Using MVP In Client Projects
I was asked how we, as user experience practitioners, communicate the importance of MVP to a client.
Marc — you’re right.
Some clients mental model is ingrained with a waterfall approach of design, develop, deliver. They expect to sign-off multiple static designs and expect you to deliver the finished website at the end.
How do we change this perception to a more agile approach, focus on MVP and ultimately explain the benefits to customers?
Change the mental model
The client is asking you to make them a website. They’re seeking an expert to deliver this, but because their mental model is one of a waterfall approach, that’s the way they frame the brief.
You have to go back to basics. Explain that:
- The internet is not a printing press
- You tweak and improve
- You don’t deliver once, you constantly deliver
- You hypothesise, test and release
Try and encourage them to take the long-term view — hire you as their web design expert for 12 months and then they’ll see measurable results.
Show your client examples of how large companies like Amazon have used A-B testing to improve sales. There’s lots of blog posts about this, so go through a few of these with your client. Show them that designing everything up-front and making it live is fundamentally flawed to making a successful website long-term.
Discover the real brief
The majority of briefs I have read hint at a solution within them. You need to challenge the brief, and find out what they’re really needing: What are their business objectives? What user feedback have they had? Why commission this? You should be demonstrating your value by identifying the problem and then suggesting one or a few viable solutions that you could help them with.
Show how you deliver
In agile, you’re delivering little and often, giving the customer value sooner.
If you can get the first version of a homepage, about page and contact page, with the minimal amount of information done within a week, then you can start measuring traffic, user test and start getting Google to index the site.
Explain to your client that you won’t design a page and get sign off and that you certainly won’t design many versions of the homepage. Explain the waste that that will result in and how it is better to develop and iterate one design.
MVP is the strategy
A minimum viable product is the absolute minimum you could launch a website with. By determining what is the absolute minimum, you can deliver that quickly and start getting value. I’ve been in teams where we’ve delivered an MVP after 2 days. Something is better than nothing and something is definitely better than a “coming soon” page.
Here’s a slideshare of some strategies you could use:
www.slideshare.net/andersr/the-ux-of-minimum-viable-products
Capitalise on your first meeting
Use your first meeting as Day 1 and start the MVP in your meeting. Use Twitter Bootstrap or another framework and design in the browser — time with the client is precious, so why not get right into it!
Your client is not the user
Explain that you and your client are not the target users here. The client is the business owner and you are the designer. Every decision you make should be backed-up. You need to encourage feedback from the client such as “yes, this meets our business objectives”, “we should include a 24-hour phone number”, “our summer sale is our high-traffic period — we should ensure this is front and centre”. Feedback such as “move the logo to the left 2 pixels or make all the buttons red” need to be challenged — why has the client given you this information?
Frame the feedback
Like I’ve said, the customer will expect to ‘sign-off’ a website design, expecting you then to code it exactly as they’ve seen it. Explain that a photoshop file won’t show the interactivity — and that we’ll want users to interact with the site.
Some clients just won’t understand
While all the above should help, some people just won’t listen. They’re paying for it so they know what needs to be done. Situations like these need to be considered carefully — if they’re not willing to follow your process that clearly works, maybe this isn’t the perfect working relationship?
MVP helps clients and users
Creating minimum viable products means earlier return on investment, speedier delivery and better value. Clients need educating of its benefits and you need to do a better job at dissecting their brief.
