How to Build Your Business MVP in Google Sheets

An exercise tracking MVP I created to track and monitor workouts.

So, you’ve decided to make a new business, and you know you’re going to need some kind of way to manage your data. You also DON’T want to spend $10,000 to build an app just yet. You also don’t want to spend months building it only to find that this business isn’t what you thought it would be.

In short, how can you take the lean start-up methodology to quickly build a minimum viable product (MVP) in a system that you already know how to use quite well?

Is Google Sheets the Right MVP Platform for You?

Google Sheets does allow…

• Easy ways to structure data tables
• Great connectivity to automation tools like Zapier
• Buttons to trigger automations in Google Apps Script
• Good (but not pretty) ways to mock up client-facing screens

Google Sheets does not allow…

• Super customizable screen building
• “Professional” appearance to your clients
• Big data applications (~1,000,000+ data rows)

If you’re looking to build an internal tool to track and maintain a low-moderate level of customer records and activities, Google Sheets might be a good solution. I’m going to take you…