The year was 2006. Jack Dorsey wrote his first tweet, “just setting up my twttr” which kickstarted the Twitter we all know and covet today. Sixteen years later, the platform was sold for $44 billion.
Twitter– as brilliant a software idea as it is– started as an MVP.
Twitter was initially created as a minimum viable product for internal communications amongst the podcast company Odeo employees. Then, it was known as twttr. The product was minimally featured and didn’t have current goodies like replies, retweeting, or hashtags. Over the years, these functionalities were added upon a series of user feedback and updates.
With Twitter’s over 436 million users today, starting as MVP immensely contributed to the growth of the startup web app development agency.
In this article, we’ll examine MVP. And how how MVP developing companies like Emphasoft can help you build your product idea.
Let’s get right in!
What Is An MVP?
An MVP is a minimum Viable Product. It is a development process of creating a basic, launchable version of a product. Such products have minimal but crucial features of an app. MVPs are mainly built when there are insufficient funds to make a fully-fledged product. It’s also used to attract early adopters by hitting the time to market faster or testing the economic viability of your idea.
Looking at statistics, the importance of MVP becomes clearer. 2 out of every three startups fail for different reasons. Thus an MVP presents a great chance to test whether your app startup idea has a chance at success.
Plus, over 74% of internet startups fail because of premature scaling. But like Twitter did, starting with an MVP lets you scale properly. You have ample time to build a strong base. Over time, your product attracts more feature sets, capital, customers, and growing business revenue. You literally have enough time to make a fully working product.
Thus, it’s hardly surprising that the best products started with MVPs. Dropbox, Amazon, Facebook, Buffer, and Airbnb are prime examples.
Steps To Building An MVP Product
With a limited feature set, an MVP isn’t anything near a final product. But regardless, it’s essential to follow the proper steps. Otherwise, you’d risk your product idea failing before even getting started.
Here is a step-by-step guide to developing a good MVP.
1. Adequate Market Research
Information is power. It helps you pull the strings and make near-accurate startup decisions. Without adequate market research, how do you get accurate information to set a tone for your MVP?
Thus, it’s essential to conduct market surveys. Customer surveys give you detailed information about your target audience. Sites like Swagbucks, InboxDollars, or Tada can help conduct fast and accurate consumer research.
It’s also worth researching competitors. Examine their products and loopholes that you can capitalize on. This information gives you a higher chance of your MVP being successful.
2. Have A Clear Idea of Your Product’s Value Proposition
Your product idea is as important as the problems it solves and the pain points it addresses. So, your product may beg to ask questions such as
- What effect does my platform solve?
- What value does my product offer to the average audience?
- Does it benefit an average end user?
- If it does, why would they prioritize my product over others?
Determining your product’s value proposition gives you a clear idea of such product quality. It also helps you determine the required feature set.
3. Examine The Product From The Users’ Point Of View
You design the product while end users consume them. Hence to provide the best experience, you must examine the app from the users’ perspective. It lets you determine how every app task flows into solving a single-user problem.
After understanding the usage sequences of the app, you’re better placed to streamline the process. As MVP demands, you can better focus on essential tasks that will help solve the problem.
4. Draw Up Your Feature Priority List
By now, you have a clear idea of your product’s feature set. List the features to identify which ones will be incorporated into your MVP, list the features. Then, classify them.
Classifications include identifying the indispensable features, the nice-to-haves, and the irrelevant parts. This lets you prioritize which functionalities to incorporate when building the MVP product.
Prioritize the must-haves. Leave out the less critical and extra designs—one step at a time.
5. Build And Launch The MVP
Remember, the MVP application should be not only minimal but also viable. Being viable means, it should have as much quality as a final product. It should have an excellent user interface, easy to use, engaging, and professional. It should provide optimum user satisfaction, which may build adoption and entice potential investors.
And just because it is an MVP, you should not employ just any freelancer or agency for startup MVP development. Rather, use a reputed software development agency. Emphasoft, for example, walks you through MVP creation and the subsequent updating processes over the years.
6. Analyze Feedback And Incorporate. Rinse and Repeat
For app startups, development is a never-ending process. Your MVP starts with examining your solution. QA engineers help you check bugs and overall product quality. Likewise, feedback provides critical insights into the product.
However, the process is just getting started. User feedback and complaints provide a basis for further development. Consequently, you’d do further research, product development, and testing. Rinse, then repeat the process. Over time, different product upgrades get released consistently to adapt to market dynamics and feedback.
What Are The Metrics To Measure Success After Building An MVP?
Proven and practical strategies to measure your MVP success include
- Traffic and Engagement: Traffic statistics let you know your MVP’s user base and their engagement. Besides providing immediate value to your app brand, they also drop valuable feedback that can help improve your product.
- Word of Mouth: Verbal recommendations from satisfied customers can get you free adverts. More people talk about your product when listing solutions to specific problems. They also recommend it to families and friends.
- Download and Sign-Up Rates: This is another metric that determines the success rate of your MVP.
- Percentage of Active and Paying Users: A well-performing app has users spending more time on the product. They might also pay to get exclusive benefits.
- User Retention And Churn Rate: User churn rate is the percentage of people that have stopped using an app. Meanwhile, the retention rate is the percentage of people who continue to use your app over a given period. If your user retention rate is 40%, then the churn rate must be 60%
Conclusion
As a new startup, the idea may be to avoid as many mistakes that could threaten your app’s existence. While MVP development for startups is a good way to start small, limit mistakes, and scale, more is needed.
You still have to test your app’s idea viability and listen to expert opinions about its technical feasibility. Plus, you’d need a good team for development and proper maintenance. After development, such parties will be available to help make new updates as feedback troops in — just like Twitter did.
For such, outsourcing to `an expert MVP development company like Emphasoft might be best. For Emphasoft, it’s not only about taking app orders and starting development. Their experts help you research and ruminate on your app idea. And whether it has a chance at success. Upon completion, you’d have a refined, quality app that fits current market conditions.
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