Meal Prep App MVP — 8-Week Development Plan

info Product Summary

Concept:

A mobile app for busy professionals to eat healthier at home. It automates weekly meal planning and creates personalized grocery shopping lists, based on each user's dietary restrictions, cooking skills, and available prep time.

Core Value:

Removes the hassle from healthy eating — no planning or guesswork, just straightforward, home-cooked meals matched to your lifestyle.

Essential Feature Set (V1)

User Onboarding: Collect dietary restrictions, cooking skill level, and weekly meal prep time.
Personalized Meal Plan Generator: Auto-creates a weekly meal plan (5–7 days) with recipes tailored to user inputs.
Consolidated, Editable Grocery List: Organized, auto-generated shopping list with ability to review, edit, and check off items.
Minimalist Meal & Grocery UI: Intuitive screens for reviewing meals, recipes, and lists—with easy add/remove and marking as done.

Features Excluded from V1

To maintain focus and avoid overcomplicating the MVP, the following are intentionally left out:

In-app grocery ordering, eCommerce, or delivery
Social/community features (like recipe sharing)
Deep nutrition analytics or dashboards
Gamification or rewards
Complex calendar integrations or advanced notifications
Advanced personalization beyond basic fit

Rationale: Focus on core value to validate adoption and avoid scope creep.

Recommended Tech Stack

Frontend

Glide or Adalo:
No-code, rapid cross-platform mobile development

Backend & Logic

Spoonacular or Edamam API
For recipe search/filter by dietary/time
Glide/Adalo built-in backend or serverless functions
Simple logic for meal/grocery gen

Other Tools

Airtable or Google Sheets (flexible data mgmt)
Figma or Glide design tools (prototyping UI)

Why?

No-code: max speed & iteration
Off-the-shelf APIs: low engineering lift
Active community support

Development Timeline (8 Weeks)

Week	Milestone/Deliverable
1	Project Bootstrapping: Define scope, select API/platform, set up project boards
2	UI/UX Design: Quick wireframes, review with users, finalize core screens UI
3	Core Onboarding & Data Model: Implement profiles and user logic
4	Meal Plan Generator (MVP): Integrate recipe API, auto-generate weekly plans
5	Grocery List Automation: Build and refine list UI and logic
6	Iteration & Basic QA: Internal testing, bug fixing, in-app survey
7	Pilot Test: Small closed-beta, gather feedback/usage data
8	Final Polish & Launch Prep: Final UX, app store assets, launch site

Launch Checklist

UX/UI reviewed with 3-5 target users
Basic security/privacy in place
All onboarding → meal → grocery flows tested E2E
App Store assets ready
In-app 1-min user feedback survey added
Waitlist/signup page for early demand
10–20 real users lined up for launch feedback

Success Metrics

Activation: Number of users completing onboarding & first meal plan

Engagement: Users actively opening grocery lists & checking off items

Qualitative: % positive responses on "usefulness/time saved"

Retention: Returning users in first and second week

Referrals: (Passive) users sharing app or waitlist

Validation Plan

Closed Beta (20–50 users):
- Track onboarding and meal plan flow completion
- Identify drop-off points & time per session
- Follow up interviews with 5–10 testers
- Analyze survey feedback on usefulness
Iterate:
Fix usability blockers & prioritize features only as needed for adoption.
Go/No-Go for Broader Launch:
If majority (>70%) of pilots find the product useful/time-saving & complete core flow → proceed to public launch.

Competitive Positioning

Main Differentiators:

Ultra-simple planning and shopping for busy professionals
Personalization to time constraints—not found in most meal kit/recipe apps
No subscriptions, no physical kits—max flexibility
Faster onboarding and planning flow than meal kit delivery; more personalized than generic recipe apps

Competitive Gaps (market research):

Most meal kits are expensive/inflexible (subscriptions, fixed menus)
Recipe apps lack personalization and automated shopping lists
The MVP avoids logistics/costs, focuses on digital value first

Risk Assessment

Risk	Mitigation Strategy
Low user adoption	Tight pilot cycles; rapid user feedback; iterate UX quickly
Recipe API data quality	Use multiple APIs as fallback; monitor and flag errors
Complexity/scope creep	Strict MVP focus; avoid nice-to-haves in V1
Platform bugs (no-code)	Pick supported platforms; test on iOS/Android
Data privacy (PII)	Store minimal data; use secure auth; publish clear terms
No-code scaling limits	Move to custom/native stack after MVP phase as needed

Next Steps After Launch

Short-Term (1–3 Months):

Improve plan personalization (e.g., taste/tweaks)
Add lightweight meal prep reminders
Simple nutrition info overlay
Export/sharing of grocery lists

Long-Term (3–6 Months):

Grocery integrations/partnerships
Habit/gamification features
Broader recipe sourcing, more cuisines
Possible move to custom-coded stack

Quick Reference: Why This Plan?

Narrowly targets the most urgent user pains
Leverages rapid no-code tools and APIs
Uniquely differentiated from meal kits and regular recipe apps
Optimizes for real-world feedback before scaling or investing heavily

Footnotes/References:

MVP analysis: core value, features, and user needs outlined
Competitive reviews: validated gaps and user needs
No-code MVP builder landscape and recommendations
Practical MVP launch learnings from real-world cases