The Golden Path: A UX Tool for Defining My MVP
FTF24
If you’ve never heard about the Golden Path, prepare to be amazed. It’s a UX technique used to identify the product features that directly lead to the app’s magic moment—when users realize the main benefit of the app. I’m using the Golden Path to prioritize features of my app’s minimum viable product (MVP). In this newsletter, I’ll explain how.
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More on the Golden path
The Golden Path is expressed as a set of crucial steps users take to realize the core benefits of an app. Below is an illustration from Google’s Design Sprint Methods that describes the Golden Path and the magical moment users experience after visiting an e-commerce site like Amazon.
The steps of this Golden Path are
The user visits the site
Searches for a product
Views the product detail page
Buys the product
Receives the product at their doorstep (magic moment)
The user can do other valuable things with this app, like browsing recommendations, but that flow deviates from the golden path. If I were creating an MVP for this app, any feature relating to recommendations would get a lower priority. This prioritization method is what I’m using to define my app’s MVP.
My golden path
The main benefit of my app is it helps users create a stress-free daily schedule. The magic moment is when users see their day planned out to their satisfaction. The first iteration of my app will only focus on steps along the Golden Path that get users to the magic moment:
Open app
Import calendar
Add to-do list items
Select to-do list items to add to your schedule
Click “add to schedule”
The schedule is created (magic moment)
Using these steps, I can prioritize the key features that will help the user get to the magic moment—my plan for next week. I’ll report back with my progress. If you’re a paid subscriber, you can access the feature list that maps back to this Golden Path.
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