Practical Notes

How I Ship a Weekend MVP

Every few months I give myself 48 hours to ship something real. Not a prototype that lives in Figma - a deployed URL someone can use. Here's the playbook that actually works.

Friday Night: Scope Ruthlessly

I write one sentence: "By Sunday night, users can ___." If I can't finish that sentence, the idea is too big. I cut features until the core action fits on a sticky note.

Saturday: Build the Happy Path Only

  • One database table (or a JSON file)
  • One form, one list view, one detail view
  • No auth unless the product is useless without it
  • Deploy by Saturday afternoon - even if ugly

Sunday: Polish and Share

Morning is for CSS and copy. Afternoon is for fixing the one bug that blocks the happy path. Evening I post to one community and ask for feedback.

A weekend MVP is not a product. It's a hypothesis with a URL.

What I Ship With

Static HTML + Bootstrap, or Next.js if I need API routes. Hosting on Vercel. Analytics with Plausible or nothing at all for v0.