The minimum viable product, otherwise known as the MVP, is one such concept that helps to receive user feedback before the final product is set in motion. This feedback highly reduces the chances of future failures.
These days, especially in the IT industry, the use of MVP is common practice. And we will get to know more about it later in this article. So, if you have an amazingly innovative idea but feel a bit uneasy to proceed with it, this article is just for you!
What is a minimum viable product?
The core concept of an MVP is to make sure that the product is at least solving one of the significant customer problems while it has all the other necessary means to showcase the product accurately. This method is quite profound in the sense that it allows you to comprehend your product idea beforehand, saving precious time and money in the final design and development process.
MVP lays out the draft for the innovators to perceive where to move and what to improve while working on the product’s development and design. An MVP with thorough precision works on receiving crucial information regarding user interactions with the product.
Why do we need an MVP?
No matter how vivid and accomplished the final product may look, the primary focus should be to cater to the target audience and be able to solve their specified issues.
Advantages of MVP for your startup
1. Time and Money
When you test a simpler form of a product with the help of real users before its final release, you save a significant portion of the budget that would have been required in the whole development process. Therefore, an MVP is substantial as it helps you realize which project is likely to be more successful in the long run.
2. Knowledge and Awareness
Product failure is a critical concern. Thus, companies need to have a proper database of what their target audience prefer and what they do not. Once they have a thorough understanding of this, it decreases the product failure risks.
Awareness is the key to the success of any potential startup. If you are aware of the market trends and what resonates with your target audience, you will know which direction to proceed with your startup. The user feed that you receive will show you the way and lead to the successful development of the full version of your product.
3. Investment
Steps to building an MVP
During this stage, you can conduct research and go through dynamic and motivated communication with the clients involved. As a result, a plethora of data is collected in the process which gives way to more insights that the development team can work on.
Step 1: Research
And to stand out from your immediate competition, it is also pivotal that you keep a close eye on what your competitors are working on in order to conduct a thorough competitive analysis. The more your product stands out, the better the chances of you having a strong grasp on the market.
Step 2: Specify your idea
You need to know what the target audience entails so that your MVP is built surrounding that innovative and specified idea.
Step 3: Relate with the users
The user’s sentiment and opinion of the product should be the primary concern. Thus, you must put yourself in their shoes and take measures accordingly.
Step 4: Prioritize Features
Once you are done listing out all the features, put them in a tier list of: low, medium, or high. This will help you to draft a basic version of your product. And afterward, you can move on to building the MVP.
Step 5: Build an MVP
Your MVP does not need to be at the top of the game as it is meant to be a version that is handy and engaging to the users involved.
Step 6: Test the Product
The end-users are the ones who will be able to detect what the product lacks and identify the features which are deemed useless. Their feedback will help to improve the product which will then go through many tests until it has been polished to the max.
MLP: the new MVP
MLP, otherwise known as minimum lovable product, focuses on building an audience that stays loyal to the product. In a sense, it is always better to have a group of people who love your product than to have many users who simply like the product. The latter might shift to something better when the time comes. But the ones who remain loyal will always stay and also bring new customers along the way.
Checklist for building MVP
- Including emotion in the product as most of us rarely use logic while purchasing anything.
- Staying true to one specific feature helps to navigate your product and communicate it better to the audience.
- Being ahead of the competition with the help of competitive analysis.
It is always easy to replace any product. And in today’s modern age, you are expected to come up with an innovation that is not only useful but gives an overall amazing experience.
With the help of MVP, not only will your chances of failure decrease significantly but it will also save you time, money, and other resources. This approach is groundbreaking as it helps you to launch your brainchild with negligible expense so that you can find the targeted audience who’ll provide the insights based on their experience resulting in further improvement of your product and the final launch when the time comes.