The term MVP means a Minimum Viable Product or a product that requires the least effort to make a complete product.
When designing an MVP, it’s important to remember there is no such thing as a perfect prototype. If you want to create something people will use, then you need to make it as easy as possible for them.
Contents
What Is a Minimum Viable Product – Background and Definition?
The term “Minimum Viable Product” was formed by Frank Robinson and made popular by Eric Ries, who came up with the “Lean Startup” methodology. Ries says that a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the version of a new product that lets the product team collect the maximum amount of validated learning about how customers use it with the least amount of work. The technique is part of the Lean Startup methodology since MVPs are meant to test business hypotheses such as product-market fit, and validated learning is one of the method’s five principles.
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) definition is to test new products or services before launching them in the market. This process of reducing your planned product or service to its bare minimum and testing it with potential customers allows you to identify what is the core product you can release and still have people who want to buy it.
Why Is Minimum Viable Product Important? Why Build an MVP?
The MVP concept is a great way to validate your product vision and make sure people want it and will pay for it. If you start building a product by building a Minimum Viable Product, you’ll be able to use feedback from early adopters to help you improve your product and business ideas. That will save a great amount of time and money in the long run. When designing a minimum marketable product for the company, you must remember that it should have just the essentials.
Your MVP should be the first version of what you envision your final product to be. This will help you avoid any unnecessary expenses and save time. It will also help you get feedback on what features or changes customers want, or how they will use the product.
How to Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?
The sole purpose of an MVP approach is to identify what your value proposition is. This means you will need to figure out the basic features of your product and then build the Minimum Viable Product.
To do this, it helps to think about the following:
- What is the minimum feature set you basically need?
- How many core features do you want?
- What features should be eliminated?
The second step is to test your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with potential customers. You must now work on narrowing down the pain points in your business idea and the least amount of effort needed for an item to have basic functionality.
One of the main business ideas behind MVP is that you should make a working prototype (which may be nothing more than a landing page or a service that looks automated and done by hand) that you can give to customers and watch how they use it. This business model helps you foresee the future development of the full-blown product with just the existing tools.
As you get useful feedback from potential customers, make changes. You can then release new versions of your product or service through tests and surveys. Use customer feedback and test end users for valuable marketing information about a final version.
Expand your knowledge, follow us for more!
3 Tips When Building a Successful Minimum Viable Product
1. Build a prototype
The first step in creating a minimum viable product is building a prototype. It gives people a glimpse of what the final product will look like or how it will work. This will let you know if developers need to make any changes before going live with your product.
The goal is to deliver something tangible so people can experience your idea while it is still a product idea.
2. Understand customer needs
Good product managers should always talk to the customers and find out what their needs are before releasing an MVP. It’s important to know what features they want and how much they’re willing to pay for them. This determines how much investment you need from them to fund your project.
3. Find the sweet spot
You want to find the sweet spot where there isn’t too little or too much in your product. Too many features might overwhelm people. In the same way, not enough features could make them feel cheated when they buy the finished product. Neither is good for business!
Finding this “sweet spot” means finding out what features will sell best at a price point that makes sense for customers but has enough value for your company.
How to Define an MVP with User Story Mapping?
When designing a successful MVP, you need to define your Minimum Viable Product. What features and functions are necessary to make the product usable? To do this, you can use user story mapping.
User story mapping is where you create a visual backlog called a user story map of story cards. You start by building user personas and then create stories of how they interact with your product.
Step 1: Discover project goals
The first step you’ll want to take is figuring out what your goals are. What is the purpose of the product or service? Why do you want to make it? What are you hoping it will accomplish in the long run?
You’ll also want to pinpoint what your business goals are. What do you hope this MVP will help you achieve? Do you plan on using the MVP as a way to test market conditions for a future product launch? Or do you just need a simple proof of concept for your idea?
Once you’ve determined these answers, it will be easier to create your minimum viable product.
Step 2: Create user personas
The key to designing a successful MVP is understanding who your customers are. You need to know what their needs are, how they think, and what they value. Tying all this information together will help you create the perfect product.
To do this, create user personas. A user persona is a fictional representation of your customer. It is based on research into their demographic and psychographic profile.
User personas can be used in any stage of the product development process—from planning to testing. It ensures that you’re building the right thing for the right people. A good way to start is by answering questions like:
- Who is my customer?
- What does my customer need?
- What frustrates my customer?
- What would excite my customer?
- Who are some competitors of mine?
Step 3: Define user stories
Before you start working on your prototype, it’s important to define some user stories. User stories are a way for you to describe the different scenarios and goals of your customers or users.
For example, if you were trying to design a new website, one of your user stories may be: “As a blogger, I want to upload my blog posts with ease.” These user stories will allow you to focus on how your customer is using the product, rather than how they should be using the product.
Start it with AI! Generate user stories with AI assistance in seconds!
Step 4: Define the core product functions
Defining your core product functions is the final step in designing an MVP. Once you have defined what your new product will do, then you can start to determine the features that will help it happen.
For example, if your website is going to offer live streaming of sports games, then a video player should be one of the core functions. You don’t need social media integration to be a core function because all of your customers could use their accounts to connect with other people watching the game too.
After identifying each of the key functions, you should prioritize them. Determine which are most important and focus on those first reorganizing the story cards. You can always add features later if they become necessary or desirable for users.
Step 5: Slice out the first release
Congratulations, it’s the plan of your MVP! You can do the estimation with the development team and transform user stories into epics, breaking them down into tasks. In the next sprint, you can start coding.
Build better products faster.
Get started with StoriesOnBoard today!
14-day Free Trial. No Credit Card is Required.
MVP Examples
As you see from these examples of minimum viable products, MVP is not about building products or services from different pieces, but about creating the simplest possible product that works.
Conclusion
There may be no foolproof method of guaranteeing a successful MVP. There are certain principles that you can follow to maximize your chances of building a product that your customers will love. These principles should guide your decisions and you should always be looking for user feedback on the product.