How to Build an MVP for Your Project
Probably everyone who is interested in creating new products heard of the MVP concept. In this article, we will analyze why an MVP is so attractive to startups, how it helps to save money, and what steps are needed to build a perfect MVP. Let’s get started!
What is MVP
MVP (Minimum viable product) is a product with minimal functionality for release. The main idea behind MVP is creating a product that is interesting to the end-user by getting real feedback from the audience at the early stages of the project launch.
Imagine you have developed a product with a huge number of features that you and the development team have carefully thought out and implemented. But after the launch of the product, it turned out that the audience doesn’t use half of the functionality, and on the contrary, users would like to see other features in the product that are not there. What happens? You have wasted time and money, and the product doesn’t meet the needs of the users. Sorry, you lost.
Creating an MVP will prevent this from happening because you build a product with the most essential features making system go and satisfying the needs of users, and later you can implement additional features. So, you spend minimum time on the development of an MVP, and it contains only key functions, the relevance of which for real users should be checked.
Main goals of MVP development:
- reduce project startup time by creating only the necessary functions
- turn down product development costs
- minimize the risks of financial failure
- start getting real feedback on your product
- create a product that best meets the needs of your target audience
Keep in mind that MVP is not a beta version or prototype. It’s your finished product which fulfills its main functions and can be improved in the future. The experience of global companies has proven that the concept works. Companies such as Uber, Snapchat, Foursquare, and Spotify have started with MVPs, and look where they are now.
The Difference Between MVP and Prototype
Once again, MVP is not a prototype. If MPV is a finished product, simply cut in functionality, then a prototype is just a draft. The prototype is being developed to find possible errors, correct hypotheses, and change something in the future. An MVP is the final product that you will release to the market immediately after its development. There can be no bugs or critical errors here. MVP is the engine of your project, which can drive the development process in different directions. You can use a prototype, for example, to attract investors, for small tests on specially selected user groups, and later build a minimum viable product based on it.
5 Steps to Create a Perfect MVP
- Describe your idea
MVP development is often hampered when customers come without a ready-made plan for their future product. The software development team will, of course, draw up requirements, but it’s better to prepare a basic vision that is easier to estimate. You know, only you can tell what you want. So starting with the goal of your product is the best way to create an MVP. Think about the problem that your product will solve. Your task is to describe in one sentence what this product is for and what its main value is.
For example, you want to develop a mobile app for farmers because you know that it will help them create some kind of professional community. What problem does your product solve? Probably, the problem of finding partners and exchanging experience in the agricultural business. So we can say that your mobile app is a professional social network that unites farmers throughout the world and helps them to exchange experience, establish partnerships, and get to know each other.
A description like this is the starting point in your work because it answers the main questions of what your product is and why someone needs it.
2. Analyze your target audience and competitors
Why should you do this? MVP is a concept for those who want to create a really good product for their audiences. How can you do this without knowing your potential buyers and competitors? Having carried out such an analysis once or twice, you have data that will be useful to you at the development stage as well as at the stages of launching, testing, and improving the product. So don’t ignore this step.
Start with a target audience. Target audience is your potential customers, that group of people who may be interested in your product. When you thought about what problem your product solves, you tried it on with your target audience. How to properly describe your potential users? There are several stages here.
- General characteristics: gender, age, place of residence, profession, interests, problems, and values. Write down the key metrics that differentiate your target audience. If you work with a B2B market, describe the type of company, size, industry, and the challenges employees face in their operations.
- Segmenting and narrowing the target audience. The profile of your future customers will be quite broad. For example, people from different professions, different ages. It’s difficult for you to find one solution for such many people with different interests and challenges. Therefore, you need to divide them into groups according to the characteristic that can most affect the way your product develops.
For example, while creating a CRM system for financial institutions, you understand that your potential buyers are banks, insurance, and leasing companies, each with their own tasks and challenges. Having described these segments, you choose the one that will be the most profitable for you and make a product for the needs of this narrow target audience.
- Describe an ideal customer profile (ICP) from your chosen segment. Imagine that you are communicating with your client live and offering your product. Describe it in as much detail as possible, paying special attention to what this person would like to see in your product.
As for competitors, explore 5–10 products that can solve the same user problems that you are going to solve. Pay attention to functionality, marketing, usability to choose the best features for your product, and not repeat other company’s mistakes.
3. Create the user flow
To understand what functionality your product should have, you need to imagine yourself in the user’s place and walk his way. User flow is the path that a user takes when interacting with a product. It should be logical and understandable. The user must know what to do to proceed to the next step. It’s the user journey map that will help you form detailed and clear requirements for the development team.
You can create a user flow as a regular diagram or more visually using additional tools such as Wireflow, Timblee, Draw.io, and others. User Flow is based on the order of actions that the user must perform. User Flow helps you understand whether all processes in the product are logical. By looking at the user flow, a development team can immediately see what is the essence of the solution that the product offers.
Source: Visual Paradigm
4. Make a list of features and prioritize them
That’s it, the key part of your work for creating a perfect MVP. Having dealt with the user flow, you will understand what features are required for your product. List them in a table and prioritize using categories such as high priority, medium priority, and low priority.
- High priority — are fundamental functions without which your app or platform simply can’t work.
- Medium priority — functions that you’d like to have, but they are auxiliary and don’t require priority development.
- Low priority — here can be your “killer-features”, the unique properties of your product that differentiates it from the rest, but such functions are difficult to develop and they require additional study of user experience. If you are sure what exactly “killer-features” are needed for your product, you can classify them as a medium and high priority. Anyway, low priority functions are those that are not mandatory and that you are not completely sure about.
For example, you are about to develop a mobile app for searching for a restaurant nearby. Among the high priority functions will be the creation of a catalog of restaurants with their contacts, user interface, integration with the map. Medium priority functions can be a table reservations form or push notification. And low-priority is the creation of a personal account or some special offers.
To visualize the functions, you can create a matrix based on the user flow where you have a horizontal row showing the main stages of your user flow and under each stage a series of functions dedicated to that stage. Then draw a vertical arrow going down from “high priority” at the top of the column to “low priority” at the bottom.
5. Build your MVP and test it
Having a list of prioritized functions and defining their scope for the first version of the product you can find a development team and start creating your MVP. Remember that an MVP is not a prototype, but a finished product that you will release to the market. Only your users can tell what features they need, what makes your product user-friendly or inconvenient. After the launch of the product, your main task is to collect the maximum feedback from the target audience and draw up a plan for improving the product. Hence, you will spend time developing functions that your users will definitely use.
What’s next
If you want your product to be interesting to users, you need to improve it all the time, adding new functions and features, and also keeping it up to date. MVP is the best minimum set of features that should be of sufficient value and interest to early adopters of your product. An MVP will help you get to the market faster and at the lowest cost. Then listen to users and improve the product for them.
If you need help with writing MVP requirements and developing it, our specialists are always happy to help you. Contact us for a free consultation.
