MVP AssessmentCanvas.

For founders and teams building new products.

A self-assessment to help you move from idea to working MVP, faster.

Created by Robot Heart 🤖❤️, a Digital Product Studio helping teams and founders design, validate, and build new products.

Build a new product? Get in touch at hi@robotheart.studio

1.1

Describe the problem in one sentence, in plain language.

If your sentence needs commas, adjectives, or caveats, you’re not there yet.

1.2

Who experiences this problem? What specific role or persona?

Be as specific as you can. For example, “accounting managers at biotechs that are about to IPO,” or “construction company owners who have outgrown manual processes.” This is the outline of your ICP.

1.3

List at least 5 people you have spoken with who have this problem, and how they explained it.

If you can’t list 5, that’s the signal to pause and talk to users before building.

Name	Who are they	What they said

1.4

Explain what each of them do to solve this problem today.

Be specific - what tools, software, processes, etc.

1.5

Describe why their existing solutions don’t work well.

Call out specific examples and quotes from your conversations.

1.6

List the core tasks the user is trying to complete.

These are the 2-3 primary goals they are trying to solve.

1.7

Explain what a successful outcome looks like for the user.

These are the 2-3 primary goals they are trying to solve.

1.8

Explain what triggers the user to seek a new solution.

What needs to happen for them to consider your solution?

2.1

List all your direct and indirect competitors. For each:

The first row is an example. Type over it.

Competitive Solution	How much does it cost?	How is your concept different?	Why would someone switch?	Why wouldn’t they?

2.2

What are the competitive risks?

What could change from the above analysis that would be a threat to your idea?

3.1

Describe the “golden path” (aka main workflow).

What does a user need to accomplish, and how?

3.2

Sketch or list the main features/screens.

What is in the experience?

3.3

What will NOT be included in the MVP?

What can wait until later versions? Cut anything that’s not critical to success.

3.4

What data needs to be sourced, captured and/or stored?

What data will you collect from your users in order to make the experience functional?

4.1

What level of fidelity do you plan to test? (Design prototype, coded MVP, full production build)

The earlier you are, the lower fidelity you want to be.

4.2

List your prospects, users, or companies you will test with.

Name	Email	Company/Role

4.3

What are you validating?

What do you want to learn from these people?

4.4

What does success look like at this stage?

What would have to be true for you to keep investing time and money into this idea?

5.1

What’s your go-to-market strategy?

How are you going to promote and sell this?

5.2

List 1–2 ways you’ll measure traction (e.g. usage, signups, sales conversations).

How will you know it’s working?

That’s the canvas. Print it, save it as a PDF, or bring it to a call and we’ll go through it together.

Robot Heart 🤖❤️

✋ Ready to build?

Robot Heart is a Digital Product Studio helping teams and founders design, validate, and build new B2B products. We help teams quickly go from idea to working MVP. Whether you’re a startup founder or an internal team, we can help you validate, design, and build your new product.

Not sure where your MVP stands? I run a 30-minute MVP Assessment.

Book a Free 30-Min Call hi@robotheart.studio

👉 Or reach out via LinkedIn or jeremy@robotheart.studio