How To Build Minimum Viable Product From Your Great Idea
When someone is creating an application, it is common for them to worry about how they’re going to build a successful mobile application and not fail at it. The best way they can do this is by first creating an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
So, what is minimum viable product definition? It’s a developing an app with the most basic features and then receiving feedback from users on it. If you receive positive feedback from the users, then it motivates you to build the real app product. Building an MVP app is a smart thing to do because it is much more affordable, compared to cost of a mobile app with many features from the beginning, which means there’s less risk involved.
Unfortunately, the majority of MVPs end up failing. The big question is… why? The problem could either be with the developers’ individual minimal viable products or the whole concept of building Minimum Viable Product in general.
How Come MVPs Often Fail?
The following is a list of mistakes that you’ll want to avoid when it comes to building MVP. If you have an idea of the mobile application and you want it to succeed, then you must take these issues seriously when working with mobile app development company.
1. The Business Model is Not Clear
The biggest reason that MVP apps often fail is that entrepreneurs are not creating a business model that is clear. Rather than concern themselves with the business side of it, they’re too eager to jump right into the technology and the development of the product. In their minds, they think the money will be there as long as they make a good app that they can monetize. This is a sloppy strategy, and it will usually result in failure.
2. Not Interactive Enough
This mistake is an extension of the previous one. Entrepreneurs like to focus on putting lots of features into their MVP designs. They’re hoping to create one very special feature that will define the product. The problem is that awesome features aren’t what gets people to use an app. If you want to motivate users to use your app, it must allow interactions between them.
3. Unattractive to Users
As entrepreneurs are developing their product, they typically don’t think about what will attract people to their app when it launches. This means that if no one is using the app after it launches, the developer won’t receive any feedback to evaluate. That is why you need to design MVP in a way that is thoughtful and will attract people to it immediately.
The Proper Method Of Building A Minimum Viable Product
A lot of MVP applications are created using as role models apps like Facebook, Uber, and Airbnb. Each of these applications is really platforms which encourage users to interact with them repeatedly. In order for the platform to have interactions, it must allow users to communicate and exchange something with one another. The thing they exchange must be of some value.
Creating value on a platform is not the same as creating value in other business types. Users of a platform are the ones who create the value on it. Therefore, try to create a product which implements the business model of a platform into it. The two best examples are Airbnb and Uber. If you’re ready to hire an app developer to create your own MVP application and make it successful like this, here is how you can start.
1. Figure Out the Core Value
You need to figure out what your platform’s core value is. In other words, what value are you giving to the users of your platform? With Airbnb, their platform publishes lists of all the user accommodations that are available. Facebook offers value from their newsfeed and Uber offers value from their digital map which illustrates where the nearest taxis are.
If you want your platform to be successful, viable, and functional, it must have a core value. This will increase the user demand for the platform. So, if you can learn the core value of the product, then you will understand how to design the architecture of the platform. After that, you can worry about building the interactions which take place around the value. Don’t chase the idea of implement all mobile app development trends into the first version of the app.
2. Developing Interactions to Surround the Core Value
What you now must figure out is, how are you going to create interactions in the Minimum Viable product build where users get to exchange something of value with each other? Let’s use Facebook as an example. If you were developing that, you would need to figure out the best way to bring a steady amount of content into the feeds of you and your friends. If you were building an app like Etsy, the concern you’d have to address is getting creative individuals of handmade products to sell them on there. All of these popular platforms figured out how to get users to regularly interact with them. So, how will you do the same on your platform?
When you’re figuring out how to create a core interaction, there are four processes that it will contain. They are:
1) Creating Value
2) Consistently Maintaining a Quality Service Offering
3) Easy User Customization and Access
4) Value Consumption
When creating value for something like Instagram, this would involve allowing users to register for an account, typing in their personal information, uploading their own photographs, editing their own photographs, and publishing them to their profile. Then, other users can comment on these photos and “like” them. As for user customization, all their posts get automatically sorted based on their comments and likes. The value being consumed occurs as you simply observe your feed on Instagram.
To know if a Minimum Viable Product you built is successful, there must be other people using it. The way you get these people is by attracting them to it. But, how?
3. Chicken and Egg Problem Solving
The common ways of attracting users are to advertise or optimize the listing in the App Store. But are consumers or producers going to be the first ones to use the platform? Producers will only create value on the platform if consumers are already there. On the other hand, consumers won’t be consuming anything if they show up first.
This chicken and egg dilemma needs a good solution planned out before you build MVP mobile app. According to a book by Sangeet Paul Choudary entitled Platform Scale, you should start by finding those that are tough to attract and then start attracting them first. Vimeo is a good example of a content platform with this problem. Although they have plenty of people watching their videos, they don’t have enough people creating videos on their platform. So, to attract these video creators, Vimeo allows creators to host and stream their videos through the platform. They can even monetize their videos too and make money from it. This is perfect for independent filmmakers and any other video creators who want to get their work out there.
Now what?
If you can do the things that were listed, you can develop the proper strategy to build a successful Minimum Viable Product before you hire an app development company. Now, what is the next step? Once you have got your strategy down, the next step is to upscale the interactions with something new and exciting. You need to enhance your platform’s capabilities by developing edge interactions.
When Airbnb first launched in 2008, they only had a website. This enabled them to analyze their idea’s viability and help them figure out which features need to stay and which ones needed to go. Four years later, they finally developed Android application. This was the time when they started adding new features known as edge interactions. These included a Guidebook that indicates the nearest locations to go to and a “Translate” feature to translate content and descriptions for users who speak other languages.
Edge interactions are the key to enhancing the interactive experience for consumers and producers. Once this happens, the MVP mobile app becomes more attractive. Just remember that platform development is not like developing other businesses. The platform won’t become successful by throwing more money into advertising, hiring more employees, or adding extra products.
