data. Early users need to get value. Build the core product first; instrument analytics once users are generating data worth analysing. Version 1 analytics can be Google Analytics plus a simple admin view.
Team and multi-user features
Most B2B MVPs start with one user per account. Multi-user access, role permissions, and team management add significant build complexity. Validate single-user value first; add team features once paying customers ask for them.
Extensive onboarding flows
A 7-step interactive onboarding tour is a Version 2 investment. For the first 50 users, a founder call or a 3-email onboarding sequence achieves the same result with zero build cost and direct user feedback.
Native mobile app
Unless mobile is the core product experience, a responsive web app built in Bubble.io serves the MVP validation purpose at a fraction of the cost and timeline of a native mobile build.
Integrations with every tool
One core integration (typically Stripe for payments plus one CRM or email tool) is sufficient for an MVP. Additional integrations belong in the roadmap after the core product is validated.
Custom reporting and exports
CSV export and custom report generation add build time and testing complexity. Early users care about the outcome the product delivers, not the ability to export data from it.
Q: How many features should an MVP have?
SA’s rule of thumb is 3-5 core user flows, each requiring 2-5 supporting features. A typical Bubble.io MVP has 10-20 individual features at launch. The right measure is not how many features but whether a target user can complete the core value journey from sign-up to their first meaningful outcome without hitting a dead end.
Q: What happens to the features that get cut from the MVP?
They go into a prioritised product backlog reviewed after the first 30-60 days of user feedback. The ranking often changes significantly after real users interact with the MVP — features that seemed essential before launch are sometimes abandoned post-launch, while entirely new additions emerge as highest priority based on user behaviour.
Q: Should I tell early users that certain features are coming in later versions?
Yes — and SA recommends building this transparency into the MVP UX deliberately. A Coming Soon label on a deferred feature, a product roadmap page accessible to logged-in users, and a feedback form where users can vote on features all manage expectations and gather prioritisation signal. Early users who feel consulted on the roadmap are significantly more likely to remain engaged through the iteration cycle.
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