What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a new product or website that has been designed with only the most basic features in order to satisfy early customers. Customers will submit feedback for future development, and the final product will be built based on that.

Eric Ries introduced the notion of MVP in his book “The Lean Startup” and it started becoming popular. The Lean Startup is a scientific approach to building and managing startups that focuses on getting a desired product into the hands of customers as quickly as possible.

MVP helps you to gain competitive advantage by entering the market early and solve your targeted users' concern while working successfully towards producing a full-fledged product in a cost-efficient way.

Success stories of MVP

1. Facebook

Facebook was initially known as TheFacebook and it lacked many of the key features that are available now.

During the initial launch, TheFacebook was used as an MVP for students of colleges to stay connected online and to get feedback to test its viability. Initially the membership was restricted for users outside college, because of its growing popularity the expansion was inevitable. TheFacebook became Facebook in 2005 by buying the domain for $200,000 and offered its service to everyone over the age of 13 in 2006. The app is now incredibly popular, with over 2.6 billion active users.

2. Twitter

Twitter was initially known as twttr, the 140-character platform designed specifically for internal users at Odeo.

In the MVP version, twitter was designed to send information regarding Odeo employees via SMS to view them on a group level. After internal testing, Twitter was introduced to the public in 2006 with the winning idea of accessing the service via web interface rather than SMS to save money. Twitter now has over 200 million active users daily.

3. Amazon

The everything store Amazon was initially designed in 1994 to sell books online.

The early stage of Amazon's Minimum Viable Product was designed specifically to sell books online to test the growth of e-commerce in 1994. As the demand for e-commerce increased, Bezos dramatically increased Amazon’s product selection. Now Amazon is the second largest retailer in the world according to Forbes (2020).

How to Build a Minimum Viable Product?

1. Find out if you’re attempting to solve a problem

You have a fantastic idea, but is it really good enough to make a breakthrough? Find out if your idea is attempting to solve a problem for your targeted customers. A thorough research is required for this step, or else your efforts will be in vain, so devise a good strategy to conquer the market of your choice.

2. Analyze if you have any competition

You should thoroughly examine your competitors before rushing your idea into a product. There are numerous tools available on the market to help you find your competitors. If you have a competitor then think about “What your unique selling proposition” is and what makes your product unique. This will help you to move forward by coming up with good ideas to stand out from competition.

3. Choose the core feature for your MVP

Before implementing all the ideas you have in your mind into a full-fledged product, you have to come up with the core feature for the Minimum Viable Product. Put yourself in the shoes of a customer; you must think and act like a customer and list out the features that they truly desire, so try to include the core feature that adds value to your targeted customer.

4. Build and test your MVP

After deciding on a core feature for your MVP you should implement it by building the product and test your assumptions on your targeted audience. Testing your ideas will help you determine whether or not the targeted-customer is interested in your product, saving you time and money. MVP is less riskier and helps you to understand your targeted customers, this will give you a better insight on how to improve your product.

5. Improve your MVP

If your idea is working as intended, then you can add more features as you progress. Customers will provide feedback on your product, allowing you to determine which features they truly desire and eliminate less interactive features as you tweak your MVP into a full-fledged product.

Key stages of our developmental process

1. Prototype

Our development team will show you a prototype according to your instructions. If you’re satisfied with it we will continue our development towards your MVP. Note: Prototype is just a shell compared to MVP.

2. UI/UX Design

During the development phase we will execute the front-end and back-end coding to bring life into your idea. As a result of this phase, your product will be ready.

3. Development

Byte Infotech understands your unique business needs and can make tailor-made strategies for your business success. You won’t regret hiring us because we will work on your project till you give us a green signal. We also provide 24/7 support to our clients, we have a special team dedicated just for that.

4. QA and testing

Our Quality Assurance team will conduct rigorous testing on your product to squash the bugs. This phase is necessary to tweak your product before launching it to your targeted market.

5. App launch and marketing

Our marketing team will help you to launch and market your product, this is a necessary step to reach your targeted audience to promote your product.

Have an idea for a Minimum Viable Product?

MVP will help you to create a successful business in this competitive era, we will assist you in every way possible in building you an MVP, we support startups so our pricing is really cheap compared to our competitors, get in touch with us to start building your MVP right away.

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