Prioritizing features: Why you shouldn't build everything at once for your HealthTech MVP

The healthcare startup graveyard is littered with ambitious projects that tried to solve everything at once. They raised millions, built comprehensive platforms with dozens of features, and then collapsed when they realized too late that users only wanted three of those features—or worse, wanted something entirely different.

We've seen this story play out repeatedly, yet the allure of building the "complete solution" remains powerful. It's understandable—healthcare problems are complex and interconnected, making it tempting to address everything in one ambitious sweep. But this approach is precisely why so many HealthTech ventures burn through their runway before finding market fit.

Let me walk you through a different approach: one that preserves your capital, accelerates your learning, and dramatically increases your odds of success.

The false economy of "building it all"

When a HealthTech Founder approached us with his remote patient monitoring platform concept, he had a 47-feature roadmap and insisted that "doctors won't use it unless it does everything." The price tag for such an ambitious vision? Often well over a million dollars and more than a year of development time.

"But what if we're wrong about what doctors actually need?" I asked.

The silence that followed was telling. Despite having two physicians on his advisory board, they realized he was making an enormous bet on assumptions that hadn't been validated in the real world.

When you're passionate about solving healthcare problems, it's easy to think:

• "Doctors won't take us seriously unless we have all these features"
• "Our competitors already offer these capabilities—we need them too!"
• "If we build everything now, we'll save time later"

This mindset creates serious challenges:

• Your runway shrinks faster than you can validate your core idea
• Development stretches from months to years as features pile up
• Regulatory burdens multiply with each additional component
• The essence of your solution gets buried under feature complexity

This is where the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) becomes not just useful but essential in HealthTech. Unlike other industries, healthcare has unique regulatory hurdles, entrenched workflows, and stakeholders with conflicting priorities—all of which make validation before major investment absolutely critical.

Why staged development works especially well in HealthTech

Healthcare solutions face a particularly challenging paradox: they must be robust enough to be taken seriously by medical professionals, yet need market validation before substantial investment. This tension creates the perfect environment for staged development.

Think of your MVP as a targeted experiment, not a finished product. Its job isn't to solve every problem—it's to prove that your core idea solves one important problem well enough that people will pay for it.

Research shows that HealthTech startups focusing on one core problem typically reach the market 60% faster than those attempting comprehensive first releases. This focused approach allows for rapid validation and iteration—often the difference between success and failure in healthcare technology.

When companies reshape their approach from year-long mammoth builds to focused development cycles of just a few months, remarkable insights emerge. User testing frequently reveals that assumptions about integration needs, workflow priorities, or user preferences were misaligned with reality.

These early course corrections can save hundreds of thousands in development costs that would have been wasted on unwanted features. More importantly, they reveal pathways to adoption that weren't visible in the initial planning stages.

The Momentum approach: Validation-driven development

These experiences aren't isolated cases. That's why at Momentum, we've refined our approach to building HealthTech products through smaller, strategic 1-3 month stages. Each stage delivers tangible value while systematically reducing risk through real-world validation.

Here's how this approach transforms the development journey:

First, we separate assumptions from knowledge. In healthcare particularly, there's often a gap between what stakeholders say they want and what actually fits into their workflow. By building in smaller increments, we can test these assumptions with real users before committing significant resources.

Next, we organize features based on validation potential rather than just functionality. Features that answer critical business questions or validate core assumptions take priority, even if they aren't the most technically impressive. This approach front-loads learning, dramatically reducing the risk of building something unwanted.

Finally, we recalibrate between each development stage, incorporating insights from real users. This isn't about moving goalposts—it's about responding intelligently to evidence instead of stubbornly following a predetermined path.

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Prioritization frameworks that actually work in HealthTech

The theory sounds good, but how do you actually decide what makes it into your first build? While many generic prioritization frameworks exist, healthcare requires special consideration. Here are some approaches we've found most effective:

1. The MoSCoW method

This approach divides features into four clear categories:

• Must-have: Without these, your product doesn't solve the core problem
• Should-have: Important features that significantly enhance value
• Could-have: Nice-to-have features that aren't essential
• Won't-have (for now): Features explicitly saved for future versions

For a remote patient monitoring platform, this might look like:

Must-have:

• Secure patient data collection from basic devices
• Simple dashboard for clinicians to view vital signs
• Alert system for out-of-range readings

Should-have:

• Patient-facing mobile app
• Basic trend analysis
• Integration with one major EHR

Could-have:

• Advanced analytics
• Patient messaging

Won't-have (yet):

• Multiple EHR integrations
• AI-based predictive alerts
• Video consultation features

2. User journey mapping

Map the minimum steps required for users to achieve their core goal with your product. Anything that doesn't directly support this journey becomes a candidate for the next version.

For example, if your product helps specialists manage referrals, the essential steps might be:

1. Receive referral notification
2. Review basic patient information
3. Accept or decline referral
4. Schedule initial appointment

Features like customized intake forms or integration with multiple practice management systems might be valuable eventually, but aren't essential for proving your concept.

3. The one-problem rule

Perhaps the simplest framework: "What is the ONE problem we're solving better than anyone else?"

For your MVP, focus exclusively on features that directly address this problem. Everything else gets pushed to later development stages.

The most powerful approach combines clinical impact, technical feasibility, and adoption friction. We map features across these dimensions, with special attention to regulatory requirements and workflow integration.

This process often reveals surprising insights. Revolutionary AI-powered features—originally planned for launch—might actually need to be developed later. Instead, an MVP might better focus on simpler integrations and workflow improvements that address the most immediate pain points for both patients and providers.

With this focused approach, HealthTech startups can gather concrete evidence of their value proposition within months rather than years, potentially signing early customers based on solving specific, validated problems. This early validation makes subsequent funding rounds significantly easier, as founders are no longer selling just a vision but demonstrated results.

The cost-benefit reality check

Let's talk numbers. Based on industry observations and our experience, companies that adopt this staged approach typically see:

• 40-60% reduction in time-to-first-customer feedback
• 30-50% lower initial development investment
• Significantly faster identification of true value drivers

Perhaps most tellingly, HealthTech ventures using staged development approaches generally have a substantially higher chance of securing follow-on funding compared to those who built comprehensive solutions upfront.

Behind these trends are real patterns: founders who preserved enough runway to pivot when necessary, adapt to unexpected user feedback, and approach investors with validation rather than just vision.

Putting this into practice: Your next steps

The most common objection we hear is: "But we'll eventually need all these features anyway, so why not build them now?"

This thinking misses a crucial reality: your understanding of what users truly need will evolve dramatically once they start using your product. Features that seem essential today may prove unnecessary, while capabilities you haven't even considered may become your central value proposition.

Ready to apply these principles to your own product? Here's a practical approach:

Step 1: Define your core value proposition

What is the single most important problem your product solves? This should be the focus of your MVP.

Step 2: Map the minimum viable user journey

What are the fewest steps required for users to experience this value?

Step 3: Set clear success metrics

Define what success looks like. Is it acquiring 50 active users? Having 10 paying customers?

Step 4: Implement learning cycles

Instead of planning a complete feature set, plan for learning cycles. What hypotheses do you want to test first?

Sep 5: Embrace iterative development

Break down post-MVP development into 1-3 month stages, allowing for adjustment based on market feedback.

By breaking your development into focused 1-3 month stages as we do at Momentum, you create space for this learning to occur while maintaining development momentum. Each stage builds on validated insights from the previous one, creating a more valuable product with substantially less waste.

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Final thoughts

Take that comprehensive feature list and challenge yourself: If you could only build 20% of these features, which ones would create a product that early adopters would actually use? Then focus your MVP there.

The path to HealthTech success isn't about building everything—it's about building the right things at the right time. By embracing strategic prioritization and staged development, you'll not only manage your budget more effectively but also dramatically increase your chances of creating something that truly matters in healthcare.

After all, the most elegant solution is rarely the most comprehensive one—it's the one that solves the right problem at the right time for the people who need it most.

Need help prioritizing features for your HealthTech MVP? Download our comprehensive MVP Development Playbook for Healthcare to access our complete validation framework.

Whether you're just starting with a concept or ready to begin development, our team can help ensure you're building a solution people actually want. Our validation-first approach has saved HealthTech startups thousands in development costs while dramatically increasing their chances of success. Should you have any questions on that, don't hesitate to drop us a message—we'd be glad to help.

Don't build what you think the market needs, validate what it actually wants. Your future users, investors, and team will thank you.