Build an MVP and save your Start-up Dreams!
Save your wallet too, while you at it.
Aspiring entrepreneurs, listen up!
We all know, building a startup can be a daunting task.
But one thing that can save you from a lot of heartaches is an MVP.
Now, you might be familiar with the concept and may have built one or a few. But for those who are only about to put their feet on the accelerator, this could be an essential read.
Picture this: you have a great idea for a new product. You spend months, maybe even years, perfecting it in your mind. Sketching out every detail, and dreaming about how it will change the world. Finally, you take the plunge and invest all your time, money, and resources into building this masterpiece. But when you launch it to the public, it falls flat. Your target market doesn’t find it useful. They don’t see the value in it, and you’re left with a failed startup and a lot of debt. This is where MVP comes to the rescue.
But what’s an MVP anyway? And how can it save your breath in chasing the dragon of success in the competitive world of entrepreneurship?
What is an MVP?
MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product.
It’s the most basic version of your product that you can create, with enough features to satisfy early adopters. And test your idea in the market.
It’s not the final product, but rather a prototype that you can launch fast and at a low cost. It would save you valuable time, effort, and resources.
Let me give you an example of how MVP saved the day for Me and My partner, eventually. And exposed our naivety in the process.
My co-founder and I were both non-tech, sales executives at a Fortune 500 company. We didn’t have any idea about startups, nor we had any knowledge of software or mobile applications. But what we lacked in experience, more than made up in enthusiasm and a groundbreaking Idea!! (or at least, so we thought)
We hired a bunch of developers. Wracked our brains in coffee shops, after hours, and between breaks on our day job. Weeks became months, and our app kept having new and “Improved” feature after feature. Until finally, we launched an app to rival WAZE (the popular traffic and GPS app). Results? less than 100 downloads in 6 months.
But we didn’t give up. We decided to take a step back. We brought in a third partner, a software engineer. He had a technical background and a lot more industry know-how. He taught us the importance of MVP and built one. He stripped down the software to its core features and launched it to a small group of early adopters.
They loved it!
They gave us valuable feedback on how to improve the software. And we were able to make those changes quickly and at a low cost. We kept iterating on the MVP. Until we had a product that was both user-friendly and met the needs of our target market. This time, when we launched the final product, it was a huge success.
But, how do you build an MVP?
There are many practical ways to do it, but here are a few easy and practical tips that I think are useful:
Define the core features of your product:
What are the essential features that your target market needs? Start with those and build from there.
Create a prototype:
Use a tool like Sketch or Figma to create a visual representation of your product. This will help you see what it will look like and get feedback from others.
Test with early adopters:
Launch your MVP with a small group of early adopters and get their feedback. Use their feedback to make improvements to the product.
Keep iterating:
Keep improving your MVP based on feedback until you have a product that meets the needs of your target market.
“The goal of an MVP is to begin the process of learning, not end it.” — Eric Ries
Now, I’m sure you are still wondering, what are the real benefits of an MVP?
Well, here are a few key ones that should be reason enough to build one:
1. Testing your idea: An MVP allows you to test your idea with real customers before investing too much time and money into a full-scale product. This helps you validate your assumptions and make sure you are building something that people want.
2. Saving time and money: Developing an MVP can save you time and money by allowing you to launch a simpler version of your product that focuses on the core features. This way, you can avoid building unnecessary features that may not be useful to your customers.
3. Getting feedback: An MVP allows you to get feedback from early adopters and make improvements based on their feedback. This helps you create a product that meets the needs of your target market.
4. Identifying problems early: Launching an MVP can help you identify problems early in the development process. By testing your product with real customers, you can find out what’s not working. And make improvements before investing too much time and money.
5. Attracting investors: Investors are often more willing to invest in a startup that has launched an MVP and has evidence of customer interest and traction.
6. Building a community: Launching an MVP can help you build a community of early adopters who are invested in your product and are willing to provide feedback and share it with others.
In all honesty, and many of you might know, MVPs could look ugly in the beginning. You could look at one and go, how can this even become a palatable product? You would be surprised to know how many massive unicorns came out of the same process.
Their unrecognizable early-stage UI/UX would surely shock you. But time and again, MVP proved to be the go-to strategy for success down the road. Still not convinced?
Let’s look at some real-life examples then.
Case study 1: Instagram
- Instagram’s MVP was a simple photo-sharing sharing app, available only on iOS devices when it launched in October 2010.
- The app’s interface was minimalistic, with only three tabs: Feed, Popular, and Profile. The Feed tab displayed a grid of photos posted by users that a person followed. While the Popular tab displayed the most liked photos on the platform.
- Users could only upload photos taken within the app. Which could be edited using filters that the company had designed in-house.
- The app did not have any messaging or direct sharing features, so users could only comment on and like each other’s photos.
In a 2018 interview with Forbes, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom explained how the app’s focus on photo-sharing and filters helped it gain traction early on and establish a loyal user base.
And now it’s one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over a billion monthly users
Case study 2: Airbnb
- Airbnb’s MVP was launched in 2008 as a website that allowed people to rent out their living space to travelers. The website’s interface was very simple, with a search bar on the homepage where users could input their desired location and dates of travel.
- Limited search functionality: The website’s search functionality was very basic and limited. Users could only search for listings in specific cities and were unable to filter results based on price, location, or other criteria.
- Poor quality control: As the platform was in its early stages, there were no quality control mechanisms in place to ensure the quality of the listings. This led to a lot of variability in the quality of the accommodations available.
- Lack of trust: The platform lacked a robust trust and safety system, which made it difficult for users to feel confident in booking accommodations with strangers. This was a major obstacle for the company as it tried to attract more users.
In a 2018 interview with Forbes, Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky explained how the company’s focus on peer-to-peer lodging helped it create a unique value proposition that disrupted the travel industry.
In a 2020 blog post, Airbnb also discussed how its MVP was not perfect, but allowed the team to iterate and add more features over time based on user feedback, which helped the company stay ahead of the competition.
And today they are worth close to $100 billion.
Case study 3: Dropbox
- Drew Houston, Dropbox’s co-founder and CEO, developed a prototype of the platform in 2007 while he was working on another startup idea. He was frustrated with his own difficulty in accessing and sharing files across different devices, and saw an opportunity to create a solution for others facing the same problem.
- The initial version of Dropbox was a basic file storage and sharing service, with a folder that users could drag and drop files into, and then access from any device connected to the internet.
- Dropbox’s MVP lacked many of the features that would become essential to its current success, such as automatic syncing, version history, and collaborative editing. In addition, the user interface was very basic and lacked the polished design that would later become a hallmark of the platform.
Despite its limitations, Dropbox’s MVP resonated with early users and quickly gained traction. The company was able to raise funding from venture capitalists and grow its user base through word-of-mouth marketing.
Over time, Dropbox added new features and refined its design, based on user feedback and data. The company’s focus on user experience and ease of use helped it differentiate from competitors in the crowded online storage and sharing space.
Today it is a publicly-traded company with a market cap of over $8 billion.
“The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.” — Eric Ries
I know, it’s easier said than done. It’s only human to fall in love with your idea and be super pumped up as a new entrepreneur. But you need to contain your excitement and focus on the end goal. Oftentimes, you will have the urge to add more and make the product better for your users. But in reality, that might not happen.
It’s great if you can come up with the next iPhone, but you will not know for certain unless you have verified user feedback. Even iPhone had a lot of challenges and limitations at first.
You might be savvier than us and possibly have already built your MVP.
I sincerely hope so.
Let me know about your experiences in the comments.
I am always excited to hear about other founders’ stories!
Wherever you are in your start-up journey, I wish you all the best.
Now that we have established, you should build an MVP, in the next article we will discuss how to build an one, step by step.
And what to avoid while building one.
Till then, Happy Dreaming dear fellow Founders!
Thank you for Reading!
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