What makes a good MVP?
We want to know the secret behind building good MVPs. But, before we do, let’s take a step back and understand what an MVP is and, is it even needed.
Back in the day, when I started my journey as a BA(officially), we(me, the Tech Lead in the team and the QA) wanted to try things differently.
Ours was a mobile application for which we were building the functional piece and an API façade layer(to handle all the business logic). We were dependant on external vendors for our data needs as they were building those APIs.
We had the design mockups for all the possible screens with us so, we decided to stick them on a whiteboard to help us visualise a journey.
After a lot of shuffling, we were able to define a “happy path” and, it became our MVP.
Just like that! How did it happen?
- We collaborated(BA, QA, Devs in the team) and collectively worked on the happy path based on our understanding from the business.
- Created user stories with INVEST in mind.
- Ran ourselves through the “happy path” first then, the stakeholders.
- Had a buy in from everyone in terms of the value generation, must have, good to have.
Voilà! we had defined our MVP, subconsciously but, with collaboration.
What is the definition of MVP then?
Whatever generates value to the end customer with the least time involved in the development is your MVP.
(Online search, but, delivers the same message, almost) MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, is a development methodology that emphasises the creation of a product or service with the minimum set of features necessary to validate key assumptions about the product or service and its potential customers
What happens post MVP, should we stop?
Not at all, MVP is the setting point for your product/project, post that, you build the remaining features iteratively.
Note: This article is written taking a project into consideration, not a product.
Is MVP even needed?
Not necessarily. If yours is a classic Agifall project, you may chose to not get into defining an MVP(of course after discussing the same with your stakeholders) but, defining a baseline(which delivers value and continues to do so going forward)is always appreciated for you to build iteratively.
Few FAQs regarding MVP:
My stakeholders want to define MVP and we feel it is not doable, what should be our course of action?
Stakeholders thinking about MVP is a good first step in the right direction. If you feel there is a better way to do things, you need to educate them about MVP, ask questions about happy path, value generation.
I spoke about “happy path” a couple of times in the article, it’s not the usual path one would take but most of the users would.
What is an ideal MVP?
There is no ideal MVP, you build one based on the information at hand and collaboration with the team(including the stakeholders).
Should you feel pressurised while thinking about an MVP?
In my experience so far, don’t worry much about MVP, follow the process, you’ll end up with an MVP. Simply thinking about it restricts our thought process as we want to quickly build and launch.
Are MVP and PoC same?
No, they aren’t. MVP is about testing a product or service with real customers, while PoC is about testing the feasibility of an idea or concept.
Now go! build your own MVP 🙂.
