Table of Contents:
Quick Summary
If you have a brilliant idea for a new application, launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a great way to test the market and validate your concept. An MVP is a stripped-down version of your application that includes only the essential features, allowing you to get your product to market quickly and inexpensively. However, launching an MVP requires careful planning and execution to ensure that you achieve your goals. In this blog post, we'll walk you through the steps you need to take to launch a successful MVP for your application, from defining your MVP to gathering feedback and iterating on your product.
So, what does this MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT (MVP) mean? How do you launch your own MVP before launching your mobile application? Without further delays, let’s dive deep to understand the ins and outs of the concept of launching MVPs before the actual product.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a simplified version of a product that contains only basic necessary parts of the final product. While commonly used in software development, this concept can be applied to any industry.
The main idea is to release a basic version of the product quickly and use customer feedback to refine and improve it over time. This approach helps businesses save resources by avoiding the creation of products that may not have a market. The MVP must solve a specific problem or fulfill a particular need of the target audience with a clear value proposition and ease of use.
Once the product is launched, the company can gather feedback from users to add more features, improve the product, and expand its market. The MVP approach is a useful method for businesses seeking to develop and launch new products quickly while minimizing the risk and costs associated with traditional product development methods.
Many popular applications today had their own version of MVP to test the waters before launching. Facebook had one, Instagram had one and many more applications had their prototype versions launched before the actual product. I hope you get the basic idea of what an MVP is at this point. Let’s proceed further.
Burbn was an app designed for location-based check-ins similar to Foursquare, but it was deemed complex by users due to its multiple features. Despite this, the photo-sharing feature became a hit among its users. Burbn was initially released as a minimum viable product (MVP), and the information gathered from it was used to develop Instagram, which was the actual product launched later.
Types of MVP
We can categorize the MVP’s into two types and they can be named as
Low Fidelity MVP | High Fidelity MVP |
---|---|
A low fidelity MVP is a basic version of a product that focuses only on the essential features required to satisfy early users. Its main purpose is to validate the product demand, current market scenario and collect feedback from users, allowing the team to refine the concept before investing significant resources into a more polished version. | High-fidelity MVP is a product development strategy that involves creating a prototype that closely mimics the final product in terms of its appearance, features, and functionality. This approach prioritizes delivering a superior user experience and aims to validate product assumptions through a fully functional prototype. Unlike a low-fidelity MVP, which uses simple wireframes or rough sketches, a high-fidelity MVP involves developing a more refined prototype that integrates more design elements and features. |
Components Of MVP
MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product, a development technique that involves creating a basic version of a product with only the essential features required to satisfy early customers and validate the product idea. MVP is a crucial step in the product development process, as it helps to reduce the risks associated with developing a product that nobody wants. In this article, we will discuss the components of an MVP.
Core Features
At the heart of an MVP lies its core features, which are indispensable to delivering value to users. The product team is responsible for determining these features by carefully examining the wants and needs of users. Prioritization of these features is necessary to ensure that the MVP includes the most critical ones. In essence, core features are the fundamental building blocks that form the backbone of an MVP.
User Interface
The user interface (UI) is another critical component of an MVP. The UI should be intuitive and easy to use, allowing users to quickly understand how to use the product. The design should be simple and uncluttered, focusing on the core features and functionality of the product. The UI must be tested thoroughly to ensure that it is user-friendly and meets the needs of the target audience.
Performance
Performance is another essential component of an MVP. The product must perform well and respond quickly to user input. The product should also be reliable and stable, with minimal bugs and errors. This is particularly important in the early stages of product development when user feedback is critical. The product team must monitor performance metrics closely and address any issues that arise promptly.
Scalability
Scalability is the ability of the product to grow and evolve with the needs of the users. While the MVP may have only a few features, the product must be designed with scalability in mind. This means that the product must be able to handle increased traffic, additional features, and other changes that may be required in the future. The product team must plan for scalability from the outset, ensuring that the MVP is built on a solid foundation that can support future growth.
Want to launch your own custom mobile application?
Contact UsAnalytics
Analytics plays a crucial role in the development of a minimum viable product (MVP). It is essential for the product team to monitor and analyze user behavior and usage patterns to understand how users are interacting with the product. This information can be utilized to enhance the product and discover opportunities for expansion. To track user behavior and identify potential areas for improvement, analytics tools such as Google Analytics can be employed.
Feedback
Finally, feedback is another critical component of an MVP. User feedback is essential in the early stages of product development, as it helps the product team to identify issues and make improvements. The product team should actively seek feedback from users and be responsive to their needs and concerns. User feedback can be collected through surveys, feedback forms, and user testing. In conclusion, an MVP is a crucial step in the product development process, as it helps to reduce the risks associated with developing a product that nobody wants. The components of an MVP include core features, user interface, performance, scalability, analytics, and feedback. By focusing on these components, the product team can create a successful MVP that meets the needs of its target audience and provides a solid foundation for future growth and development.
Market Examples For Most Viable Product
Many applications that are famous today had a prototype, or MVP, before getting launched into the market. These are some of the applications that exist in the market as an example of a successful product that came after its MVP.
In 2004, a student at Harvard University named Mark Zuckerberg created a website to help Harvard students connect with each other. Within a day, more than a thousand people had signed up to use the site. It was just an MVP for an application named “Facebook”.
Why you need to launch an MVP for your mobile application- Benefits
If you’re planning to launch your own mobile application during the IPL season, you should be considering launching an MVP before the actual product. ‘Why?’ , you may ask. There are several advantages that come with launching an MVP before launching the full version or the actual product. Let’s discuss some of the advantages that come baked in.
1. Improvements Post Feedback
We can get early feedback from the MVP. Launching an MVP enables you to obtain feedback from your intended audience about your product or service at an early stage. This feedback can be used to improve your product and make it more valuable to your customers before committing further resources to a full product launch. This is one of the best benefits in launching one is that it will prevent a disastrous launch.
2. Cost Efficient
One of the major advantages of launching an MVP is that it is very cost-efficient. It is often less expensive to develop and launch than a full product. This becomes a great advantage, especially for startups and small businesses that have limited resources. Hence, launching and MVP can help you validate your idea without investing too much money upfront.
3. Low Risk Of Failure
Launching an MVP reduces the risk of failure. By testing your product in the market early on, you can identify any potential issues before you invest more time and resources into the full product launch. This can help you avoid costly mistakes and ensure that you build a successful product.
An MVP also takes less time to develop than the actual full product . Lot of things can be saved as a result of MVP such as cost, time taken to develop and getting initial feedback. Also, Introducing an MVP lowers the possibility of failing. By launching your product early in the market, you can detect any potential issues before devoting more time and resources to a full product launch. This can help you avoid expensive mistakes and make sure that you create a thriving product.
So, if you’re looking forward to launching your own mobile application during the IPL season, launching a MVP before the actual full product will be the best thing to do. You got this !
How To Launch An MVP For Your Mobile Application Business
As you’re clear on why you need to launch an MVP, let’s make you clear on how to do it. To explain the process in layman's terms, the building process of an MVP usually consists of three steps. We have classified it into three steps for easy understanding.
STEP 1 : Be Clear With Your Value Proposition
Be clear with the unique benefit that your product or service provides to its customers or target audience. First, you need to know whether there is any actual demand for the product that you are making or planning to make. You don’t need to spend multiple months of your life building something useless.n order to know the answer for the question whether there is demand or not, one needs to assess a few things from ground level. Such as,
- i) Who are your target audience?
- ii) The problem you’re trying to solve via the product.
- iii) In what way is your product better than the current solution for the problem? What makes it special?
STEP 2 : Identify The Key Hypothesis That Require Validation
Under this step, we need to validate things such as,
- i) Does our product really need a MVP before full launch?
- ii) If yes, then what are all the features that are going to be baked into the MVP?
- iii) Which assumptions are critical for your MVP to be significant, and how do they relate to the statements made in your Value Proposition?
- iv) Of these assumptions, which ones have already been verified?
STEP 3 : Define The Shortest Way To Validate Your Hypothesis
In step three of developing your project, you need to determine the most efficient way to validate your hypothesis. To achieve this, you should focus on selecting only the most essential features for your first attempt rather than trying to implement everything at once.
However, before you choose which features to prioritize, you should consider whether it's possible to create a minimum viable product (MVP) that may not be fully functional but is faster and cheaper to build. This MVP should still be good enough to test your main assumptions and gather valuable feedback from your target audience.
This advice suggests that when building an MVP, it's important to prioritize the features that are essential to proving your thesis about the market and the value proposition. These high-priority features should be built into the MVP first.
When making decisions about which features to include in the MVP, it's important to rely on your analytical mind, as it is the best for business. By prioritizing the right features, you can build an MVP that effectively tests the market and demonstrates your value proposition to potential users.These three steps are basically the process of building your own MVP if it is required for the product or the service which you’re developing.
Points To Remember For Scaling Up Using The Insights From MVP
Team structure: Ensure that your team is structured appropriately for scaling up the MVP. This may involve hiring additional team members or restructuring your existing team to focus on different areas of the product.
When scaling up an MVP, it's important to have a clear plan for funding the process, which may require identifying potential sources of funding. It's also important to have a realistic timeframe for scaling up, as the process can take time and may encounter delays or setbacks.
To scale up your MVP, it's important to have a marketing strategy that promotes your product, whether it's by targeting new markets or expanding your reach in existing ones.
Additionally, it's crucial to ensure that your product complies with all applicable laws and regulations, which may require hiring legal experts or consulting with regulatory bodies.
Continuous improvement: As you scale up, continue to gather feedback and make improvements to your product. This will help you stay competitive and ensure that your users remain satisfied.
CONCLUSION
It is clear at this point that launching an MVP prior to the full product launch would be the better option, due to all of the benefits and leverage it provides. We believe that you’re now crystal clear on how to launch your own MVP before launching your official mobile application. Remember that an MVP is not a finished product but a starting point for feedback and iteration. Continuously gathering feedback from your users and improving your product based on their input will help you create a mobile application that users love and that sets your business up for long-term success.
Creating a great MVP is only half the battle. Once you have a functional product, you need to get it in front of your target audience and convince them to use it. With expert mobile app development services↗ and a strong marketing strategy, your MVP can quickly become a full-fledged mobile application that drives revenue and growth for your business.
With all the knowledge you got from here, get on the floor and make a statement! (wink).