Six Days — MVP sprint plan

Six Days's launch MVP is a frictionless video-and-audio capture and review solution for the piano practice room, aimed at premium adult amateur pianists — high-income, intermediate-to-advanced, capable of self-review. It addresses the perceptual bubble — the gap between what a musician thinks they are playing and what they are actually playing — which is the most vividly experienced pain point and the one which can be corrected most visibly.

The MVP delivers a subset of the video-capture-and-review module's eventual scope. Feature-level compromises made inside this module, to reach market quickly:

Sprint plan on a calendar

Sprints across the 12-month arc from August 2026 to August 2027. Each bar shows the calendar span of a sprint.

Sprint plan

Feature	In (launch MVP)	Full product (later releases)
AI feedback	Yes — small subset of pattern detectors	Rich library of detectors
Multi-angle video capture	Yes	—
One-time auto-configure	Yes	—
Score awareness	No	—
Repertoire awareness	None	Piece recognition
Customization	None	Custom detectors
Sharing and collaboration	None	Enabled
AI-guided user experience (hand-holding)	None	Enabled

	1. Proof of concept	2. Functional prototype	3. Demo-ready prototype	4. Manufacturing and launch	5. Early customer success
Duration	2 months	2 months	2 months	4 months	2 months
Ends	1 Oct 2026	1 Dec 2026	1 Feb 2027	1 Jun 2027	1 Aug 2027
Cost	~€65K	~€250K	~€125K	~€720K	~€260K
Delivers	Load-bearing-risk signals (pose feasibility, pain resonance, form-factor concept); legal foundation; first advisor engagements; hand-labelled UI mockup	Functional prototype with 12 detectors and mobile review UX; friendly-user beta signal; first investor round closed; supply committed	Demo-quality units in close-to-final materials; crowdfunding campaign production-ready	Manufactured units delivered to first customers; live subscription + support; regulatory certifications complete	First customers reached beyond the founder network; product iterated from real usage; content-marketing engine live
Software activities	Multimodal AI/ML tool familiarity Pose-tracking feasibility test Hand-labelled review UI mockup One-detector end-to-end PoC	Full 12-detector library Three multi-view path prototypes Composed mobile review interface Cross-take marker-and-jump	Bug-fixing from beta feedback Review UI refinements for demos Demo content curation Polish through crowdfunding video	On-device inference port Capture, sync, upload production integration Backend: tiered storage + library sync Onboarding flow + first-time setup First quarterly detector expansion	Cohort observation analytics Detector expansion from marker patterns Onboarding refinement for post-launch Marker-and-jump refinement
Hardware activities	Alpha study model (static) Beta study model (adjustable, concierge) Motor + hinge test rigs Sensor + motor supplier scan Initial hinge partner conversations	Motorised study model (switch control) Robotic study model with auto-alignment Bench-rig reliability data Power + thermal empirical test Sensor, motor, BOM committed	Industrial design finishing pass 2–3 demo-quality units fabricated Machined bezels, leather cradle Two material variants	Production run tooling Contract manufacturing kicks off Concierge-tier bespoke finishes Second production run planning	Small-batch redesign iteration BOM optimisation with contractors First-run yield improvements Second production run Accessory development kicks off Y2 instrument groundwork (guitar first)
Customer activities	Questionnaire on Tally Pro Follow-up interviews with opt-ins Detector-approach test with 5–8 pianists Menu review with music-teaching advisor Form-factor test with alpha testers Facebook + Google smoke test Blog + social handles live Intro blog post published Landing page + email waitlist	Continued pricing conversations Friendly-user beta with 5–8 pianists Smoke-test refinement Blog + social continue	Aesthetic-desirability testing Blog shifts to crowdfunding warm-up Survey findings published	Crowdfunding campaign launches Blog + social as campaign backbone Fulfilment: shipping, customs, taxes Customer support infrastructure live First units delivered to customers	Paid channel testing at scale PR + podcast + expert reviews Content marketing scales Referral program trial First renewal cycle outreach Support scaling Unit economics on real data
Enabling activities (fundraising, legal)	Advisor outreach: multimodal AI + music teaching Investor list building Pre-seed narrative drafted S.r.l. + innovative-startup filing Patent provisional on swinging arm Trademarks (Alfine Labs, Six Days, Outer Ear)	Pre-seed pitch process + close Advisor pipeline expands Advisor cash retainers begin Production-scale contractor agreements	Investor demos with demo-quality units Crowdfunding campaign production Manufacturing partner committed Subscription terms + privacy policy	Investor supplement negotiated + deployed Advisor honoraria continue CE + IEC 62133 + UN 38.3 certifications GDPR + EU AI Act review Subscription contracts + product liability	Optional follow-on round Y2 seed narrative from real numbers Ongoing compliance
Ready to move on when	Pose tracking is engineering-tractable with off-the-shelf tools.	Beta pianists use the review interface unprompted over a week.	Demo is production-quality for pitch meetings and the crowdfunding launch video; manufacturing partner committed.	First units are in customer hands and being used with meaningful frequency.	Customer advocacy is visible — referrals, feature requests, or waiting-list signups for other instruments.

How the MVP evolves across the sprints

Product state at the end of each sprint, across the features that build out most visibly. Reading across a row shows what a feature becomes over time; reading down a column shows what the sprint has to produce in that window.

Cost estimates and funding shape

First-pass estimates sized against corpus reference points (contractor rates in the resource-requirements memo, prototype workstream in the deployed roadmap, study-model and smoke-test briefs, system-architecture bill of materials). Meant to size the shape, not commit to specific numbers.

Feature	End of Proof of concept 1 Oct 2026	End of Functional prototype 1 Dec 2026	End of Demo-ready prototype 1 Feb 2027	End of Manufacturing and launch 1 Jun 2027	End of Early customer success 1 Aug 2027
Frame form factor	Static built-to-measure and adjustable concierge study models on the bench; off-the-shelf cameras	Fully functional folding frame with motorised swinging arms and production-spec electronics	Same functional frame, industrial-design pass, close-to-final materials on 2–3 demo units	Manufactured production units off the line at the Italian contract manufacturer	Delivered production units in customer hands; second production run underway if demand pulls
AI-assisted arm/camera configuration	Absent — study-model arms and cameras hand-positioned per tester	Remote-controlled adjustment via switches first (Stage 3), then full AI auto-alignment via camera-image analysis (Stage 4) — arms deploy to per-instrument preset and auto-correct	Auto-alignment robust for demo use	Auto-alignment running on production hardware	Stable; iteration only on edge cases surfaced by real customer setups
Detector library	Hand-labelled laptop UI mockup; one detector ("no dynamics") end-to-end from real take audio	12 curated detectors on shared audio + pose feature store, tuned against friendly-user beta	Same 12, stable	12 in production; first quarterly expansion (1–2 more detectors) ships in month 6	Continued quarterly expansion from the deferred 17-detector queue; iteration from real customer usage
Review interface	Hand-labelled laptop mockup used for pianist testing	Composed mobile review interface on iOS + Android at production quality — synced multi-angle playback, system-flagged moments, customer markers, cross-take marker-and-jump	Polished for demo scenarios (pitch demo, crowdfunding video)	Onboarding flow + first-time detector selection; on-device inference on target premium phone/tablet	Iteration from real customer usage; usage analytics maturing
Multi-view rendering	Absent	Three paths prototyped on captured multi-angle footage (raw side-by-side, view-interpolated, 3D-pose rendered); one committed for launch	Committed path polished for demo	Committed path in production	Stable; other two paths documented as future upgrade candidates
Hardware finish	Study-model substrate — foam-core or 3D-printed panels, off-the-shelf action cameras	Same substrate; no aesthetic pass yet	Two variants — blend-with-black-grand (dark wood, dark leather); set-apart (lighter wood, brass detailing); machined-metal bezels; leather cradle	Production finish across delivered units; concierge-tier bespoke finishes from Italian craft workshop if chosen	Same as launch
Manufacturing scale	1 alpha unit + a few concierge beta study models, bench-built	5–8 functional prototype units for friendly-user beta	2–3 demo-quality units	600–1,000-unit production run at Italian contract manufacturer	Second production run underway if demand pulls beyond the first batch

Sprint	Software	Hardware	Customer	Fundraising	Legal	Advisor honoraria	Founder overhead	Contingency (25%)	Total
Proof of concept	~€2K	~€3K	~€5K	~€2K	~€15K	~€2K	~€42K	—	~€65K
Functional prototype	~€60K	~€80K	~€12K	~€10K	~€3K	~€35K	~€12K	~€45K	~€250K
Demo-ready prototype	~€10K	~€55K	~€5K	~€5K	~€3K	~€18K	~€6K	~€25K	~€125K
Manufacturing and launch	~€55K	~€380K	~€80K	~€8K	~€30K	~€32K	~€19K	~€145K	~€720K
Early customer success	~€30K	~€25K	~€120K	~€3K	~€3K	~€10K	~€16K	~€52K	~€260K
Total		~€1.4M

Notes on the estimates. Contingency at 25% starts with Functional prototype, reflecting a novelty-heavy execution profile — first hardware product, first crowdfunding campaign, first Italian S.r.l. all at once. Advisor honoraria are cash retainers plus reimbursed engagement expenses across five strands (music teaching, PAM, multimodal AI, behavioural design, industrial design). Cash flow begins with the pre-seed round; Proof of concept advisor engagement is equity-and-barter. Founder overhead sizes to modest Italian cost-of-living (€2.5–3K/mo); absorbed personally in Proof of concept, investor-funded from Functional prototype onward. Manufacturing and launch hardware line assumes 600–1,000 units at ~€300 per unit BOM plus tooling and manufacturing partner engagement.

Funding hypotheses