Demystifying the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

“The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries was a turning point in entrepreneurial management, it gave a new dimension of managing organizations in lean way by implementing validated learning and the build-measure-learn feedback loop. It also introduced the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

Although the definition looks simple in nature, at the same time it has a lot of room for subjective interpretation, which has resulted in multiple misconceptions regarding what an MVP is and what it is not. In this article, I will try to explain my understanding of an MVP and will also try to clear some common confusions regarding MVPs.

Why everyone is confused about what an MVP is?

The word MVP is used so frequently in discussions regarding startups and product development, it has become a cliché of sorts, everyone uses this word but seldom understand the purpose behind it. Most of the times teams believe that MVP is the minimum set of features they can develop (the minimum part of the loop) without an understanding that it must contain sizeable functionality to identify the business viability of the idea (the measure and feedback part of the loop).

Sometimes people confuse Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with Minimum Marketable Product (MMP) which has a focus on revenue generation. Most teams focus on the Minimum part but ignore the viable part, which stipulates that you must implement features to measure customer satisfaction and constantly improve the produce based on the feedback received. If we break up the 3 letters that give the MVP Acronym its name, we get the following:

Minimum (M)

Minimum in all types of activities; efforts, investment and scope.

Viable (V)

Usable by customer, professional, potential of becoming something big enough to generate revenue.

Product (P)

A usable, ship able entity (tangible/intangible) that is created through a Process and solves a real Need for its Customers.

Common Misconceptions regarding MVPs

MVP is just a prototype, landing page or a video

Many people infer that MVPs could be created by just developing a landing page, video or a prototype of sorts. While these may be the first steps in validating a customer’s need for the product or service, they could not be categorized as MVP simply because these are not an actual product that customers can use to solve their problem or fulfill their need.

If the MVP is not successful, the product is doomed to fail

Fact Check: 9 out of 10 startups fail within initial 5 years.

Based on this fact, you may be thinking that if your MVP fails, your product has failed too; fortunately this is not the case. A failed MVP is a learned lesson, not a dead end. As Eric Ries has pointed out, validated learning is not a one time activity, it is an ongoing loop in which you build, measure and learn, then start from the beginning. So if your MVP has failed, you can always pivot based on the feedback collected from the customers. Repeat the build, measure and learn loop until you find a good product-market fit.

MVP is a fit for building a small product in low cost

Everyone wants to go to market as soon as possible, with the lowest cost. An MVP cannot be treated as a small functional product and its core focus should be to get the idea validated to the maximum extent possible, with least focus on fast and cheap time-to-market.

More Features, the Better

Another misconception regarding MVP is that the more features MVP contains, the better chance it will have to be successful. MVP must be laser focused on validating the core business idea rather than adding bells and whistles to it. Once the idea is validated, you can gradually add features to the product that can add value to customers and drop the ones that do not.

You need lots of money to create an MVP

Due to this misconception, a lot of ideas die even before they are discussed with anyone. You do not need to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to get an MVP developed, you just need a sizeable budget that pays for the effort of the team working on the idea analysis, prototyping and the app development part of the MVP. If done right, you can have a running product that can solve a specific problem faced by customer and could be launched as a beta version. This beta version can then be used to validate the idea with customers, collect feedback, prepare for future product strategy and even raise money for your product.

Steps to develop a successful MVP

The following basic steps could be followed to develop and launch a successful MVP:

1. Groom your idea into a product vision. Focus on core features that help in solving customer’s problem and give you a competitive edge in the market.
2. Develop the features to form a basic version of your product. integrate feedback collection capabilities within the product so that customer can easily submit feedback while using the product. The easier it is to submit feedback, the more feedback you’ll get.
3. Reach out to your customers, motivate them to use the product (maybe with an offer or something as gift) and create a hype around your product.
4. Collect the feedback and analyze it. Try to identify which features customers like and which ones they hate. Review customer suggestions in detail.
5. Use the learning to improve the product and repeat steps from 1 till 4 until you get to a stage where customers are willing to pay for your product. At this stage you can kick-off your journey to develop a fully mature product. This feedback loop will also help you in persuading investors to invest in your product vision.

Interested in developing an MVP?

Over the course of past 7 years, we have created and launched multiple MVPs for ourselves and also helped a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs in launching MVPs. We can take you from idea to MVP in 2 months of time and it will cost you just $10K. If this seems an interesting proposition, click on the link below to learn more:

https://www.intelligenes.com/idea-to-mvp-for-10k/

Happy Entrepreneuring!

This post originally appeared at Intelligenes Official Blog which could be found at:

https://www.intelligenes.com/2019/10/15/demystifying-the-minimum-viable-product-mvp/