MVP
Have you ever heard the term MVP in the product industry? I guess most of you’ll know because all the companies develop their MVP product at first.
What is a MVP?
The Wikipedia says,
“A minimum viable product has just enough core features to effectively deploy the product, and no more. Developers typically deploy the product to a subset of possible customers - such as early adopters thought to be more forgiving, more likely to give feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from an early prototype or marketing information.”
Why is the MVP developed first?
Initially, startup companies prefer to show their product to the clients. This way, they understand the customers’ mind set and needs. With the help of minimum viable product, the companies gain clients much faster. Initially, based on the users’ feedback, they will continuously enhance their product.
The client needs only the functionalities. Then, the company progressively
updates the UI, features, fixes bugs, etc. Most of the companies use agile methodology to get the minimum viable product.
How to develop a MVP?
First list the features, ordering it from high to low. Then, decide on the core features of your product. Develop the core features at the beginning. This will be useful when you meet the client or market. It is the only key which can distinguish you from other players in the market. In case your client needs any feature, give high priority for that feature.
This is the crucial stage for any startup company. The client will only decide the deadline for that feature. If you don’t develop a feature for a particular client, you will miss the boat. You not only lose the client, you also don’t get any client feedback, network, support, subsidiaries. It costs an arm and a leg of the company.
Example:
For example, let’s take a mobile application. Its core feature is to read a message to find the distance between the two different locations and to use the date (from the message) to search a taxi service, bus, train or flight if it is available between the locations at that particular date.
First, we need to develop the core feature. After that, we get the user base. Then, we shall update the features, say a booking option for search results. Provide an account for the users who are using our app. These kind of continuous updates fully engage the user with our application.
So, first develop the minimum viable product (MVP) to grab the customer base initially. Based on the users’ review, you shall develop your product further. This will reduce the cost and valuable time effectively.