What MVP Really Means + Feature Triage

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Feature Triage Prompt

You're helping me triage features for an MVP. Below is a raw brain-dump of every feature I can imagine for this app — no particular order, no filtering. I want you to sort them into three buckets:
Must-have — the app literally does not function or make sense without it
Nice-to-have — real value, but the app still works if it ships later
Later — good ideas that belong to a future version, not v1

For each feature, put it in a bucket and give me a one-line reason for the placement. Be opinionated and a little ruthless — the point of an MVP is to cut, not to keep. If two features overlap or one is really a piece of another, say so and combine them.

Then, at the end, do one more pass: from the must-have bucket, tell me which three features are the true core — the ones that, if any were removed, the app would stop being the thing it's supposed to be. Explain why those three and not the others.

Treat all of this as a starting point for discussion, not a final verdict — I'll push back on anything I disagree with. Here's the list:

[Place your app feature ideas here]

Feature Sharpen for Builder Tool Prompt

Quick reframe before we sharpen these.

Of the must-haves, here are the three I'm building around and my reasoning so you have the full context:

[Replace the following with your three must-haves]

1. Get data in — One capability, three doors: manual add, CSV upload, and forward-to-parse. For v1, I'm building manual entry only. Manual is the floor — a dashboard you can't fill is dead, and manual proves the whole flow works end to end before I take on more risk. CSV is a fast follow. Forward-to-parse — "forward your invoices, it builds the view" — is the actual wedge and the whole pitch, but it's also my #1 technical risk (OCR/extraction), so it's deliberately not in v1. Sharpen this feature around manual entry only.
2. Renewal + notice-period alerts — Combined, because the notice-period version is just the sharp edge of the reminder, and it's where the real money dies. "Charge hits in X days" is fine; "cancel by X or you're locked for another year" is the one people pay for. For v1, users enter the notice window by hand.
3. AI-drafted cancel/renegotiate emails — The differentiator. Every SaaS-management tool shows you the problem; almost none hands you the fix. This is why the app beats "do nothing."

Now sharpen each of these three into something a builder tool could work from tomorrow. The trap I want to avoid is vague labels that could mean a thousand things. For each of the three, give me exactly:

1. Feature name — 2 to 4 words
2. What it does — one sentence on what the user actually sees and does (be concrete: name the screen, the elements, the action)
3. Why it's in the MVP — one sentence on why the app doesn't work without it Keep each one tight — no paragraphs, no extra commentary. If any of the three is still too vague to pin down concretely, push back and ask me the one question you need answered to make it specific.

Vocabulary

• Builder tool — An AI tool that generates a complete working app from a plain-language description — front end, logic, and often a database. Lovable, Bolt, Replit, and v0 are the four covered here.
• CSV (Comma-Separated Values) — A plain-text spreadsheet format — each line a row, commas between columns. The most common way to move data between tools.
• MVP (Minimum Viable Product) — The smallest version of your product that genuinely solves the core problem. Not broken or half-finished — the keyword is viable.