Facebook, Airbnb and Spotify: 03 successful MVP’s to get inspired
MVP- Minimum Viable Product is a concept widely used in startups. This is a way to prototype initial ideas. It prevents high investments — and precipitous ones — because it tests, with the minimum functionalities, the users’ acceptance of the service or product. MVP is an alpha version of your product that takes less effort, time and money to produce
If you have already liked a post on Facebook, rented an apartment on AirBnb, or listened to a song on Spotify, you have already experimented three products that emerged from an MVP. Let’s check these cases now:
Created in 2004, Facebook, first called Thefacebook, — Didn’t have as many resources as today. It used to be a yearbook for Harvard students (Mark Zuckerberg’s university). Its MVP combined the use of a basic model of the product, with minimal functionality, and tests with a small group of initial users to obtain feedbacks. With all the sucess, the platform expanded to Stanford, Columbia and Yale. Two years later, in 2006 Facebook was officially launched.
Airbnb
This MVP was made by the “Concierge” mode (when the solution to the user’s problem is delivered manually). It started when a design conference came to San Francisco, where Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia lived — They decided to open their apartment for those who couldn’t book a hotel. Using a simple website to announce, they soon got three guests. Concluding that people would pay to stay at someone else’s home instead of hotels, they launched Airbnb, formerly called AirbedAndBreakfast.
Spotify
The initial prototype was with a basic desktop version — That way creators were able to test the market and the product before dealing with bigger concerns like music licensing. Only after testing the idea with real users that Spotify developed a mobile version, invested in design, entered into partnerships with artists and podcasters. They used a four-step production cycle: Think It, Build It, Ship It, Tweak It.
