MVP Performance Checklist

Slow products kill conversions. But premature optimization kills MVPs. Here is the balance.

What Matters for MVP

• •Page load under 3 seconds on mobile
• •Core actions complete in under 1 second
• •No freezing or unresponsive UI
• •Images load progressively, not all at once

Quick Wins

• •Compress images before upload (TinyPNG, Squoosh)
• •Use a CDN (Vercel and Netlify include this)
• •Lazy load images below the fold
• •Minimize third-party scripts
• •Use modern image formats (WebP)

Performance Red Flags

• •Loading spinners lasting more than 2 seconds
• •Page jumps as content loads
• •Buttons that do not respond to clicks
• •Scrolling that stutters

What to Skip for MVP

• •Aggressive caching strategies
• •Database query optimization (unless obviously slow)
• •Code splitting beyond framework defaults
• •Performance monitoring tools (use browser DevTools)
• •Load testing for thousands of users

How to Test Performance

• •Google Lighthouse: Built into Chrome DevTools
• •PageSpeed Insights: Google's online tool
• •Test on real mobile devices, not just desktop
• •Test on slow 3G connection simulation