4 Major Questions Every Startup Must Consider Before Having an MVP Developed
An MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, helps businesses test their market assumptions and business ideas early on. Concrete data that is fresh from the market can be generated through an MVP even before the fully developed product gets released. Startups can then use this data to strategically move through the market and through the further product development process.
MVP development is quite an intricate process. Hence, before diving into the MVP development process, there are a number of things that startups should take into consideration in order to optimize MVP development.
1. Why do you want to have an MVP developed?
Though the general aim of MVP development is to validate market assumptions, there are specific assumptions that could be tested with specific types of MVPs. Overall, these assumptions can be sorted into 3 categories:
- Testing the market’s concerns
- Testing the market’s level of receptiveness towards the proposed solution
- Testing the market’s willingness to pay in order to avail of the solution
It is important for startups to know what assumption they plan to test in order to determine the type of MVP to develop. Feedback may come in many forms but specific types of MVPs are capable of generating specific types of feedback. This feedback may be relevant for validating one assumption but not another. Hence, startups must set a concrete goal that they wish to achieve through MVP development.
2. What benefits can you reap from having an MVP developed?
In general, MVP development enables companies to reap a number of benefits. These benefits include:
- Cost reduction
- Early market validation and access
- Low risks with higher ROI
- Enablement to attain early adopters
- Feedback collection and collation
- Enablement of making strategic data-based choices
Though these are general benefits that MVP development can offer, each company has a different context and a different set of circumstances. Hence, it is important for the startup to take into account such context and circumstances in thinking about how the company would benefit from having an MVP developed.
3. How will you get your MVP developed?
MVP development is a process that involves rigorous planning, execution, and modification along the way. It is not a one-time action. To get the MVP developed, companies can opt for either of the two: building an in-house team or outsourcing development. Let’s differentiate the two.
In-house development
As its name suggests, in-house development refers to creating and forming a team within the company itself. Hence, when necessary skills are not present within the current team, companies would need to hire others in order to fill in for the need. Because the in-house team is in the care of the company, the company would have to be involved in addressing technical needs or issues that may arise along the course of the MVP development.
Outsourced development
Opposed to in-house development where an in-house team is formed, outsourced development involves entrusting the development into the hands of specialized software and mobile app development agency. Since partnership is involved, a contract is necessary in order to seal the agreement. This means that the partnered firm would be in charge of assigning people to do the work, supplying the needed technologies and equipment to get the job done, and troubleshooting whatever technical concerns may arise along the way.
There are companies that have opted for in-house development while others have gone with outsourced development. Startups have to weigh the pros and cons of each type before making the decision.
4. How will you launch your MVP?
Once the MVP is developed, it should be released to the market. The launching of an MVP is typically divided into two different phases, namely the soft launch and the hard launch. As the purpose of an MVP is to collect real insights from the market, the division of the launching has the same purpose. Each type of launch enables companies to generate data that would be helpful in validating a part of the hypothesis. The first phase’s outcome serves as input for the next. Let’s look into these two phases.
Soft Launch
During the soft launch, the audience that gets to access the MVP is limited. Marketing resources are thus limited as well. Because this is only the initial launch, it is important to regulate the pouring of resources for this phase. It is important to focus resources on a certain market segment that would seemingly be more probable to be users of your product and eventual paying customers. They are also known as early adopters. The focus of this launch should be specific and narrowed down to them.
Hard Launch
The hard launch refers to the product’s official release. Through the rise of SaaS models, companies in the tech industry have realized that there is a need for continual updates. Hence, this launch got applied not just to fully developed products but also validated MVPs (the ones where insights on the customer needs, the customer persona, and the monetization model had already been generated). A hard launch is typically done when companies want to conquer the market quickly and gain a significant share of the market within a short span of time.
No company would want to spend a huge amount of resources on an endeavor that would lead to mediocre results. This is true for MVP development as well. Hence, even before the MVP development commences, it is important for startups to lay down the details and plan that they have for their MVP. It is important to take these things into consideration in order to make the most out of the MVP.
To know more about MVP development, check out the Ultimate MVP Guidelines.
