More on lawyers testing a “mimimally viable product”

In response to yesterday’s post about expanding your practice by offering a “minimally viable product” (service) to test the waters, I heard from two lawyers who disagree. Their comments and my responses follow.

The first lawyer I heard from added this comment to the post itself:

Not very good advice here, and would possibly lead one down a path to malpractice, test a “minimally viable service”? really?

The “start up world” is not analogous to the practice of law

Could offering a service you’re not competent to handle lead to malpractice? Of course. If you’re not at least minimally competent to handle this new service, don’t offer it. I never suggested otherwise.

If you’re thinking of offering estate planning services, for example, you wouldn’t start by offering to form offshore trusts if you’ve never done that before. You would start with simple wills, powers of attorney, and health care directives, assuming you know where to find the forms, how to fill them out, and what questions to ask to determine if the client needs anything else.

The operative word in the term “minimally viable service” is “viable”. It means the product or service does what it’s supposed to do. It may not have all the bells and whistles or options, but it solves the client’s problem.

This is the second comment, received in a tweet from Richard W. Smith:

“David – enjoy your posts, but disagree with this approach: “Make it as attractive as possible, and price it as low as possible”

He didn’t elaborate, but I’m guessing he doesn’t have an issue with making your service and offer as attractive as possible, he disagrees with the idea of pricing it as low as possible.

If we were talking about offering your regular services, I would agree. I’m the last person to suggest wholesale discounting or competing on “price”. In fact, I believe and have often said most lawyers don’t charge enough. But things are different when you’re testing.

When you’re testing a new service, you want to know if there is a market for it. Your goal isn’t to maximize revenue or profit, it is to see if you can get anyone to buy. So you offer a minimally viable service at an attractive price point. If your test works, if you get clients or opt-ins or inquiries, you then add to the offer (more features, more options), raise the price, and put more time and money into marketing.

If you don’t get “sales,” or you decide you don’t want to handle that new practice area after all, you close the door and move onto other things.

I should have added that in testing the new service, you shouldn’t price it so low as to cheapen what you are offering. Test a new service (or market) by asking for a fee that is low enough that your “price” isn’t the reason prospective clients don’t hire you, but not so low that they think something is wrong with you or the service.