Why do you need to develop an MVP for your startup?

MVP: Looking into the concept. Born and popularized by the Silicon Valley businessmen Steve Blank and Eric Ries (“The Lean Startup”), the lean startup concept grew into a namesake methodology around 2010 and evolved in contradiction to a conservative multi-year business-plan and raising money’ tasks. This lean startup methodology entails constantly testing and reengineering solutions, based on customer reaction to the product.

Equivalent to the Agile approach in programming, the lean startup principles entail applying a minimum viable product (MVP) approach that advocates restricting business resources (time, money and serious development efforts). Diving deeper, as launching and testing a full-fledged process with huge development costs may make an entrepreneur bankrupt in case it fails, it’s much wiser to launch an MVP. Here, the MVP is a product with only vital functionality to collect the information about the solution (validated learning) and, if so, the further development.

This is how the MVP principle works: before a startup launch, an entrepreneur can only surmise what pains do their consumers experience, and what product or service features do they really need. So, include only a minimum amount of features, able to maximally demonstrate your product functionality with minimum effort and money invested. At the MVP core lies the idea of experimentation, data analysis and information, not a gambling market behaviour. Well, if all you have is a smart innovative project and no certainty whatsoever whether it will deliver the unique solution to your customers or not, then an MVP is your genial catch. Say, if what you have is just a product concept by users, without even the core software, try your luck with a Flintstone MVP.

Consult the article below to clear your mind about the proper type for your product

Why choosing an MVP for your ideas implementation? Taking into account that 11 out of 12 startups break down, as per “Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2019”, it’s hard to overestimate the importance of kickstarting a product with one or two unique features able to ensure your product demand and viability in the market. Regardless of the fact where you find financing for your startup (from friends or family, crowdfunding or taking a loan), several things may bother you:

- Whether your software or business idea is worth realizing?
- Whether the feature you want to distinguish is really valuable?
- Is your app good enough to satisfy the customer demand?
- Does it fit the market needs?
- Can you scope the project or is it better to leave it the way it is?

Well, if the issues above are of your concern, then your choice is building an MVP. While embarking on the development of an MVP app for your software solution, bear in mind the core issues below. Specifically, focusing on the most necessary features to include into your MVP, here are a few tips to help you rank their importance for the project.

Market research, investing the least money and the maximum effort. Conduct surveys, if you are not pressed for time.
01
Remember to keep in mind the elaborated primary values of your product. As MVP is all about bringing these benefits to people, outline them.
02
Clearly formulate the product goal and whom/what it is designed for, brainstorm your idea (e.g., on providing takeaway from local restaurants).
03
Master Facebook, Reddit and YouTube social networks to define your target audience and narrow it down to focus exactly on these people while developing your MVP.
04
Determine accurate steps to be made by the user (process design): starting from step 1 - opening the app - till the final move (acquisition, delivery, etc.). Be attentive to keep in mind all the steps of this flow to create your product skeleton.
05
Analyze your competitors: what’s their proposition and where you can stand out? Define them and describe the market share, use primary and secondary information sources.
06
List the project features - and include into an MVP only 1-2 indispensable ones. Remember, MVP implies being adaptive and including only the necessary product features to test your idea viability.
07
Finally, start assembling the MVP. It’s critical to satisfy the customer, therefore, your MVP should be user-friendly, attractive and correspond to the user demand.
08
Choose a professional and the most suitable developer to implement all your MVP ideas.
09
Once your MVP is released, analyze the customer responses, both negative and positive, and the market demand, and based on the user feedback, scope your MVP to the next stage, including more features.
10
Repeat 1-10 stages several times, enriching the solution functionality to enrich the MVP - till your product hits the user target and becomes prominent in the market.
11

List of your product functionality to be included into your MVP:

1
User journey on your product: focus on use cases, info about the hotel and a booking process, online/telephone communication with a hotel.
2
Indispensable features: must-have characteristics which UX execution quality cannot be compromised on (like speed - for Google search engine).
3
Should-have features to be included alternatively.
4
Indispensable characteristics to show your exact priorities and focus well on your CVP and your TA.

To catch inspiration for creating your MVP over launching the full-fledged product, simply get swift answers to these questions, and clear up whether you need developing an MVP for your startup:

Does your development process go in the right direction?

Is your TA right for the product?

Prompt response to the market release

Future development - test results act as a signpost for the next stage of the design project, and testing MVPs can quickly create a budding user community and establish a feedback loop for the product’s future iterations.

MVP types and examples

Single Feature Application MVP

The first-to-choose MVP type giving you the chance to test your startup idea viability with initially one distinct feature that covers specific customers’ pain and runs your brand onto the market (Instagram - location-sharing app to take photos and geotag, Uber - simple texting message and email service, Spotify - streaming single songs’ feature). It’s about being laser-focused on offering a remarkable primary feature.

Wizard of OZ (Flintstone) MVP

Deriving from the famous book ingenious character making tricks who was hiding behind the curtain, this MVP presents the automated service that in reality is performed manually. In this MVP type, core software is absent, and there is a product concept that needs to be tested (Zappos, Cardmunch).

Email campaign

Building a service around an email list as the most effective communication channel - without building a full-out product to the target market. It’s an MVP capable of giving you quick and easy understanding of whether there’s demand for your service with just an email list (Product Hunt, AngelList) with an ROI of up to 3800% compared to only 28% for social media!

Concierge MVP

The advantage of this type of MVP is getting real initial experience dealing with customer wishes, fears and hopes, and reactions to your product. It is risky as you’ll have to rely on another’s site or product uptime and functionality that you aren’t fully competent in, and how to scale up a service, and possess a clear understanding of each of the tools used, but it’s much cheaper and faster to develop (Groupon, BetterSpaces).

Pre-order/crowdfunding campaign

Pre-order - placing a monetary order by customers in favor of a future product to fund the product development and release. - Crowdfunding - financing your idea through small investments from a large number of people.

Piecemeal MVP

Launching an MVP where different third-party services or apps are combined.

Fake door MVP / audience building MVP

It’s the simplest MVP with just the necessary notification and a button getting you to a message that this feature is “being developed.”

MVP: Choice of the customer

Summing the whole story up, the MVP is a project management tool playing the role of a safety cushion - it helps you to predict the commercial and technical potential of your product. Restricting the suitable range of MVP types is easily made as you are led by the three questions:

1
What is your biggest risk, how should you monitor it?
2
What are your deadlines for building an MVP and getting the feedback?
3
What are your budgetary constraints for an MVP?

For instance, having weighed all your pros and cons, choose a concierge or a crowdfunding campaign MVP to cover the predefined TA audience with the good product and take your time to wait for the positive customer response. Considering the MVP type to choose, remember that everything depends on the primary functionality to be highlighted in your MVP solution. Herewith, the final-end goal of your MVP is effectively developing a perfect solution assuaging the user’s pain. So, never give your valuable idea up and stick to the words of glorious sir Winston Churchill, ”Success consists of going from failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

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