If you are an entrepreneur, you should Build a Minimum Viable Product. To begin with, you must determine whether your concept is feasible; will it actually benefit your customers? The answer lies in an MVP. Besides validating your idea, it will also help you understand your customers’ needs.
We will explain what an MVP is, why it is vital to a business, and how to build one within a short time frame in this article.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product): What is it?
MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) are a basic version of a product that offers the minimum but essential features (which defines its value proposition). A MVP is created with the intent of enabling faster time to market, attracting early adopters, and achieving product-market fit from the outset.
Upon launching the MVP, initial feedback is awaited. In response to this feedback, the company plans to fix the bugs and introduce new features that those early adopters suggest.
MVP allows the following:
- Gaining a competitive advantage by entering the market early
- To test the idea early with actual users to determine whether the product is able to solve their problems
- Building a fully-fledged product that incorporates user feedback and suggestions
What is the point of building an MVP?
MVPs are designed to provide immediate value quickly while minimizing costs. As you test your assumptions using an MVP, you will be able to learn more about your end-user and the market you wish to enter. MVPs also prepare the way for future iterations of development and clarify the sequence of steps to take in the project – whether that means changing directions entirely, or sticking with your set development path. In some cases, an MVP can also showcase business potential and encourage stakeholder buy-in. It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking for funding from internal or external investors, an MVP definitely strengthens your position, as it proves the merit of your product and secures funding for the development of future versions.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Building an MVP
MVPs are designed to test your idea, figure out what exactly will work to target your customers, and ensure that it meets their needs. It will be much easier to finalize and market the product if everything has been done correctly.
Here are the steps to building an MVP:
Step 1: Build the core first
MVP applications are focused on a single idea, and they do not include any other functionality. MVPs relate to the philosophy of a lean startup: building the right product on a small budget in a short period of time. MVP development can be more cost effective if only a few features are high priority, but minimal. Testing an MVP is then easier, and the risks are less.
Step 2: Describe Your Idea
How does your product benefit its users? How can they benefit from it? What makes them buy it? You should keep these questions in mind to help better convey your message.
Your product’s essential estimations should also be clear to you. If you want to introduce value to the people, define them first and then develop your MVP based on that.
Step 3: Take into account the design process and the user flow
Ensure that the app is user-friendly. An app must be viewed from the user’s point of view, from opening the app to the final step, such as making a purchase or delivering the item. Also, user flow plays a crucial role since it ensures you don’t miss anything while keeping in mind the future product and its users.
For your user flow to be defined, you need to define the stages of the process, and for that, you need to explain the steps needed to accomplish the main objective. Rather than focusing on features such as finding and purchasing products and receiving orders, you should focus more on basic tasks. Your end users will focus on these while using your product. Then, when all these stages of a procedure are clearly laid out, it’s time to determine what each stage entails.
Step 4: Describe the project’s features
Before you start building the MVP, make a list of all the features you wish to incorporate into your product. After you have finished the building process, cross-check with your list. Prioritize each stage’s features once you have a list. Consider questions such as, “What do my users want?” and “Am I giving them something useful?” when prioritizing the features.
Then, categorize everything else according to priority: high priority, medium priority, and low priority. You can then define the scope of all the features for the first version of your product, and start building an MVP. You can even build a prototype of your MVP to see what your product will look like.
Step 5: Create your MVP
When you have determined your main features and learned about the market needs, you can create your MVP. Despite its lower quality, a prototype still needs to satisfy your customer’s needs. As a result, it must be easy to use, engaging, and appropriate for your users.
Step 6: Building, measuring, and learning
Each step is part of a process: first, the scope of work is determined, and then the product is developed. Once the product has been developed, it must be tested. As part of the first testing stage, Quality Assurance engineers work to improve the quality of the product (even if the product is not yet released).
Ensure that you review everything thoroughly after releasing the MVP, i.e. collect feedback from your clients. Based on their feedback, you can determine whether the product is acceptable in the market, whether it competes with other products on the market, etc.
Users let us know which features are not needed and which ones are lacking in the product. When you receive feedback from the users, start improving your product, then test, learn, measure quality, and test again. This process continues until your product is ready.
What to do after Your MVP
Once your MVP has been launched, it is imperative to collect feedback from users. This helps us improve the product and ensures market acceptance. Using user behavior research, you can generate new ideas for subsequent versions of your product. In order to finalize the product, it is important to test, learn, and measure again.
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