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Is Developing MVP Essential for Startups?

Hi There! I am Shaun Williams, a content writer with Goodfirms, a research platform for Cloud Computing, Ecommerce companies, Translation services companies, among many others. I enjoy communicating ideas and knowledge creatively and also ensure that the readers never suffer from boredom while reading my posts.

MVP stands for “minimum viable product,” and it is a most recommended practice for every startup. A MVP is a prototype made by startups with only those features that are needed to meet its primary goal. This prototype is then made available to the public to collect feedback and reviews regarding the product. These reviews and feedback collected from users help startups shape their future products and ensure that they meet expectations. Building MVP is considered good practice for startups due to various reasons, most of which we will be discussing in this post. 

Startups, unlike established businesses, need to be very careful in their very first product development. MVP is considered a primitive step in the business process that further helps analyse the modifications required in software development to scale the startup efficiently. Almost all the big businesses today, like UBER, Airbnb, Twitter, etc., made their way towards the audience by launching MVPs first. Gradually these businesses scaled their startups, making small changes through the years to give us a perfect product like Twitter that we use today. This post will surely help answer the doubts about whether developing MVP for a startup is essential or not. Before moving to discuss MVP, let’s take a look at a checklist that should be followed by the startups for successful product development.  

Contents

Essential Checklist for Startups

The product development phase for any startup is crucial, and it decides the future of the startup and its success. If proper practices and steps are followed, the startup’s success is guaranteed from the very start of the product development process. Let’s check some of the tips for startups for better product development.

  • In-depth market research
  • User-friendly design and interface
  • Less complicated; the product should be unique but with minimal features
  • Choose the right platform/s
  • Develop a Wireframe 
  • Develop and launch an MVP
  • Prioritize considering and acting on reviews and feedbacks
  • Rigorous testing
  • Prioritize security
  • Prioritize marketing

Above mentioned practices are much recommended for every startup for successful product development and launch. Now let’s move forward to our main topic of interest: the Minimum viable product and its importance for startups.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Building MVP has become a norm these days for every startup looking forward to developing a successful final product. MVP helps organizations test their concept early into the market to determine if the target market is liking and benefitting from the product. In simple terms, MVP is your future product with only limited features that define and perform the product’s core functionality. All other features that have no direct relation with the product’s core functionality are eliminated even though they may be part of the future product. Let’s learn more about the advantage and importance of MVP development. 

#1 Helps the product to reach earlier in the market

Launching an MVP helps the startups make their product seen and accessible to the market faster. Early access of the product to the users allows startups to make an early lead in the competition. As they say, “the early bird catches the worm,” thus, the early arrival of the product into the market lends a set of unique opportunities for startups to stay ahead of the competition. The launch of MVP at the initial development stage helps engage and attract new users and stakeholders. These early users’ feedback and reviews are valuable and can help users get more customers as they spread the word. This helps in creating a product that is customer-centered and engaging as well.  

#2 Helps you test your concept in the market

From the above discussions, we gathered that the minimum viable product(MVP) is the product itself but with fewer features. Launching an MVP in the market helps you identify whether your product’s concept is working and useful for the target audience. Based on feedback, reviews, and user rate, you can determine whether or not your product is needed in the market. Is it solving the real problem of its user? According to these answers, you can know if your product is already successful or needs some changes to become successful. When the MVP fails to attract users, this should be considered a warning sign for the startups to terminate the product and thus stop spending on it. Thus MVP helps in analyzing the acceptance rate of your concept in the market. 

#3 Helps you identify needed features and necessary updates 

Launching the MVP in the market helps identify what people think about your product and what they want this product to be like in terms of the features they need. Early user feedback and suggestions regarding your MVP are precious for the startup and the product. It lessens the burden on the developers of defining and predicting the necessary features. User suggestions thus should be taken seriously for a customer centered product. 

#4 Eliminates the necessity to rework

When a fully developed product is launched straightway into the market, alterations, and updates based on user feedback become very difficult. In a fully developed product with lots of features and functionalities, modification in any part of the code is very tedious and time-consuming. But when we launch an MVP, the problem of rework reduces considerably. MVP consists of minimal features; as it is the first stage of the product hence changes and updates are very easy. Mostly the need for rework is minimal for startups with an MVP, and if in case rework needs to be done, it is way more comfortable than that in a fully developed product.

 #5 Reduces overall development cost and time

MVP development, mainly for startups, holds a lot of advantages. One of the significant benefits is that this practice reduces the overall development cost and time. In MVP development, only core features need to be developed, unlike that in full product development. Thus you can get your product concept via MVP faster into the market and test it. As the development is done step by step over time, the total development cost gets divided, and startups get ample time in their hands to arrange the budget accordingly. If the initial model becomes successful, then the revenue generated can be used for further product development. As we described earlier, MVP development practice eliminates the time spent on rework, thus saving a lot of time and cost. Moreover, as we move forward for product development by considering user feedback, we ensure that unwanted features won’t be added, thus minimizing development cost and time.

Summing up

The initial stage of product development is a very crucial phase for any startup. Startups have to be extra careful with the money as well as the time when developing a product. Hence MVP development is an advisable and beneficial practice for startups to minimize risks. MVP development offers a range of benefits to the startups, some of which are mentioned above. This practice helps startups to save development costs and development time considerably. This practice simplifies the product by helping minimize unwanted features and increasing the chances of success of the product as it is crafted, keeping user suggestions in mind.