You’ve had an idea for a startup. You’ve got your team ready to go; you want to build your product as quickly as possible, get to market, attract investors, and turn your vision into a successful business.
You have a long road ahead of you, but, as with anything, you just need to take that first step.
That first step isa Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Maybe you’ve heard of MVP before; maybe you haven’t.
Either way, by the end of this article, you will have everything you need to build your MVP.
In this article, I will:
- Define “Minimum Viable Product”
- Explain why you should build one
- Show you how to build an MVP with a structured process
Ready? Let’s get started.
What is an MVP?
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is exactly what it says on the tin.
It is the most simple version of your product.
It contains the basic features needed to capture the attention of early adopters and prove your product as the best solution to your users’ problem.
A Minimum Viable Product is “a version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.” - Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup.
If your MVP is successful, you can then start “tuning the engine,” adding extra features based on your user feedback.
Of the 615 unicorn startups around the world, many started with an MVP. Uber, Dropbox, Twitter, Revolut, Facebook, from Social Media to Fintech, there’s a reason why so many of these big names started with an MVP…
… It works.
But how exactly does an MVP help you succeed?
How Will Building an MVP Benefit My Startup?
In short, an MVP allows you to launch your product quickly with a small budget.
The alternative to an MVP is building your full product, from top to bottom, without any prior research. This is dangerous as you may use your whole budget to build something only to find out it is not the solution people want.
Therefore, you should trim the fat and build a lean MVP to:
- Save time - The quicker you test which aspects of your product work, the quicker you can get to market.
- Spend less- a product with only the essential features is cheaper than a fully-featured version.
- Lower your risk -By testing the waters, if you fail, you will fail quickly. You will only have spent a small portion of your budget and will be able to test again with another MVP or move onto another project.
- Learn what works and improve your product based on validated learning.
- Quickly build a base of early-adopters- if your MVP is successful and you begin to scale, you will already have a base of established customers.
Now you know why you should consider building an MVP, I want to give you the tools to build one successfully and effectively.
The Step-By-Step Process to Building a Successful MVP
Firstly, this process will help you decide ifyou should build your startup. If the answer is yes, it will help you analyze which features should be inside your MVP.
Finding your Value Proposition
It stands to reason that spending months building something that nobody will use is a fool’s errand.
It’s vital that you quickly answer this question:
“Is your product relevant to your target users?”
The best way to determine that you are building a product your users’ will want is simple:
- Define the problem you are trying to solve.
- What is the Value Proposition of your product? How will it solve the problem?
- Work out who your target users are - create UX personas using demographics, psychology, and behaviors.
- Understand how your target users deal with the problem today - know what your competitors are already doing to serve your market.
- Know why your product is better than the current solution - how is your product better than the current solutions out there?
- Create your Elevator Pitch - using all of the information you have determined, create a simple, crystal clear pitch, that sums everything up succinctly and accurately.
If you can sum up your value proposition in a clear elevator pitch, you are ready to move on to the next step: setting the main assumptions that need quick validation.
Define your Main Assumptions
Your elevator pitch will have left you with a list of assumptions that need to be validated.
Take Uber as an example. One assumption they made was that people would be willing to get into a stranger’s car after ordering a ride through the app.
If this assumption had been false, they would have needed to pivot their business to fit.
It’s important to identify and deconstruct the relevant assumptions for your product early; so you can begin testing quickly.
Some of your assumptions may be validated through research. For example, some of your assumptions may have been proven by your competitors.
As for the assumption that can’t be proven through research, you need to identify which metrics you will use to measure them - what are your KPIs?
When you have identified which assumptions will need validating through product testing, it’s time to focus on the right features.
Validate Those Assumptions ASAP
Now you have the assumptions you need to prove; and a list of all the features you would like in your finished product. The final step is to trim the fat.
Remember, your MVP should only contain absolutely vital features.
Go through your list of features one by one and ask yourself:
“Is this feature absolutely needed to prove our main assumption?”
If it is, it should be built into the MVP.
If not, it needs to be put to the side. You can come back to non-essential features afteryou have proven the viability of your product; as you use your user feedback to iterate your product using the Build-Measure-Learn Cycle:
Conclusion
Testing your product through an MVP allows you to make sure you are building a product people want.
You will save money, lower your risk, and get to market rapidly.
Your early adopters will become your north star, keeping you on track to create a valuable solution to the problem you are tackling.
It’s like Eric Ries says; if we want to be successful:
“We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.”
Good Luck, and thanks for reading.
