Minimum Viable Product to test your business idea quickly and with a little budget

Launching something new onto the market always means dealing with conditions of great uncertainty. And when preparation is not done thoughtfully, many hours of work that any app or a piece of software takes, may be wasted. To quickly see whether the idea is going to stick and to get the feedback for further improvements while not spending much money, it’s good to start with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

MVP, or a minimum viable product, is a basic version of your future product. It doesn’t come with all the features that are expected in the final offering. It is meant to gather real-world feedback and validate the idea with the least effort. The MVP helps to see the market reaction and get to know customers better before putting all your efforts in.

When testing waters with an MVP, companies get a chance to investigate what works and what doesn’t at an early stage. This way, mistakes are not getting amplified like a growing snowball causing lots of wasted resources. On the opposite, a business can easily try different ideas, probably even make fundamental changes, and enhance the product until it’s good enough.

Depending on your unique situation, steps may slightly vary, but in general, they usually would look as below:

1. Market research. Conduct surveys, figure out what people need, see what competitors already do, and how you can be unique.
2. Idea articulation. To better express your idea, you must have clear answers to the questions like what value do users get from your product, how can they benefit from it, why would they get it.
3. User flow design. Your product should be convenient for users, so try to look at it with their eyes. How would the process look like, from the first interaction to the last step. At this point, plan fundamental stages of the process.
4. Listing of features. Having planned fundamental stages, think of all the features you want to offer at those steps. Prioritize the features and define their scope for the initial version of your product.
5. MVP creation. Make your first version of the product already useful for potential customers. As Brandon Schauer, CEO of Adaptive Path, explains in his cupcake model, even in your first release, it’s not a good idea to offer users a dry cake planning to add filling and frosting later. This is not appetizing. Instead, try to build a “cupcake”, a product with a good design and allowing to get a sense of the product capabilities, even with the limited functionality.
6. First feedback analysis and further improvement. After launching the MVP, gather users’ feedback, upgrade your product accordingly, and then test again. Repeat until the product is ready to be widely launched and announced.

To see how your product is doing, you can check the number of downloads, sign-ups, the number of paying customers, you can measure user activity in the app, and ask them for feedback.

By offering a basic version of the product, you can collect feedback from early adopters and optimize the product based on it. This will make your product introduction to the wider audience smoother and more effective.

If you need help with developing an MVP, feel free to schedule a call with us to discuss your idea.

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