What is a Minimum Viable Product?
In the most basic terms, a Minimum Viable Product, or MVP, is a way to test and validate our assumptions. It's the simplest version of our product that still has enough features to be functional and valuable to our early users. The goal here is not perfection, but learning. An MVP allows us to test the fundamental aspects of our product with actual users, gather feedback, and learn what works and what doesn't before investing too much time or resources.
The idea of an MVP was popularized by Eric Ries in his book "The Lean Startup." His vision was to create a more efficient process to design products and services in a business environment that's constantly evolving. Most businesses spend lots of time and resources developing full-featured products, only to find out too late that the market didn't want or need them. So, the concept of an MVP was a game-changer. It brought about a shift in focus from creating the 'perfect product' to developing a product that meets the most pressing needs of the customers, with the least effort. The MVP is about being lean and agile, iterating based on real user feedback, and reducing waste. Keep in mind, though, that an MVP isn't about cutting corners or delivering a low-quality product—it's about finding the simplest, fastest way to start the learning process.
Why Develop an MVP?
Think of developing a Minimum Viable Product like baking our first batch of magical cookies. We might have an idea for a recipe, but we’re not exactly sure how the cookies will turn out. So, instead of leasing a store front and hiring staff, you start with a small batch - your MVP - to test if your idea is as good as you think it is. Let's break down the benefits.
- Validate a Product Concept: Going back to our cookie analogy, our first batch of cookies allows us to test our recipe. Did our cookies turn out too sweet, too dry, or too complex to make? The MVP works in the same way, helping us understand if our product concept is viable and desirable to our customers. It's our reality check and we want these checks early and often.
- Minimize Time to Market: By focusing on a narrow problem and building just enough to solve it, we get to market faster because we’re not trying to solve every problem your customer might have. This allows you to launch quickly and start gathering feedback sooner.
- Reduce Risk: An MVP is a risk-mitigation tool. We can test our concept, learn from it, make adjustments and iterate. If the concept isn't well-received, we save ourselves from the potential failure of launching a full product that the market would never want.
- Attract Early Adopters: An MVP helps us attract early adopters - those first customers who are willing to give our product a shot. You have the opportunity to understand your customers' needs better and learn how they interact with your product. Their feedback and experience can help you refine and improve your product, making it ready for a wider audience.
- Attract Early Stage Investors: Having an MVP can help us attract early-stage investors. It's proof that we have something tangible and viable, not just an idea. It shows potential investors that we’re committed to the project and have made significant initial progress. It shows that we have the right mindset for a startup.
Case Study Examples
Here are a few case studies for developing an MVP.
Build a Minimum Viable Product Step by Step
1. Brainstorm a New Product Idea
Creating a new product idea isn't about having a "eureka" moment in the shower. It's about understanding what people really need, identifying a problem to solve they people are willing to pay for.
Discover What’s Missing in the Market
What are people in the market are missing. It's that book that hasn't been written yet, the app that hasn't been developed yet, the gadget that hasn't been invented yet. How do we know what's missing? Well, talk to people, observe behaviors, and look at trends. It's hard work, but when we find that opening in the market, it's worth it.
Ways to Generate New Product Ideas
Now, where do new product ideas come from? They can come from anywhere—customer feedback, market research, technology trends, even our own experiences. Keep our eyes and ears open, always be curious, and don't be afraid to think out of the box.
Identifying the Problem
We’ve found the idea that gets us excited, now ask ourselves, "What problem does it solve?" The problem statement should be clear and concise. For instance, "People need a quicker way to find the cheapest flights online." The problem is clear: finding cheap flights quickly is tough.
Product Vision
Once we've got the problem, we need a product vision. This is the fun part where we take a guess - yes, a guess - about how to solve that problem. We're not sure yet if it's the right answer, but it's our best shot. Remember not to fall in love just yet!
Create a compelling value proposition
Let's move on to the value proposition. It's a fancy term, but it's pretty simple. Our value proposition is the answer to the question, "Why should someone choose our product over others?" It's the unique value your product provides, the reason it stands out in the crowd. It's important because it's what convinces customers to choose your product. It's like your product's unique selling point.
Creating a compelling value proposition isn't rocket science, but it needs thought and work. First, understand what makes our product unique. Maybe it's faster, more reliable, cheaper, or easier to use. Then, make sure we can explain this to customers in a clear and compelling way. Think about how to communicate this value in a few, simple words.
2. Market Research By Talking To Customers
If we're looking to create a new product, the first step is to really understand what our potential customers need. We've got to get into their shoes, understand what they're dealing with, and figure out what we can do to help.
One way to figure this out is by having lots of conversations with our potential customers. It's about asking questions, listening, and really trying to understand their perspectives. We might think we know what our customers want, but we must validate. This isn’t where we present our solution, we’re only trying to learn about their experiences at this point.
As we learn from these conversations, we'll begin to build a clear picture of what our product needs to be. We'll see what matters to our potential customers, what problems they need solved, and how we can help them. This insight will help us design a product that really makes a difference.
It's important to remember, though, that this isn't a one-time thing. We can't just talk to a few people, design a product, and then assume our job is done. We've got to keep the conversation going, keep learning and refining our product idea.
Start Conversations with Potential Customers
By directly speaking to our potential users, we can gain insights into their needs, preferences, and how they currently solve the problem our product aims to address. It's important to ask open-ended questions and encourage them to speak freely. We might stumble upon a problem that we can solve or even find out cool new ways they're using a relevant tool or workflow.
Think, Test, Repeat
We can guess what our potential customers might want, but we won't know for sure until we observe their behaviors. We’ll make some educated guesses then see if the results of our research validate that we’re on the right track.
Look at What People Have Done Before
Ask them about times when they've used similar products. These stories can give us clues about how they might use our product and what they'll love (or hate) about it.
Watch Actions, Not Just Words
Compliments are nice, but they don't always mean people will buy our product. Let's pay more attention to what people actually do. Do they use the same thing over and over? Do they recommend stuff to their friends? Would they pay a bit more for something they really like? Actions like these show us where the real value lies.
Create a Relaxed Setting
Informal conversations often lead to the most insightful revelations that we may not find in a more formal setting.
Adapting to Feedback
Don’t completely change the idea based on one conversation. Our goal is to have multiple conversations with many potential customers. From there we can determine how to fine tune our value proposition to a very specific need in the market.
Master the Art of Interviewing
We'll get better at asking the right questions and truly listening to the responses. We'll also work on keeping our personal biases in check so we can get a well-rounded understanding of our potential customers.
Talk to the Right People
We should carefully choose who we talk to, making sure they're a good representation of our target market. It's often more valuable to deeply understand a few relevant people than to superficially understand many. A great way to know if we’ve found a good market is if our potential customers are in our professional network.
Look for Patterns
Collecting feedback is only half the battle. The real magic happens when we take our data, look for trends or unusual things that can give us insight into what people want and how they behave. Then we try to figure out what it all means.
Develop a Customer Profile
We need to make a profile of our ideal customer. Who are they? What problems do they have? What benefits do they want? Having this profile up on the board keeps us in check with who’s problem we are solving.
Align Our Offer
Our aim should always be to give our customers what they want. Our product should help them, make their life easier, and deliver what we promised. If we can do that, they'll be happy and we'll be successful.
Look at the Competition
We can't forget to take a peek at what others in our field are doing. Observing our competitors can help us figure out what works, what doesn't, and might even spark ideas for how to make our product stand out.
Conduct a SWOT Analysis
To really get a handle on where our product fits in the market, we should carry out a SWOT analysis. This means identifying our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Knowing our strengths can help us boost our product's appeal, while understanding our weaknesses can guide us in making improvements. Spotting opportunities can open doors for growth, and being aware of threats helps us prepare for potential challenges.
Map Out Competitive Landscape
A good way to visualize where we stand in comparison to our competitors is by mapping out the competitive landscape. This can help us see where there's saturation and where there are gaps that our product could potentially fill.
Always Be Learning
Remember that understanding our market is a never-ending process. Even after we launch, we'll continue learning from our customers, using their feedback to constantly improve.
3. Assess Team Skills, Capacity, Connections
At this point we’ve spoken directly to potential customers and we have an idea that isn’t obviously terrible.
Now when we can get past this next part, we’ll have a real shot at building something people want. That step is to assess whether we have the skills, capacity and connections to pull off this product idea. This is a topic that isn’t talked about nearly enough. There are lot of viable business opportunities out there. But it requires the right founding team or person to take a swing at it. Deciding if that could be us demands that we take an honest assessment of the resources we have access to. It’s easy to forget but Elon Musk’s first company wasn’t Tesla, SpaceX or even PayPal.
Here are a few things to consider.
Checking Our Skills
First things first, let's see what we're good at. Everyone needs to write down what they're really skilled at, their top-notch abilities. This could be anything from knowing how to write software, to community building, to understanding a certain industry inside out. This helps us know what we've got covered and what we might need help with.
Knowing What We Need
Now let's think about what we're going to need to turn our idea into a real thing. There might be technical details we need to know, or business stuff, or things specific to the industry we're working in. Let's make a list of these, too.
Matching Skills to Needs
Now let's compare our skill list to our needs list. Where do they overlap? That's great! Where don't they? That's okay, too. We just need to think about how we can fill in those gaps. Maybe we can hire someone part-time, or find a partner who has the skills we're missing.
Can We Handle It
Let's look at how busy we are right now. How much time do we have to dedicate to this new idea? Do we have the resources? If we go for it, what other important aspects of our lives will get neglected?
Who We Know
It's not just what you know, it's who you know. Let's list out all the people we know who could help us out. Maybe they could introduce us to someone important, or give us advice, or help us find customers.
That’s good for now but there is a lot more that we’ll need to take into account. In the next steps we’ll scope out the the key features of the product and create a user story mapping. Then we’ll need to run through the Skills, Capacity, & Connections assessment again after we know the technical implementation details of what we need to build for our MVP.
4. Define Scope By Prioritizing Key Features
Figuring out what key features to focus on for our new product is a balancing act. We need to choose those that can realistically be done with our time and resources while also delivering real value and excitement for our customers. It's a challenge to predict what will truly resonate.
Here are the steps to prioritizing the key features that should be include in the first phase of our MVP.
User Story Mapping
So, we've talked to the people who might use our future product, and we've learned about what they need and how they might use what we're planning to build. The next step is pretty fun - we get to imagine who these people are and how they're going to interact with our product. This is where we craft a sort of "character sketch" of our usual customer.
This sketch includes simple stuff like where they live, how old they are, and what they do for a living. But we also dig deeper. What makes them tick? What do they need from our product? What's going to drive them nuts? The idea here is to make our customers seem real to us. That way, we can keep their needs front and center as we're building our product.
Next, we sketch out a map of the customer's journey. It's like the plot of a story, where the customer is the main character, and our product is what helps them get to their happy ending. We start at the beginning when they first find out about our product, and we go all the way to the end when they've reached their goal.
These journeys aren't the same for everyone. Just like different people might take different routes to the same destination, our different customers will use our product in different ways. These different journeys can point us towards the key features our product needs to have.
By understanding these journeys, we get to see what parts of our product are most important. These are the features that our customers need the most to reach their goals. It's like a roadmap, guiding us to what we should focus on as we build our product.
Identify Core Features
After we've mapped out our user's journey and understood their needs, you should have a rough idea of the range of features your product could possibly have. The next step is to sift through these and decide which are the most crucial to include in your MVP.
- Define the Core User Flow: From your user journey map, you should have a clear idea of the basic steps users take to achieve their goals. The core user flow is the path users follow through your product from start to finish to achieve their primary goal. Identify the most straightforward path they can take to achieve this.
- Identify Essential Actions: In each step of the core user flow, identify what action the user needs to perform. What buttons do they need to click? What information do they need to enter? What feedback do they need to receive?
- Link Actions to Features: Each action the user performs or each piece of feedback they need to receive corresponds to a feature of your product. For example, if a user needs to enter their email and create a password, you'll need a feature that allows for account creation.
- Strip Down to the Bare Essentials: For your MVP, you want to strip your product down to its most fundamental features — those without which your product cannot function or deliver its core value proposition. If a feature doesn't directly support the core user flow, consider whether it's necessary for the first MVP version and if it could be developed in a later version.
- Validate with Users: The best way to ensure you've identified the right features is to validate them with users. Share your ideas for the core features and the basic user flow and see if they believe anything is missing or unnecessary.
Create Hypotheses
Creating hypotheses is a crucial part of the Lean methodology, as well as Marty Cagan's approach outlined in "INSPIRED." Essentially, for every product or feature you plan to build, you should be able to articulate why you believe it's going to be valuable. The purpose of creating a hypothesis is to make your assumptions explicit, and to provide a clear criterion for whether the feature or product is successful.
Here's how you could create a hypothesis:
- Identify the Assumption: Start by outlining what you believe to be true about the feature you want to build. This could be an assumption about user behavior, a certain problem the user has, or the way your solution will solve the user's problem.
- Formulate the Hypothesis: A typical hypothesis statement takes the following format: "We believe that [doing this/building this feature] for [these users/personas] will achieve [this outcome]. We will know this is true when we see [this market feedback, quantitative measure or qualitative insight]."
Example: "We believe that introducing a personalized recommendation feature for our bookstore app users will increase user engagement. We will know this is true when we see a 15% increase in daily active usage and positive user feedback on the new feature."
Another goal-setting framework popularized by Google and discussed in Christina Wodtke's "Radical Focus.” is Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
Assess, Value, Effort, Risk
For each feature, assess its perceived value (how much value it will provide to the user), effort (how much work will be required to implement it), and risk (how much uncertainty is there about the feature's value or effort).
- Value Assessment: The value of a feature can be assessed from both a user and a business perspective. User value refers to how much a feature will meet users' needs or solve their problems. This can be determined through user research, interviews, and surveys. Business value, on the other hand, refers to the potential return on investment (ROI) a feature may bring. This might include increased revenue, user retention, market differentiation, etc. Both these aspects together provide a balanced view of a feature's value.
- Effort Estimation: This refers to the amount of work required to implement a feature. Effort can be measured in terms of time, resources, or complexity. For instance, a feature that takes a lot of time to implement or requires special skills or resources would be considered high effort. An important point to remember is that effort estimation is not an exact science but more of an educated guess based on the team's experience and understanding of the project. Agile methodologies often use story points, a relative measure of effort, to estimate this.
- Risk Evaluation: Risk is the level of uncertainty associated with a feature. The uncertainty can be due to various reasons such as the complexity of development, dependency on external factors, or uncertainty about user acceptance. High-risk features are those where there's a significant chance that they could end up not delivering the expected value or requiring much more effort than estimated.
Once we've assessed the value, effort, and risk for each feature, we can use these factors to prioritize our features. A common approach is to create a scoring system or a matrix where we plot value against effort, often referred to as a value-effort matrix. Features that are high in value and low in effort are usually the ones we'd want to implement first.
However, it's important not to overlook high-effort, high-value features, or low-effort, low-value ones. The former might be crucial for our product to function, while the latter might be 'quick wins'. It's also important to consider the risk associated with each feature. A high-value, low-effort feature with high risk might need to be deprioritized until we can mitigate the risk.
Remember, these assessments are based on our current understanding and assumptions, which might change as we learn more about our users and our product, requiring us to reassess and reprioritize our features.
Rank Features
Once we’ve assessed the value, effort, and risk of each feature, we can rank them to determine their priority. One commonly used method is the RICE score, which stands for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. Other methods include the MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have), the Value vs. Complexity matrix, and the WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) method used in SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework).
The specific method used depends on the team's context and preference, but the goal is always to maximize value and minimize effort and risk. Features with a high value, low effort, and low risk should be high on the priority list.
This ranking should be revisited regularly as more is learned about the users, the product, and the technology, and as the business context and goals evolve. Prioritization is not a one-time activity, but a continuous process of reassessment and adjustment.
That's a lot to take in! So let's remember what our real goal is when we're building our first version of our product. We're not trying to make it perfect or complete right from the start. Instead, we're trying to learn as much as we can, as quickly as we can, about what our users really need. We want to do this with the least amount of work possible.
Think of it like drawing a sketch before sculpting a marble masterpiece. We want to get a feel for what works and what doesn't before we start pounding away.
We're doing small experiments, and based on what our users say and we’ll use that to make our product better. And if we find out early on that something isn't working or isn't what our users want, well, it's better to learn that sooner rather than later.
That's because it's a whole lot easier to change the sketch than it is to change the marble sculpture.
5. Choose a Type of MVP and Build Tools
There are many tools for building an MVP. I've also create this guide to help you choose a tech stack.
Prototype MVP
A simple, often non-functional model of the product, used to demonstrate or validate its fundamental design and function. This is not a sellable product but can be used to gather feedback early in the process.
Tools: Paper and pen for sketching, wireframing tools like Balsamiq, Sketch, Adobe XD, or Figma, 3D printing software for physical prototypes, or coding languages for creating a basic working model.
Methods: Start by identifying the core functionality. Create sketches or wireframes outlining this functionality. Use feedback from potential users to refine the design. If you're creating a digital product, consider developing a clickable prototype using design tools or basic coding.
Concierge MVP
Here, the product team manually carries out the function of the product for the user. The purpose is to understand user needs and see if the solution is something users want before building an automated product.
Tools: Mostly personal interactions, though you may use existing communication tools (e.g., email, chat services, social media, phone calls).
Methods: Identify a small group of target customers and offer to manually perform the service. Gather feedback on their experience and refine your understanding of customer needs.
Wizard of Oz MVP
Customers believe they are interacting with a real, working product, but behind the scenes, operations are being manually handled by the team.
Tools: Similar to Concierge MVPs, with the addition of an interface that makes users believe they're interacting with a fully functional product (e.g., a simple website or mobile app).
Methods: Offer the service to customers through the interface, then manually perform the tasks behind the scenes. Measure customer behavior and feedback to refine your product idea.
Single-feature MVP
This version focuses on one core feature that solves the most pressing problem. This approach helps in understanding how much the users value this single feature.
Tools: Depending on your product, you might use coding languages, app development tools, or hardware prototyping tools.
Methods: Identify the single most important feature your product will offer. Develop a simple version of the product that includes only this feature. Gather user feedback and monitor how users interact with this feature.
Piecemeal MVP
This version uses existing tools and services to deliver value to customers, mimicking the functionality of the final product.
Tools: Existing services or platforms that allow you to mimic your final product's functionality.
Methods: Combine different services to deliver the value proposition of your final product. Monitor user interactions and gather feedback to understand if your solution meets their needs.
Explainer Video MVP
An explainer video that describes the product and its value proposition, often used to gauge customer interest before the product is built.
Tools: Video editing software like Adobe Premiere or After Effects, or easier tools like Animaker or Powtoon.
Methods: Create a short, engaging video explaining what your product does and how it solves a problem for your target customers. Measure viewer engagement, feedback, and ideally, the number of signups or pre-orders following the video.
Pre-Order Landing Page MVP
A simple website or page outlining the main features and benefits of a product that's still in the development phase. It's used to assess market interest, usually through measures like signup rates for more information or pre-orders. Customers can pre-order the product, which demonstrates their interest and willingness to pay.
Tools: Website builders like WordPress or Wix, landing page builders like Unbounce or Instapage, or programming languages for a more customized solution.
Methods: Design a compelling landing page that clearly communicates your product's features and benefits. Encourage visitors to sign up for updates or pre-order the product. Track visitor behavior and conversion rates to understand the level of market interest.
6. Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy For The MVP Launch
This might be a bit of a rug pull, I’m sorry, but there is no launch. Instead, we’ve already initiated a continuous interaction with potential customers. This process started by getting feedback on the lowest fidelity version of our minimum viable product, which at that stage was just the conceptual solution to a significant problem our customer is dealing with.
Try this exercise.
Think of all the products you use. Do you remember their launch day? No, but yet somehow you learned about them.
Big launch events are for copy cat products that are entering an established market where product market fit has been proven. They need to make noise and a singular event is great for amassing attention. This is a completely different strategy and doesn’t apply to our MVP, which is by definition is a pre-product market fit experiment that is trying find market demand.
So congrats, by talking to customers, we’ve already launched!
How Much Does It Cost?
On average it will cost at least $15,000 to develop a minimum viable product.