Startup MVP

Minimum viable product is a preliminary form of outcome that an entrepreneur can introduce to the customers. The startup MVP approach allows you to see the core functionality of your project, stripped from any additional functions. Realising MVP is a common way to assess the market. With positive feedback, the final product can emerge from minimum viable product. The key feature of MVP is spending a minimal amount of resources to create a functional prototype of your project.

Commonly used definition of the MVP:

“The Minimum Viable Product is a version of a new product that allows a team to learn as much about customer needs and preferences as possible (validated learning) with the least amount of effort”.

Basically, the idea is to create a product that can be released as quick as possible. It needs to be a market fit. For example, this can be a mobile or web application.

Common steps taken by anyone planning the MVP projects are:

• Find out what problem are you tackling and the target group it will help.
• Conduct a thorough analysis of your potential competition.
• Specify the User Flow: for example in sales it will be the straight way to your main goal: find the product, buy the product, manage shipment, receive the product.
• Define the key features for your product and prioritize their development.
• After you complete all of the above, you can send your project to development. After, you need to test it in an adequate environment and learn from your mistakes.

Startup mobile app companies usually develop MVP projects in a matter of several weeks. Typically, the back-end part of the programming takes most of that time. It is crucial to understand the nature of the IT software development process. The scope of the project determines the length of the work. In the end, the duration of your MVP development depends strictly on its characteristics. The key element is to divide your needs into logical parts and develop them accordingly.

First and foremost, the MVP approach gives you a unique opportunity to test your concepts. When you build a startup company, it is crucial to determine your actual target group. Thanks to the startup MVP solution we can offer, you can easily find your potential customers, simply by analysing the most active users of your product. After you identify the valuable information of your project, you can lay out a plan with key features you need to add to your MVP. This process can continue until the product is complete or through the whole life of it.

The second vital benefit of a minimum viable product is a rapid release. This will help you to catch a quickly changing and evolving market

Market demand verification by implementing the MVP can deliver valuable data about the product. Testing UX and UI designs repeatedly will help you with that.

Additionally, a minimum viable product has an educational character. People like to avoid any rapid changes. Startup MVP will allow your team to learn about the changes and accept them.

An agile methodology is a popular approach in software development. In this approach, you divide the project into smaller “batches”. They are called iterations. All of the work done on the separate iterations provide you with important feedback. This allows adjusting the plan to the real market demand. The agile methodology requires flexibility and good planning. Applying can help in risk reduction and accepting the change. It is also a cornerstone of a product with a high market fit. Creating the MVP in agile means taking specific actions to achieve the goal. The first step is the identification of the problem to address. The next one is analysing the competition. Then the project needs User Flow, Wireframe and Design. After that, the key part is to choose necessary functions. The last step is the development and testing of the product.

The MVP (minimum viable product) in entrepreneurship is a lean process of developing the product. Using it allows learning about the potential customer needs. Additionally, the product will be validated during the development, thanks to iterations of the work.

The minimum viable product was introduced by Eric Ries. He is the author of the lean startup methodology. Learning and testing is the main focus of this approach. This refers to the development phase of the product. The MVP development phase perfectly encapsulates this methodology.

Startup MVP companies must rely on innovative solutions. One of them is an MVP website, which initiates the production process. In other words, it is a visual representation of the website without the full functionality. Building that kind of website saves you a great deal of time, in comparison to the traditional approach. After launching your MVP, you can continue to develop your project, with an already functioning website. Thanks to MVP you will continue to learn about your venture. Therefore, its evolution and upgrade will become fuller and more accurate. Overall, this approach will save you money, time and resources, in addition to creating a product suitable for customer needs.

Creating an app is not a small operation. It is not easy to build or maintain. This is why many organizations, especially startup mobile app companies, choose the MVP projects. The biggest risk of developing an app is disappointing user download and retention rates. Whether you are looking for a new mobile app or SaaS, the MVP is a perfect way to test your idea in a low-risk environment. All in all, it will safeguard you from creating a completely redundant app and help to achieve your ultimate goal.

The main players in the startup financial support are Business Angels and Venture Funds. Often, they are equalizing in their efforts. Nevertheless, angels are more likely to enter MVP projects in the early stages of development. Also, VC mainly accumulates funds from different investors and direct them into the chosen projects. That is why BA usually invest around $5k to $100k in startup aid and VC generally does not enter the projects with less input than $500k. On the daily basis, BA and VC do not compete with each other. Maybe except for the projects with an investment rate around $300-500k, that are interesting to them. Anyway, the choice of funding is pre-determined by the projects development plan and stage. A great way to find yourself in the scope of BA or VC is to plan the innovative MVP.

The very first step in the startup MVP development is laying down the blueprints of what you are trying to build. This is the moment when you turn to UX Wireframes. To put simply put, they are the visual representation of your project as screens and layouts that define the user experience and routes taken by them. In other words, the UX Wireframe of the MVP is like the blueprint to a house. Thanks to the wireframes you can fully understand UI/UX of your future product and get viable feedback from potential customers.

Minimum viable product approach popularized mockups. They are the representations of your desired product. It is created based on the UX wireframe. In other words, mockups are functioning samples of your project. Usually, the development process of the MVP does not start before the mockup is ready. Approved mockup allows engineers to materialize your product. They contain carefully selected colours, fonts, pictures, logo and any material selected by you for wireframes. All that will help you to finalize your project and test UI with your customers and choose what parts of it are most important.

The prototype is basically your idea put into the form. It is a way of transforming loose thoughts into something tangible. The main function of the prototype is to create a bridge between UI/UX design team and engineers. You can compare it to the external look of an empty chest. You can see what it looks like and take a peek inside. Nevertheless, there is currently nothing going on beneath. In other words, Clickable prototypes mimic the operation of the final product. Thanks to that, you can perform the final test of your product in a live environment. This allows specifying the product market entry needs even more precise.

There are many companies that help startup MVP projects, offering IT Outsourcing. If you think about that option, you need to remember two key points. The first one regards the experience of the firm you choose for your project. The second important issue is that you need a passionate project manager to lead your idea. Outsourcing MVP development allows you to take from an experienced tech team and gives you instant access to the resources essential for your goal. Moreover, it will help you to save some of the funds on hiring in house technical experts.

Generally, the MVP projects can maximize the profit from it. They do not require a lot of investment funds. Additionally, the risk factor can be minimized. You will consequently acquire knowledge about the needs and behaviour of your customers. At the same time selling your MVP product can occur before the full completion of it. Furthermore, you will collect the benefits from the first draft of your product, while still figuring out the dos and don’ts of your vision. This could be a great return on investment.

Startup MVP projects do not halt the process of development after the launch. You can obtain the benefits from it for the later stages of development. Also, the minimum viable product can be used as a tool for market research. This will help you with a deeper understanding of your customer needs. Later on, refreshing the features of your product will allow you to take advantage of the newest technologies. Thanks to that you will create better features for the final product.

It is not. The minimum viable product is not equal to the minimum product. The minimum product is a synonym for the very begging of your project. In other words, it is the product on the entry level. The main function of MP is solving one of the development problems. Launching the minimum product is not the same as testing your hypothesis (launching the MVP). A good example of that is Twitter. The minimum product was the ability to publish 160 characters. Additional features that made it into the MVP came later.

The MSP is the product researched in terms of users and customer’s needs. Therefore, it is the product that customers are willing to pay for. It is a little more than a minimal marketable product. But it still not the end of the MVP because it needs further testing and verification.

Crucial for MVP success is working in small batches. In this approach, you are identifying tasks at every level of development. Additionally, the same regularity refers to the work inside the development steps. Successful implementation of this methodology is based on early check-ins and regular control. For example, the group of engineers are working on separate parts of the code. After they finish, all of their work is batched up and compiled together. Moreover, working in small batches will give you faster feedback, reduce risks and increase effectiveness.

Startup MVP founders sometimes face the issue regarding additional help from a technical specialist. Adding the expertise of a Tech Co-Founder or CTO is often referred to as a “business marriage”. The wrong choice in that matter can thwart your plans. Also, at the begging of the minimum viable project process, it is rare to have a large financial backing. Bringing on a Technical Co-Funder or CTO can get unprofitable. Therefore, choosing this option for your business should come with absolute certainty of the potential candidate. Prolonging search for CTO or Tech Co-Founder will also delay your product launch.

In 2015 company called Pebble promoted their idea via KickStarter. The pitch was an amazing smartwatch. Before Pebble committed to any technological process, they have decided to share the project idea with the crowd on KickStarter. Any interested customer could back Pebble up with the form of pre-order. In exchange, the company pledged that if they achieve the KickStarter goal, their product will come to every customer (ones who pre-order the product). This was one of the most successful KickStarter campaigns. This could be an option for the MVP startup company. However, many of the companies using KickStarter have the backing of well-oiled marketing think-tanks.

The father of the startup MVP approach is Eric Ries. In his Lean Startup Method, he defined the MVP. His work states that the minimum viable product allows the creator to collect vast amounts of data about customers with minimal effort. The learning process is validated by identifying your potential customers’ needs. Lean Startup Method in its core build has the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop. Thanks to this, MVP projects can experiment, learn and quickly respond to the market.

Amazon started as an online book store. Many people are unaware, that Jeff Bezos began buying books from distributing companies. After that, he was sending them to the customers, who order them online in his store. When the book sales kept going up, he decided to add more products to his online store. The next logical step was to acquire a warehouse. The further expansion allowed Bezos to provide a personalized experience for every user.

A flagship example of brilliant startup MVP is Dropbox. The beginning of the project was a simple demo video of their MVP. Dropbox provided strong arguments about the benefits of data storage in one place. They had kept all of the feedback from customers and developed the most successful company.