How MVP can be a Business Game Changer for Millions?
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a product version with just enough features to enable the validated learnings at the core of product development. Powerfully, you can consider it as a beta form of your business idea, a launched prototype, an idea demonstration, first-hand analytics of your product, or like a proof of concept but on the roadmap of learning a product to enhance and bring a rooted change rather than improving it parses.
Whenever you need to develop new features for an existing product or want to launch a totally new business product, a well-grounded MVP framework should be in place. It could be initiated by releasing a beta version of that product tested among a selected chunk of users.
This way, you can essentially save time and money by verifying the product potential before dealing with huge investments and reducing the number of iterations in product development.
It’s ironic! Many of the startups and those companies that look for expansion do believe an MVP is an end instead of treating it as a means to an end. It is a misconception that an MVP is an investment not worth for businesses who are planning to launch a full functionality product or in case if entrepreneurs are 100% confident of the product’s success.
Sometimes, an MPV is considered as something that will automatically lead the business towards success but in actuality, it is a much-needed learning exercise or an experiment that takes thorough risk analysis into the front seat.
These business heebie-jeebies results in 90% of failures in business ideas. The main reasons why this happens are low market needs, lack of cash flow, becoming outcompeted, unfriendly product experience among users, the product developed without a proper business model, product mistimed, or PIVOT going bad. Most of these problems can be easily resolved by developing a viable MVP before a completely functional product is released into the market.
Sounds euphoric? Want to explore how MVP will take off and effectively launch your business in the target market and become immensely useful for your business? This blog has got you covered. Explore how MVP can be a warm welcoming edition in your business tool books.
MVP Development has got 10,000 Pounds of Business Benefits
It poses the venture and its business opportunity as a perfect hypothesis rather than a polished business model. Additionally, an MVP forces you as an entrepreneur to know the weaknesses and the leaps of faith in the product to devise an experiment and see whether it works in the market scenario or not.
Secondly, MVP is important because it leads your business towards the right actions. There is a common tendency among entrepreneurs to keep perfecting the products and constantly research how wonderful the product is. Whereas if you focus your business lenses on an experiment or an MVP, it will influence you to validate your underlying product assumptions.
This is not it. With MVP programming, you have all the blessings of product success. Check it out how.
- Accurate demand analysis- Ensure your product satisfies the needs of your potential clients and does not lack a competitive advantage.
- Cost-effectiveness- You need not sink in a huge deal of money in a business idea before experimenting with the market reactions for that product.
- Easily persuade investors and receive investment- MVP acts beyond a mere eloquent pitch since it is already tried and tested product for investors to make an informed decision.
- Enhance product usability- Product success does not count with the thousands of downloads or hundreds of purchases if the user is unable to interact with the product. MVPing makes it possible to analyze user behavior and improve the product usability of a great UX.
- Seamlessly focus on more important characteristics- Since MVP is about launching a product with limited and core functionalities, it is easier to focus on the ground roots of product development. It is after testing the MVP on early adopters, you’ll know what people love or hate about your product.
- Fastest product release journey- Spending a high amount of time in doubting and hesitating to launch the product takes years of product building and thousands of dollars. MVP cuts down the entire product journey several times and derives the product that users love the most.
- Early adopters of your product will be your first customers- It’s a tough job to get your first customer when the market niche is too competitive. Users prefer brands that appreciate their opinion, which is possible through MVPing. Welcoming honest reviews and bringing a change will influence early adopters to participate in product growth.
Before Building Your MVP, Explore the Success of MVP Developed by Renowned Brands
Dropbox
Drew Hoston, the CEO of Dropbox, knew a high competition in cloud storage services. So, he wanted to develop a meaningful video explaining these service benefits for which he opted for an MVP. This small yet very rooted step made Dropbox an industry leader with video views exceeding 70,000 in one night.
Airbnb
Airbnb owners rented an apartment through a website before launching the famous app. The experience they got in a beta form of an idea made them double sure of the real needs of users to rent a property or an experience. Today, Airbnb has essentially become a source of income for many, and a lot of travelers across the globe are using the Airbnb platform in their routine agenda.
Amazon
An MVP was used before releasing the main Amazon app. Jeff Bezos himself had collected the orders, handled the distribution, and sent the orders to the clients. He became confident after the trial run that people do need this service. Now Amazon is an industry innovator in the retail niche.
MVPs are Not Just for the Startups
Initially, MVP was developed keeping the web development businesses in mind. But its usefulness has eventually extended far beyond the web development businesses. It doesn’t matter what type of business you have or whichever niche it is, the questions flushing in the entrepreneur’s minds are where exactly are the weaknesses, what might go wrong, where are the leaps of faith, where are the dependencies, and how can you effectively devise an experiment to validate those weaknesses.
These are the questions answered through a valid MVP program in place. It will head you towards keen learning to do better business.
That said, the MVP programming not only works best for fledgling companies or startups. It is an optimum option for all, including large corporations.
Situations, where MVP is not much useful, are at the time of market entry where trend analysis, potters five forces for value chain analysis could be a much better way. This is the scenario where you would be looking at the dead pool of your business and learning what others in your niche are doing and how they have succeeded in their business where they are in huge competition.
How to Build an MVP?
Research your heart out in the product concept
The first and basic step to create a perfect MVP is to research what the victory of your business idea is dependent upon and then devise an experiment that tests that dependency. It is a typical scientific method that any engineer could do.
Construct a hypothesis build around your business idea to test its credibility. This step involves considering the primary priority values you want your product to have. You will discover the exact problem that your product solves. After which you need to probe into the market dynamics and competitors before you work on the budgeting part. It will create a genuine understanding of what customer seeks and interest.
The great trial runs
Next, you need to prepare a complete list of product features and functionalities which are at the core of product development and prioritize them. Think about the wireframe and user flow that comes from the foundational feature you want to build in your product.
The whole assumption rests in how your target audience will use your MVP app. Connect the dots with the interaction ecosystem, delivery, and purchase process. This will land you a deep understanding of the design results of UX and the intuitive feel that you have successfully developed in your MVP product. It will take a great trial run to discover which main actions the user needs to take and the feature list that allows the user to finish those actions in your app seamlessly.
Build your MVP
Build an MVP prototype that will help you get feedback and point of improvement in your beta product. One thing you need to emphasize is your MVP product should be developed with high-quality standards even if you have held back some of the app elements. The user will experience satisfaction from the main pain point that practically justifies its existence.
Enhance MVP and make it promising
This step is a true sense of risk evaluation and learning of customer’s needs in reality. The initial user responses will graph the effectiveness of your MVP product. Questions should be asked to the product users on their interest in buying your product over those of competitors and what more they want in the product when it hits the market launch.
Towards Smart MVP in Software Development
MVPing leans more towards analysis and strategic moves and less towards complex software product development. So, let’s wrap up with helpful advice for the smartest development workflow for your MVP.
- Watch out for your rivals or people who copy-paste your product concept
- Create a rich buyer persona
- Invest in research into the impact your MVP has in the planned market segmentation
- Develop a story map of your aims, audience stories, and tasks
- Choose for constant learning and enhancing product
You will have a tradeoff cleared between the cost of main software product development services with or without an MVP. That said, seeing through all your business aspects, MVP definitely acts as a robust tool to develop a cutting-edge app product in the final launch to the target market.
That's it from my side. I hope this article has provided the importance of MVP for business. Still, for any doubts regarding this, don’t hesitate to share it with me.
