MVP — A Smart Approach to go Digital
In this fast-paced era we are living in, where time-saving is very crucial and one has to do a lot in 18 hours available each day, people now demand everything at the tap of their fingertips; be it connecting with someone, executing daily tasks such as paying utility bills or doing grocery, or even the business tasks. This increasing want of people has given rise to the number of applications launched in the past few years.
Launching an application is in no way a piece of cake and one has to think gazillion times and do a proper R&D before investing millions in it, be it an enterprise or a startup. It’s not easy, but it’s never impossible with smart execution. What many enterprises and startups fail to understand is that this should not be done altogether at once. When investing a huge amount of hours and pouring millions into it, a smart approach with minimum risk is to go with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), investing the chunk of their assigned budget for development and saving the rest for marketing and making updates to the product.
Taking this smart approach has many pros attached to it. Some of the advantages which the businesses and startups can benefit from are:
- Focus On Core Functionalities With Minimal Risks
An MVP is the very first version of any application that supports and offers only the core features fulfilling the user’s needs. When a new application is launched in the market, it takes time for people to adopt it and get used to its features. When offered too many features all at one time, only some adapt it and many discard it as it gets too confusing and complicated for them. To achieve success, one should play smartly and should only offer limited features that automate the process but not completely. This increases curiosity among users and they start using the app, waiting for additional features. A prime example of this can be either Facebook or Snapchat, which initially only offered limited features and over time introduced new features, hence making users stick to using the application.
- Development of Early Relationship With Customers
In business, timing is really important. It aids in the recruitment of new users and stakeholders throughout the early stages of development. Early adopters will help you spread the news about your product while also providing invaluable feedback. What could be better for ensuring that your product is completely customer-centric?
- A Better Understanding of Customer’s Needs
The importance of gathering data and thorough study on the target audience cannot be overstated. Feedback from early adopters is far more useful than corporate analytics and experienced consultants’ best assumptions. The sooner a client can try the product, the better. Your users will tell you which features they value the most and which they don’t and what features you should add in the next release.
- Flexibility And Constant Updates
The ability to be extremely sensitive to the needs of today’s fast-paced industry is the next benefit of creating an MVP. The MVP method makes room for customer-requested updates and new features. Additionally, as newer technologies and tools become available, your product might benefit from them. It assists businesses and startups in keeping their product relevant in a crowded market.
- Testing UX and Usability
Creating mobile applications that drive deep customer engagement is a daunting task. According to Localytics, only 32% of users continue to use the app after 3 months, and 21% of users store the app after using it once. It’s important to have goals that go beyond simple downloads. Providing consistent benefits and retaining users is a fundamental goal of UX design, and MVP tests app participation, longevity,\ and lifetime value product potential. Again, cut costs before proceeding with additional development. Using MVPs, organizations collect data and insights on how users interact with their products, evaluate how quickly they understand the purpose and flow of their products, and build on this, can extend the functionality to identify new opportunities that can provide a better user experience.
This is what many businesses and startups fail to understand and go live with an app that is fully loaded with features many of which are extra and not required at that point of time, thus exhausting their budget completely and investing extra time, both of which could have been used for marketing the product and making updates to the product in future. As a result, their business idea and application go down the drain, either because it fails to impress the end-users or someone else has already launched an app, fulfilling the same wants and needs of the people, much earlier than before them.
Going digital and introducing and launching an application does not only require a unique business idea and budget but also requires a smarter approach to hit the market directly and smart utilization of time, because if extra time is utilized in development only, then the opportunity which is available then when the idea is discovered, may get lost when it is finally executed and made available in the market.
