A usable first version to test an idea without building everything
A usable first version is a product cut back to what absolutely has to work, delivered early enough to be put in front of real users. FastSolve builds it so that you know, instead of assuming.
You can see the result before discussing it: the link below is available online, with no sign-up required.
Building for six months before knowing
Four situations come up before almost every project of this kind.
- You have a clear idea and a list of twenty features. None has yet been put in front of a real user.
- The quote for a complete product exceeds what you can commit without certainty, so the project stays in the drawer.
- You have been hesitating for a year, because getting it wrong would cost too much to contemplate calmly.
- Somebody launched a simpler version than yours, and they are already learning from their first clients while you polish.
The risk is not building an imperfect product. The risk is building the wrong product for a long time, and only finding out at the end, once the budget is spent.
Four decisions that make a first version
This service is less about technique than about what you agree not to build yet.
1. Choosing the one thing that must work
The work starts by removing, not adding. Out of twenty imagined features, two or three actually carry the promise. The others will wait until we know whether the promise holds.
Typical case. A founder wanted a full marketplace, with messaging, ratings and payment. The first version was limited to matching and payment, which was enough to bring in the first users.
2. Delivering a genuinely usable tool
A first version is not a mock-up. It is not a clickable drawing that simulates the workings: it involves real data, real accounts, real errors. That is the only way to learn anything reliable.
Typical case. A practice had commissioned a very polished mock-up. Everyone approved it. The real first version showed within two weeks that the step judged essential was being bypassed by every user.
3. Watching use rather than opinions
Opinions gathered before use are often wrong, with no bad faith involved. What counts is what people do: where they stop, what they cannot find, what they use every day.
Typical case. An association thought its members wanted a shared calendar. Use showed they came for the directory, and the project changed direction before it had cost much.
4. Deciding afterwards, knowing what you know
A first version exists to let you choose: carry on, correct the direction, or stop. Stopping early is not a failure, it is the main benefit of the method.
Typical case. A freelancer stopped his project after six weeks, having spent a fraction of the planned budget. He considers it the cheapest spend of his year.
What a first version will not do
It reduces the risk. It does not remove it.
- It does not do everything. That is its very definition, and it is the hard part to accept when you have had the idea in mind for a long time.
- It does not bring you users. Building is one thing, finding the first people who will try it is another, and that one is yours.
- It does not guarantee the idea works. It tells you sooner and for far less money, which is a different thing.
- It does not carry thousands of users on day one. That is not its purpose, and preparing it for that from the outset means falling back into the long project you were trying to avoid.
The gain is in the time and money committed before you know, not in any certainty of success.
Frequently asked questions
How does this differ from a mock-up?
A mock-up shows what it would look like. A first version genuinely works: data is saved, accounts exist, errors happen. A mock-up is useful and cheap for settling a question about a screen, but it says nothing about what people will actually do, because it puts no real constraint in their way.
How much does a first version cost?
The amount depends mostly on the number of features kept, and that is precisely the lever you hold. A tool with one path and a marketplace with payment and multiple accounts are in no way comparable. The price is set after scoping, once the reduced scope has been agreed. As a guide, excluding VAT, most first versions fall between 3,000 and 8,000 euros. A marketplace with payment and multiple accounts can reach 12,000 euros.
Will the code be thrown away afterwards?
No. What we deliver is code meant to last, not a prototype to rewrite. A first version stays small, so it can be picked up and extended. That said, if use shows the direction was wrong, some of it will be abandoned: that is the intended outcome, not a manufacturing defect.
Who decides what goes in?
You decide, we discuss. Our role during scoping is to ask, for each feature, what it would let you learn. Those with no answer wait for the next version.
How long before I can show it?
The timeline is given in the first reply to your enquiry, once the scope is known. It depends directly on the number of features kept, which makes it a choice rather than a fate.
And if it works well?
What follows is built on the same base, by successive additions, often in the form of a fuller web application. The point of having started small is that the later additions rest on observed use rather than on assumptions.
Can I use it to convince a client or a funder?
That is one of its most frequent uses. A version that actually works, with real data, shows in ten minutes what a twenty-page file does not establish: that the thing exists and that it holds. It serves just as well to obtain a first client's agreement as to open a funding discussion, and it has the advantage of costing a fraction of the complete product, which you do not have to commit to yet.
Tell us what you are trying to verify
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