Your MVP just launched. Now what? A practical 90-day roadmap covering user feedback, iteration cycles, technical debt, and scaling decisions for startup founders.
June 22, 2024 5 min read
You launched. The champagne is open. Your MVP is live and real humans are using it.
Now comes the part nobody warns you about: the 90 days after launch are more critical than the months you spent building. This is where most startups either find their footing or slowly fade into irrelevance. The product is out, but the real work of building a business starts now.
This roadmap breaks down what to focus on each month post-launch. Not theory—practical priorities based on patterns we see repeatedly with early-stage startups.
Days 1-30: Ruthless Focus on User Behavior
Your first month has one job: understand how people actually use your product. Everything else is noise.
Install Analytics on Day One
If you launched without analytics, fix this immediately. You need visibility into:
User sessions: How long people spend in your product, where they drop off
Feature usage: Which features get attention, which get ignored
Conversion funnels: Where users complete key actions vs. abandon
Error tracking: What breaks and how often
The specific tools matter less than having something. Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog—pick one and instrument your core flows.
Talk to Every Early User
Analytics tell you what. Conversations tell you why. In the first 30 days, aim to have direct conversations with 10-20 users. Not surveys—actual calls or video chats.
Identify Your Core Loop
Every successful product has a core loop—the basic action users repeat that delivers value. In month one, confirm what yours actually is. Watch for the features users return to. That's your real product.
Stop planning and start building. We turn your idea into a production-ready product in 6-8 weeks.
Days 31-60: Systematic Iteration
Month two shifts from observation to action. You've gathered data. Now you need to act on it without breaking what works.
Prioritize Based on Evidence
By now, you have enough data to make informed decisions. Use a simple framework:
High impact, low effort: Do these immediately
High impact, high effort: Schedule these for focused sprints
Low impact, low effort: Batch these for downtime
Low impact, high effort: Kill these from your roadmap
Ship Weekly, Not Monthly
Two-week or monthly release cycles feel safe but kill momentum. In month two, establish a weekly shipping rhythm. For detailed iteration strategies, see our guide on iterating MVP features post-launch.
Address the Biggest Friction Point
Your user conversations and analytics should have revealed a clear #1 friction point. Spend dedicated time fixing it. Fix the biggest one. Then identify the new biggest one. This is iterative improvement in practice.
Days 61-90: Foundation for Scale
Month three is about preparing for what comes next. You've validated core assumptions and refined the product. Now you need sustainable systems.
Establish Retention Metrics
Acquisition is exciting. Retention is survival. By day 61, you should have baseline retention data:
Day 1 retention: What percentage return the day after signup?
Day 7 retention: What percentage return within a week?
Day 30 retention: What percentage become regular users?
Address Technical Debt Strategically
You shipped fast. Corners were cut. That's fine—it was the right call for an MVP. Month three is when you pay down selective technical debt. Not all of it—just the debt that will actively hurt you.
Plan Your Next Major Feature
With 90 days of data, you can make an informed bet on what to build next. Start planning this feature in month three. Not building—planning. Proper spec work, technical design, user research.
Common 90-Day Mistakes
Mistake 1: Shipping Features Nobody Asked For
Founders get bored. The temptation to add new capabilities is strong. But in your first 90 days, new features should be driven by user behavior data, not founder intuition.
Mistake 2: Ignoring Churn for Acquisition
It's more fun to get new users than to figure out why existing ones leave. But in the first 90 days, understanding churn is more valuable than driving growth. A leaky bucket doesn't fill no matter how much water you pour in.
Mistake 3: Delaying Monetization Conversations
If your product will eventually charge money, have pricing conversations with users in month one. Not launching pricing—just conversations. Understanding willingness to pay early shapes product decisions.
Mistake 4: Building for Scale You Don't Have
Some founders spend month two architecting for millions of users they don't have. This is premature optimization disguised as planning. Build for 10x your current load, not 1000x.
When to Pivot vs. Persevere
Ninety days gives you enough data to make an honest assessment. Not all MVPs should continue as planned.
Signs you should persevere: Retention is improving, users advocate, core loop works, paying users exist.
Signs to consider pivoting: Retention is flat or declining, usage is shallow, no willingness to pay, problem wasn't real.
A pivot doesn't mean failure. It means learning. But delaying the honest assessment is worse than confronting it.
Key Takeaways
The 90 days after MVP launch are where products become companies—or don't.
Month 1 is about observation. Install analytics, talk to users, identify your real core loop.
Month 2 is about iteration. Ship weekly, fix the biggest friction points, act on data not intuition.
Month 3 is about foundation. Establish retention baselines, address strategic technical debt, plan your next major feature with evidence.
Be honest at 90 days. You have enough data to assess if this is working. Evaluate honestly and act accordingly.
The best products are built after launch, not before. Your MVP was a hypothesis. The next 90 days are the experiment.
At NextBuild, we help startups through the post-launch phase with ongoing development support and strategic guidance. If you've launched your MVP and want help navigating what comes next, let's talk about your roadmap.
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