The Step-by-Step Process of Developing a Minimum Viable Product
Building an MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, cannot be finished in a single time. MVP development is a meticulous process that needs a certain skill set to get it done.
When getting your MVP developed, it is important to know that your MVP is a showcase of the solution your business offers. Thus, the MVP must prioritize the business purpose first. This tricky mindset tends to affect the MVP launch, especially for startup founders who have technical expertise or background.
The concern now is: how do you develop an MVP? Let’s take a look into the MVP development process.
Step 1: Conduct Market Research
Because MVP involves validating business assumptions and testng the market, the first and fundamental step to take in MVP development is to do thorough market research. As you do so, make sure to distinguish the market’s need for your product. Be sure to also conduct research on your potential competitors. This may be helpful in determining the kind of product you would need in order to gain success.
As a start, there are two questions that you can answer:
- Why do I need this product?
- How can this product help me?
Answering these questions would help you in understanding the main purpose of your product. This would eventually aid in finding the best possible solution to the target market’s real and felt needs.
Step 2: Choose a target audience and design an intended user flow for this audience
In order to be more focused and strategic, it is important to have a specific and narrowed target market. It is impossible to cater to every single person’s needs. It is more feasible to cater to the needs of a specific group of people compared to the whole population.
Hence, a target audience or well-defined market segment is essential. Make sure to make a buyer persona and have it done with the most possible details. These details may range from hobbies to salary to age and more. Having a greater understanding of your prospective customer would enable you to be more effective in matching your product to address their needs.
After drafting your buyer persona, research channels where you could reach out to that target audience. Conduct research about their behavior as well, such as where they hang out (Facebook, Instagram) or whether they do or do not prefer to search product information before purchasing.
Once these have been defined, you can then proceed to design an intended user flow for your target customers. This user flow must be relevant and able to collect data and feedback. To define this user flow, the stages of the process must also be defined. It is important to explain every step to be taken in order to reach the goal. Focus more on the most basic and functional tasks over additional features. This is what your end-users will have in mind as they make use of your product. After laying out these fundamental steps, move on to the features.
Step 3: Conduct a SWOT analysis of your team’s skillset
SWOT analysis is a common method used in strategic planning. The term SWOT specifically stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
By conducting a SWOT analysis, you can use the findings to help you spend the most effort on your strengths, manage your weaknesses, avoid and handle threads, and utilize opportunities. Doing so would help you optimize your MVP development team and talent pool.
Step 4: Choose an MVP type that enables you to test your market assumption on the target audience
Each MVP type is able to address a specific market assumption. There is no single MVP that is capable of validating all sorts of assumptions. Thus, it is important to choose which MVP you would like to develop. This must be based on the specific market assumption that you would like to test.
In general, there are three overarching questions that set different types of MVPs apart from each other.
What market problems, frustrations, or needs do you see?
Product development starts with a perceived need. However, this perceived need is simply an assumption unless validated. This assumption can be validated through the following MVPs:
- Customer Survey MVP
- Email MV
- Audience-building MVP
What solution can you offer?
Another assumption to test would be whether the perceived solution truly addresses the need, or whether the market agrees and accepts the perceived solution. This can be tested through these MVPs:
- Landing Page MVP
- Explainer Video MVP
- Ad Campaign MVP
- Single Function MVP
- Single Market MVP
- Wizard of Oz MVP
- Software MVP
What amount would the customer be willing to pay for your solution? Is an existing viable market present?
Another assumption would be the willingness of the customer to pay, or whether they think that such services or products should be free. To test this, the following MVPs can be used:
- Pre-order MVP
- Crowdfunding MVP
- Sign up for trials MVP
Choosing which MVP to develop would depend on the goals of the MVP development in the first place. Make sure to choose a type of MVP that would be able to validate the assumption that you would want to test.
Step 5: Develop an MVP by maximizing your in-house skillset and outsourcing the rest
In software and mobile app development, projects can be accomplished either through in-house development or outsourced development. When opting to have your MVP developed, make sure that you weigh the pros, cons, and circumstances on your end before deciding whether to go for in-house development or outsourced development.
Step 6: Launch your MVP
Once your MVP is developed, you can now have it launched. The launching of your MVP would highly depend on the type of MVP you developed in the first place. It would also depend on your target market. Devise a launching strategy while taking those factors into account.
Step 7: Get feedback from your users and pivot your product development
Once the MV is out, it would then be time to test it in order to collect data. This would still highly depend on the type of MVP that you launched in the first place. There are generally two ways to do such testing.
- Alpha testing. This refers to testing within a small circle (company employees, family, friends)
- Beta testing. This refers to testing live in the market with real prospect customers.
Typically, developers conduct alpha testing before going on to beta testing. The beta testing duration may vary, but it would typically take a week or two in order to generate sufficient feedback.
Know that the users must have the say on what your product lacks or which features do not have to be included. Once feedback is generated, you can use such feedback to adjust, modify, and improve your product until the optimal output is achieved.
MVP development may be a meticulous process but it is acknowledged to be vital in minimizing and managing risks. By building your MVP before going all-out in the app development process, you can get feedback before your actual product is launched, position yourself strategically in the market, and have data to guide further product development.
To know more about MVP development, check out the Ultimate MVP Guidelines.
