MVP is a product that contains only the core features necessary to provide value for your customers. This allows developers to hyper-focus and develop the product quickly.
Many companies have successfully validated their ideas using this approach, including Dropbox, Twitter and Facebook. The key is to prioritize the product requirements based on market problems, and only add new features once you have validated your product.
1. Identify Your Target Market
Creating the right product for your market requires a clear understanding of your target audience. Knowing your ideal customers will help you create a marketing message that is relevant and appealing. Identifying your target market will also help you determine which features are essential for your product.
The MVP approach allows business owners to validate their ideas with real data and feedback before committing time and resources to building a full-fledged product. This can reduce the risk of innovating and save on costly mistakes.
While MVPs can be created by any type of company, it is particularly effective for startup businesses. It can speed up time to market, attract early adopters and achieve product-market fit more quickly. It also helps reduce the risk of wasting valuable resources on a product that fails to meet customer demand.
2. Create a Minimum Requirements Document
A minimum requirements document, or MRD, is a requirement specification that defines the minimum features that your product will have. The goal of the MRD is to provide a clear explanation of what your app will do and how it will do it. It should also include information about any restrictions or limitations.
A well-written MRD will be easy for developers or software engineers to read and understand. To avoid ambiguity, make sure to use clear language that doesn’t contain industry-specific or jargon-heavy terms.
A key benefit of the MVP approach is that it can help CEOs and product managers validate their assumptions about the target market’s need for a particular app before spending money to develop the full version. For example, Buffer started out as a simple landing page before becoming a successful full-featured social media scheduling tool.
3. Create a Working Prototype
To make a product prototype, you need a physical model that resembles the final design as much as possible. This model is then used to analyze costs and test for quality and durability. It is also helpful in determining the best materials to use. For example, a person may have their heart set on using metal, but testing with a prototype could reveal that plastic performs better for the specific application.
A Minimum Viable Product focuses on the core features that will deliver value to the customer, rather than a complete suite of functionality. This balance of viability and minimalism is what makes the MVP so effective for gathering validated learning. You can use the data gathered from MVP testing to develop a complete product that meets customers’ needs.
4. Test the Market
A minimum viable product enables companies to test their business model. It is typically a piece of software that is used to collect user feedback and validate the company’s assumptions.
Building a complete product can take a lot of time and money. It’s also a risky endeavor because you don’t know how the market will respond to it. If the market doesn’t accept your product, it can result in huge losses.
However, with a well-designed MVP, you can get through the Build-Measure-Learn process much faster and avoid expensive mistakes. In addition, you can make a more informed decision regarding the development of the full-featured product based on customer feedback and usage metrics. For example, Groupon started as a WordPress site and only after obtaining feedback and financial results did they develop social features and a more fully-fledged email platform.
5. Launch
Developing a minimum viable product helps ensure that every hour of development time and dollar of your budget goes toward building a product people actually need. It also prevents businesses from spending money on a feature-complete product that is never brought to market.
To speed up the process, you should focus on building only the core features that solve the customer problem. It is recommended that you set function priorities with your team to make sure the final product aligns with strategic business objectives.
For example, Buffer started as a simple landing page that allowed users to register for the app and share it on social media. This strategy enabled the company to interact with potential customers and gain their feedback, before investing more resources in building the full version.
