A startup is a newly created company that is in the development stage and builds its business based on innovative ideas or technologies that have recently appeared. Therefore, the risk is typical in the world of startups. According to statistics, 90% of all startups fail during the first twelve months.
Startups and businesses should win the customer’s trust. They must convince a customer that their product or service is what the buyer has been looking for. In other words, the product should solve particular problems. Only by clearly understanding it, the consumer will start using it. The key idea is to understand whether the audience will buy the product you are going to sell. How to do it? You can ask an MVP development agency to create a minimum viable product.
You can ask an MVP development agency to create a minimum viable product. Another option is to hire developers for your startup who will serve as an extension of your team.
What is an MVP?
MVP is a prototype of a product that entrepreneurs have created and plan to sell. Speaking specifically about startups, the MVP is an early version of an innovative product that is planned to be sold in a certain market after its testing with the help of potential customers. MVP offers minimal, but unique and important value to the user. It allows you to check the viability of your idea based on the feedback of real users.
Why Do You Need an MVP?
The MVP version is needed to get customer approval. Most of your ideas are just a hypothesis that must be tested. Moreover, hypotheses need to be tested continuously, while you are developing your business, and not just at the start. This approach will enable you to create a stable company that won’t fail because its once successful product is no longer needed by the market. By monitoring the changing demands of its users, the company plans everything in advance and releases a new product that the market needs at the moment.
How to Create an MVP?
It takes more time to develop an MVP than a demo version because it is a functional product. It cannot be made in a rush with a lot of bugs. This process must be well-tailored even if it has a few functions or only one feature. So it is better to entrust this task to an experienced team. MVP helps to quickly and inexpensively test most of the ideas. It is a part of the modern product management approach — even illogical and irrational ideas need to be tested in order to make mistakes and gain experience.
Create a Product Concept
It is important to discuss the details and expectations assigned to the product. At this stage, you need to find ways to reduce costs. It’s not just about financial resources. The main goal of an MVP is to test a business model with minimal costs. You should target early users via all possible feedback channels. Besides, you need to develop a promotion strategy and budget.
Create a Consumer Portrait
Without knowing your consumer, it is impossible to create a product that will attract them. Try to accurately describe your typical customer. The better you know your target audience, the more successful the project will be. After defining your customer, you will clearly see if your product is going to be in demand. For example, it is pointless to sell an elite product at a high price in a small town with low salaries, even if it is of superb quality. In this case, your idea will quickly become unprofitable.
Study Your Competitors
You will not achieve success without this stage. It is a wrong approach to consider your product unique. In most cases, entrepreneurs are just creating products that already exist on the market. Assessment of other companies’ behavior will allow you to analyze the idea from a new angle.
Develop User Journey Map
One of the essential points of every product is its ease of use. Its well-thought-out construction directly affects the success and convenience. A user journey map represents customer interaction with a product. You need to clearly describe the actions that the visitor has to take. At this stage, you need to build UX/UI design.
List Product Features
Start building a product with a set of different functions depending on the demand for them. You can see what competitors offer. But it is better not to implement too many features until you verify that everything works at the highest level. Unless absolutely necessary, leave adding new features for later.
Collect Feedback
MVP is an effective method to learn what customers think about your business idea. The main thing here is to understand whether there will be a demand for your product. Many startups completely ignore the information received from the first users. That’s a mistake.
Define performance evaluation parameters to simplify the process. The following indicators are the most important:
- number of positive reviews
- number of app downloads
- bounce rate
- average session time, etc.
Analyze the Strong and Weak Points of Your Idea
You can use a SWOT analysis at this stage. This method allows you to assess the capabilities of a product and the threats that it may face. The abbreviation means the following:
S — strengths;
W — weaknesses;
O — opportunities;
T — threats.
Make a Decision Regarding Product Launch
If you have every reason to consider your idea successful, a decision is made if it is worth launching a full-fledged product. After creating an MVP, gradually add new functionality, dividing development into a small series of tasks. The first working version will show the strong and weak points of the product and help assess the risks.
Endnote
MVP does not require burdening investments but it is able to interest consumers. It is created not for the active promotion of the brand and not for immediate profit. MVP development for startups and businesses allows a novice entrepreneur to use basic start-up principles to invest capital profitably. The main benefit of MVP is the opportunity to develop, test, and match real customer demands. The idea is already embedded, and you just need to add extra features to provide your future audience with a greater solution.
