“A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.’’, says Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup.
So you have a great idea that could disrupt the existing line of services or a remarkable conception that could make your company leap forward and gross profit?
Be it a product, website, platform, mobile app or e-commerce portal we like to follow the classic plan of action, first beginning with strategizing, production and marketing. But most ‘startuppers’ opine that developing a full-fledged product isn’t all necessary, primarily because it saves a great deal of time, effort, and finances of everyone involved.
Let us solve the riddle for you.
The best feasible solution is to invest in MVP, Minimum Viable Product.
UNDERSTANDING MVP AND WHERE IT CAME FROM
It was only in 2011 that Eric Ries came out with his bestselling book The Lean Startup, which grabbed attention and captivated the entire startup industry. It included concepts of internal survey focusing on the target audience, agile principles, and constant software deployment.
Minimum Viable Product refers to a product development technique that involves developing only the necessary set of features to gauge a product’s potential to succeed in the market and identify improvement areas. The major premise on which it hinges on is that many startup ideas fail because they bring full-range, fully functional product without evaluating its operation and usefulness to the prospective users.
WHY IS MVP IMPORTANT
MVP becomes essential to assess the scope of customers’ interest with the least possible effort and time. When the product’s efficiency is backed by consumer reviews, failures and huge capital losses can be avoided.
HOW MVP FUNCTIONS
When we say that MVP works by introducing the basic form of the idea, it is to say that the initial form must target customer needs and add only those features which they need while focusing on the core service of the product. Bringing in a product or a website with all its complex features without testing only results in wastage of resources.
You can follow these simple steps to steer clear of any fallouts at a later stage:
1. Reaching out to the target audience
This calls for testing the product with potential buyers in real-time market conditions like recent technologies, product dynamism, and finances. Testing the product with a small group of people allows you to evaluate its performance and decide if it is good enough to be introduced in the big market.
2. Concentrating on the core features
Adding non-essential features only makes the product complex and make it lose its fundamental value. It results in production mess. It is advisable to add only those features which will ascertain success in the market.
3. Minimize production cost and time
Working only on the main features save a lot of time and effort. So instead of fully developing the product and failing later, work on developing a minimised working model for the market or client base. If the reviews are positive, you can take it as a green signal that it will be a success and guarantee returns. And if some loopholes are reported, you can always work on them or completely abandon it.
4. Adopting agile and iterative process
Follow the process of first introducing the product, collecting reviews and using the reviews in refining and upgrading the product in each future version.
Taking an example from the most successful venture, Uber- it introduced UberCab as MVP in San Francisco, 2009. Initially, its aim was only to check its efficiency and usability. Later, with every upgrade, new features were added. Today, Uber is spread across the world providing exceptional service in over 60 countries and 400 cities.
Dropbox, Spotify, Twitter, and many more successful entrepreneurial ventures share the same story. We see that they introduced only a smaller version for testing, i.e. Minimum Viable Product only to become what they are today.
So, the bottom line is that considering and enacting on MVP can save many unexpected outcomes. Additionally, it can also reduce cost, time and effort by turning the production into an agile and iterative process.
Need help developing an MVP? We are eager to help you. Reach us at SellnShip.in to get started.