Why Is MVP a Great Choice for Startups?
9 out of 10 startups fail, according to the Genome Report. The main reasons include premature scalability and lack of interest on the market, both of which you can avoid if you use MVP method to develop your startup.
There’s a good reason that MVP method has become a standard in startup development these days – it works!
We will show you exactly how the MVP method works and what are the benefits you will see if you use this method to develop your startup.
What Does MVP Mean?
No, it’s not Most Valuable Player, although this method does often bring most valuable results. MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product and it is defined as “a development technique in which a new product or website is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters.”
MVP is the cornerstone of the lean startup methodology, which puts the focus on developing a product quickly in order to test its value to the consumers.
This process entails adding additional features and fixing bugs once you get a proof that there is interest for your product on the market. The purpose of MVP is to provide a basic product to users with only core functions developed.
The Stages of MVP Process
While there are different ways you can go about with MVP development, like selling a product before you build it, which is the favorite way of doing things on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe or Kickstarter, we will focus on the most common method of developing a Minimum Viable Product.
Define the Business Needs
Before you start to develop your product or service, you must first identify a need for it on the market. Do a proper research of customers’ needs and problems that you can solve and conduct a competitor analysis to see if there are similar products on the market.
After that, you should define your long-term goals and identify your success criteria. Include multiple metrics to determine what success is for you and your startup.
Plan Your MVP Process
The next stage in the MVP development is finding the opportunities to solve the problem or satisfy the need you pinpointed in the first stage.
- Identify the users
- Determine the end goal of the users
- Identify the action users need to take to achieve their end goal
Once you identify your users and what actions they will have to take to reach their goal, focus on the problems and inconveniences they might come across on their journey. Determine a way to help them avoid those inconveniences and solve those problems.
Build Your Minimum Viable Product
Now that you have identified the users and their goals, it is time to decide on the features you want to include in your MVP. As we previously mentioned, MVP should only have the core features to secure the functionality of your product.
Keep in mind the 2002 study from the Standish Group “Chaos” report that says that 60% of all features are actually never used.
Once you build your Minimum Viable Product, you can use the feedback from users to make adjustments, add or eliminate features and streamline your product to fit the needs of the consumers.
What Are the Benefits of MVP Method?
The main reason to use MVP method to develop your startup comes from the ability to test the market and determine what consumers need without risking too much capital. However, there are many other benefits as well.
It’s Cost Effective
Mature apps rich with numerous features take years to develop. Consequently, their development costs a lot. MVP method allows you to build your product iteratively and spread the costs over a longer time period, which is the best way to minimize the risk.
Helps You Get Funding
MVPs play a crucial role in finding stakeholders and raising funds in the early stages. MVP can strengthen your position because you will have something to show and not go to potential investors with just an idea. You can demonstrate the value of your product and demonstrate the growth potential with a well-developed MVP.
Builds Value over Time
Since MVP entails having only core functionalities, you will be able to scale your product and let it evolve naturally through insight from consumers and data you collect from them. That can help you make decisions along the way about additional features and give you a good idea of where to allocate your budget.
Conclusion
It is easy to conclude from the statistics at the beginning of this article that building a successful startup is a tough task. However, you can minimize risk, save plenty of time and money and gain valuable insight from users if you use MVP method to develop your startup.
