What is an MVP Mama? | MVP Mama
In recent years, product managers have focused a lot on the creation of an “MVP” or minimal viable product. The idea is that by building the most important features first, the team could get the product out in front of the customer faster and obtain feedback to make further revisions.
What does it mean to be an MVP Mama?
As a product manager becoming a new mama, I wanted to start with the minimum of what we needed. Many people I knew mentioned there were many things they registered for that they never used, something we wanted to avoid. Others brought products that looked fabulous, that their LO wasn’t willing to use. Product managers are taught to work through problems through short iterative cycles to achieve product market fit in the shortest amount of time. Mamas have a finite amount of resources including time, energy and money to achieve the best possible outcome for their little one. So it just made sense that by aligning these two hats, I could think through how I wanted to approach buying just enough for our little one, with a little extra to avoid scrambling for things we needed urgently during a pandemic.
Here are the categories I boiled it down to -
EAT
POOP
SLEEP
WEAR
(HEALTH)
(GETTING AROUND)
EAT -
Feeding Pillows - Boppy versus My Brest Friend versus…? My initial instinct was to use the Boppy since it looked the simplest, both my lactation specialist and my nanny were solidly in team “My Brest Friend.” After trying it for a while, I ultimately went back to using a regular flat pillow, something the hospital that trained us initially taught us. Score 1 for user testing!
Pumping - I tried a couple of different hand-me-downs before ordering my insurance sponsored one - a Baby Buddha paired with Freemie Cups. See my post on our pump setup for more details.
POOP - While I’m not an eco-warrior, I did want to be green. To this end, I registered for Honest in addition to Pampers.
Since then we realized that the “wet” indicator is so key, and I’ve also heard that Pampers can be softer for babies though our LO doesn’t seem to have any issue with either.
Sleeping - What type of bassinet made the most sense? We were offered both a Halo Bassinest, which is stationary, as well as a more traditional looking bassinet on wheels. While I debated for some time between the two, in the end, I don’t know what we would have done without both. The Bassinest lives by my bedside, which is key since I do most of the night time care, and the rolling cart ends up next to whoever is caregiving at the time during the day, moving between the living room and the nanny’s room. Since my LO has bad acid reflux, we also have a pregnancy wedge pillow we have repurposed to keep him propped up right after feeding.
Glider - I spent a ton of time picking out the glider with full intent to feed in it regularly. While we do use it a ton to rock the baby, I found that it’s often it’s faster to feed or pump from bed.
Toys & Books - We registered for a minimum of these since we had a surprising number of toys floating around already, and received more ad hoc along the way since they are so much fun to give compared to practical items like diapers.
Diapers - This is more a science than the rest of the categories. See my google sheet here to see how to calculate what you need.
Clothing - How much is too much?
Which categories are the most important to you?