Building a Minimum Viable Product: Lessons learned from our first MVP
2020 was a big year for us here at Blockchain for Climate Foundation (BfCF). It was the year when our team pushed into the next stage of development: a working MVP for the BITMO Platform.
Yes, it’s 2021, and we can finally say that we have built and tested our first MVP or Minimum Viable Product. This is a term commonly used in mobile app development, which can be described as an early version of a new product that can be presented to trusted stakeholders. These stakeholders can then give feedback to nurture the next stage of the product’s development. (READ: Forbes: What is a minimum viable product?)
Dynamic and fluid process
Considering how the needs of the BITMO Platform are quite unique, there was no template for moving into this stage of development. Whether it was finding a developer unicorn who could master both the blockchain and climate worlds, or choosing between ERC Token 2309 or 1155, this was a process that can only be described as dynamic and fluid.
This is why we thought it would be important to share this story of our first MVP for anyone else out there who is undergoing the same process. This is from a community focused standpoint - notes on how we consulted our community, and designed a process that would help us build a working prototype. If you’re more interested in the “nuts and bolts” of the MVP, the technical details, I suggest you write to us.
Here are key lessons we learned about the process of building our first MVP.
It takes time, and a village.
The completion of a working MVP was no overnight feat, and it certainly wasn’t done single-handedly. The process called for heightened collaboration within our community, which is perhaps the BfCF team’s greatest asset: passionate people who are willing to work together towards a common goal.
The BfCF team worked through several pathways (in the middle of a pandemic, no less!) to determine the best direction forward. In December 2019, BfCF with the help of Accenture, created a mock-up of a mobile version. This was instrumental in envisioning what the BITMO platform could look like. BfCF then reached out to its bustling community, and with Chelsea Palmer’s guidance, fully articulated the process and concept of the BITMO platform into writing.
BfCF then collaborated with Mahmoud Shehata, who at the time was finishing his computer science degree at Simon Fraser University. By the time he was hired, Mahmoud was already a skilled developer who had built a) his own decentralization as application service (DAAS) and b) his own blockchain, Andromeda. Through the project, Mahmoud readily immersed himself in the world of climate. He worked hard to not only understand but to immediately apply this new knowledge of carbon offsets to a platform that has never been built before.
“What we’ve asked Mahmoud to build by himself is a behemoth of a project for a four-month period. He was encouraged and excited rather than getting deterred from it,” said some of Mahmoud’s closest teammates, “It’s awesome that Mahmoud actually knows Blockchain and Crypto because we don’t need to catch them up on anything.”
In addition to Mahmoud’s remarkable technical skills and the robustness of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation’s larger team and advisers, the greater Etherum community was foundational to the development of this MVP.
“I think that this has already moved way farther forward than we ever thought was gonna happen this year. I think that that’s a combination of Mahmoud’s mad skills and also the Ethereum communities continued diligent work to build the tools and tidy them up for use by developers so that other people in the community can pick them up and create amazing stuff in reasonable periods of time,” said Joseph.
The Blockchain for Climate foundation truly values the many ecosystems it exists in, and the many other great thinkers and doers in this growing community.
The learning never stops
Why did Blockchain for Climate choose to hire someone to work on the MVP internally, rather than outsourcing the work to an external blockchain developer?
This was certainly a question that BfCF asked themselves in the beginning, but after much deliberation, it became obvious that hiring someone internally would better suit the BITMO platform. This was because hiring someone into the organization meant that the BfCF team can work more closely and efficiently with a dedicated developer.
It meant that a developer like Mahmoud, who is already fluent in the worlds of blockchain and programming, can have ready access to the wealth of knowledge and expertise that BfCF has on carbon credits and offsets.
“It’s been very insightful,” said Mahmoud. “It was very beneficial for me to get into climate action, which I believe everyone has the obligation to do now. It’s now something I think about all the time.”
It meant that for Joseph and the team, they could truly understand how this prototype BITMO Platform worked. To the benefit of the BfCF team, Mahmoud was a developer who was open about his process: “Mahmoud has really taken the time and effort to explain to us and walk us through the process, rather than saying ‘don’t worry about it I’ll just take care of it”
“I'm thinking more about climate and I'm seeing myself be part of this community,” said Mahmoud.
Separately, the worlds of blockchain and climate are filled with ever-changing networks and nuances. In combination, these nuances are multiplied and take considerable time and effort to understand. This is why an organizational structure that maximized collaboration needed to be utilized, and so it was decided that the MVP was to be made in-house.
Concrete Solutions
Last year, our team completed an Alpha version of the BITMO Platform. We are thrilled to be able to issue and exchange BITMO tokens via our web-based platform, plus interact with the tokens on the OpenSea.io platform for viewing, auctioning and selling Non-Fungible Tokens. This year will see the completion of a public version of the BITMO Platform, further improvements to user experience, and the launch of our “BITMOscan” functionality to interact with large data sets across the BITMO ecosystem. This will enable ease of demonstration as we advance our work to engage with national signatories to the Paris Agreement who would like to further develop, and ultimately use, the BITMO Platform for issuance and exchange of their carbon credits.
In conclusion, completing the MVP last year was instrumental for Blockchain for Climate Foundation. It moved the BITMO platform into the realm of concrete solutions that could be seen, learned, and hopefully, used by national parties working groups. This work would not have been possible without Blockchain for Climate’s innovative and brilliant community - we thank you.