In Software development, instead of hurrying to deploy your “next big thing,” it’s essential that start with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Many big companies follow this approach to ensure the success of their software products. Examples include Amazon which started as an MVP when Jeff Bezos began selling books from his garage, and Airbnb’s journey to becoming a leading accommodation service.
However, before you develop that boundary-pushing MVP, understand the best practices. It helps you minimize common risks associated with launching a new product, employ talent to effectively accelerate your time to market, etc.
Continue reading to learn how to create a minimum viable product.
What is an MVP?
According to Eric Ries, the trendsetter who came up with this term, MVP is defined as
“The version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”
It is the simplest, yet functional product model you can deploy to the public. It should have the basic functions to encourage faster release time and adoption.
One of the most common analogies for an MVP was introduced by Henrik Kniberg, a renowned Agile and Lean coach. In his sketch, he explains the MVP idea with the progression of transportation mechanisms. It begins with the skateboard depicting a simple, yet functional mode of transportation. It then evolves in the following stages into a scooter, bicycle, or motorcycle, before a car.
Every stage of the progression offered transportation with increased features for users’ comfort. This represents the idea of an MVP, which is, to start with a simple yet functional idea and revise it with better features, ensuring that every step of the progression delivers value to consumers.
How to Create an MVP
Here is the process to create an MVP:
1. Get a Reliable Software Development Firm
Employ the services of a dedicated software development company and share that concept with the team. They will examine your idea and weigh your objectives to understand your mission and vision. If your requirements are doable and your values align, you can proceed to make the collaboration official.
During these initial conversations, you should make your contributions and ask questions to ensure your concerns are addressed. The team will develop a detailed proposal based on your mutual agreements with an expected timeline of the stages, expectations, and financial obligations. Also take legal measures, requiring that the team signs a non-disclosure agreement and any other relevant papers to ensure your idea is not shared outside the team.
2. Discover your Value Proposition
Now that the formal arrangements are out of the way, you can do the value proposition. Get answers to these queries:
- Is my product fixing a problem? What are these problems?
- Do my clients need the product? How?
- What different approach is my product bringing?
- Does my solution differ from my competitors? How?
The replies you provide to these queries will reveal the value proposition and act as the blueprint for the MVP. It ensures that your objectives are geared toward providing solutions for your target audience.
3. Start Product Design
You can now start the product design. Follow the process below:
- Market analysis
Most product concepts have already existing competitors. So, carefully analyze the competition. Check their service quality from interviews or reviews from the target audience, as they are likely to be yours as well.
You can also examine the unique value proposition, pricing strategies, and the availability of an app. These would show the benefits that your product can provide to stay ahead of the competition.
- Job Stories Creation
Job stories in product management/ development are documented statements that represent consumer’s drive and expectations. So, you should develop these job stories to guide the MVP design, ensuring that they address the expectations of your potential clients.
- User Flows
This is an essential step in your MVP process. The user flows represent the different paths your users will take while they use your product. Every team member will need to explore different aspects of your product for work.
Design an effective user flow that ensures all paths function as expected, starting from when they open the app to when they complete a task. Wireframes also help to ensure that no logical gaps are missed while considering the user’s satisfaction.
- Wireframes
Create wireframes to represent your product’s basic features. They are layout representations of the client’s side with only the simplest working version. Carry out iterations as you discover possible additional features and list them in order of importance. Choose the most essential functions for implementation in the wireframe. The other features can be included in further stages of development.
- UI Design
After concluding the wireframe, the next step is designing the user interface. The goal is to create a functional, user-centric product so your users don’t struggle to understand your features.
Design an appealing user interface including branding factors like the color scheme, fonts and typography, and other visual essentials.
- Prototype
At this point, you can have an interactive clickable prototype. This version can allow stakeholders and the QA team to sample the product and give feedback to improve capability and usability. Now, you can begin the development stage of the MVP. The prototype also guides the development team, ensuring that they are aligned with the required efficiency throughout the stages of development.
4. MVP Stage
After the design, your dedicated IT vendor can commence the creation of the minimum viable product. They can start by delegating duties and setting clear timelines and requirements for all parties.
The process should consider the input of relevant parties and be open to revisions. Share revisions and consider feedback for modifications to meet the changing customer needs.
Work with software developers that deploy the Agile approach and Scrum framework. This is so that the task is broken into organized, focused sprints that allow them to stay flexible.
After the completion of the MVP, there is the launch. In this final stage, you will be deploying the product to a live platform so that the first users can explore and give feedback. Your team can garner recommendations for further product updates or improvements.
Conclusion
After following these steps, you should have a market-ready minimum viable product. You may decide to revise the product to a full-size project but while working on the MVP, remember to make contributions and alterations to meet your basic goals.
Got an idea? Employ the services of a dedicated IT vendor to work with you to develop products that meet your customers’ needs!
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