If you are reading this, you might have an idea to start your own startup or develop a new product. May be now you are searching for a company that will help you, or trying to do this on your own. Anyway, before investing a lot of time and effort, there is a great thing you have to know about – Minimum Viable Product (MVP) which will help to test your idea in action therefore saving your precious time and budget.
Minimal Viable Product or MVP is a version of a new product with minimum functionality which allows to get end-users’ feedback and behaviour with the least effort. Such version usually includes only the most important features.
The concept of MVP comes from The Lean Startup defined and popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries.
The key benefit of MVP is that you can get a lot of information about your potential clients without development of complete product. Release of mvp can give you an idea of whether the product is in demand, if yes, than what should be done to improve it. It will also help to get to know your target audience closer: their tastes, interests, behaviour – this significantly reduces not only your development budget, but also helps to save on further marketing actions.
From the very beginning it’s very important to know what you want to get. Moreover, you have to think of what problem are you aiming to solve and how do you see the realization of it in order to plan everything. Especially, if you are going to hire someone to develop your product, you need to have a clear explanation of your idea so everyone could understand you correctly.
Then it’s necessary to conduct a research. Are there any products on the market that are similar to yours? If yes, then what are the advantages and disadvantages of the one you want to create? If there is no advantages then consider improving of your idea. And remember: if your idea is not unique it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to succeed. You just need to have a zest – something that distinguishes you from your competitors.
Before starting the actual development process you have to choose the basic features you want your MVP to possess. Choose wisely, as this features have to catch people’s attention and provide maximum value to make them excited enough so they want to wait for the full-fledged product that you are planning to release. This experiment will designate your future.
When developing an MVP it is highly recommended to put a big effort in the UX to give end-users the best experience in order to make them use it more and more often. So that’s the part you will have to work hard on.
If you completed all the above steps, it’s time to start the development process. Keep in mind that the quality of your MVP should be as good as if it was the final product, therefore it must be simple and easy to use. To make everything properly, you may consider hiring a software development team that might be the best decision as MVP development price will be much lower then for the full-fledged product. If you are not sure how to find a good development vendor, here’s our article that can give you a clue.
We had a great case when MVP became a complete product. One of our clients had an idea to develop an app. He wanted his product released in very short time. So it was decided that first we develop the app that will include the basic functionalities needed to fulfill the key project goal – improve the communication between teachers and their students’ parents.
Our team managed to develop the MVP within the required terms and publish it. The developed mobile application was a success. It became one of the top 10 popular social apps on Google Play in Austria along with Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. So the client decided to leave it as it is. You can learn more details about this success story and the app itself here.
If you just browse the Internet you’ll see much more great stories of successful startups that started from MVP – Airbnb, Foursquare and many more. MVP – is the greatest and easiest chance to see your idea live with minimal risks. So don’t be afraid, take action! And in case you need any development assistance or advice we are happy to help – just fill in the form below.
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