Insight - 10 Apr 2019

MVP For Startup Development

MVP broken down

A Minimum Viable Product is a version of a product that allows a team to collect the highest amount of validated learning about clients with the least possible effort. It is used to quantitatively and qualitatively test the marketresponse to a specific product or functionality. An MVP only has the functions required to show the product to the customer, and its primary objective is to avoid development of features customers do not want or need, and maximize information based on the cost and effort invested.

Despite its name, the MVP is not just about creating a product. It is a strategy and a process, focused on building and selling a product to a group of customers. It is an iterative process of idea generation, prototype development, presentation, data collection, analysis, and learning. If the goal is simply to create something fast, an MVP itself is not really necessary. In most cases, an MVP requires spending time talking with clients, defining metrics and analyzing the results.

MVP for app development

Millions of apps have been created, and hundreds are developed and uploaded to Android and iOS store every day. With those numbers showing up as your potential competition, what you really want to do is to base your next Startup App on an MVP technique; this means to start with a single, simple product, solving a tiny subset of a grand problem. MVP app development is all about delivering enough value to fulfill the key start-up business aims, at minimum cost and timescales. 

Creating an app and launching it is a tedious process with a lot of hard work going into it, from the coding and development phase, to creating a great interface and providing the best user experience possible. Many companies will launch an app only to discover that users don’t need or want it, and as a result, waste a lot of time and money.

Why?

Because consumers don’t know what they want from a product until the concept or idea is being introduced to them, and neither to the potential app’s creators. This is where MVP comes into action; starting with an MVP App is often
less expensive than developing one with more features, which increases costs and risk if the product fails due to incorrect assumptions. An MVP based app will help you learn about your target market before building a complete, fully functional app. You could say it’s the skeleton of your product, with one future goal: to test your assumptions and learn from your results.

Once you know you are successfully solving that tiny subset of a grand problem, you could then keep iterating, while continually solving more significant related problemsen route to addressing the bigger issue, and accurately refining your findings to improve your app with iterative updates.

Successfull MVP app stories

Uber

Uber launched in 2010 with the beta version. You could locate and connect with drivers and make payments over the phone. The founders of Uber tried this app in San Francisco and received feedback from the targeted segment. Based on that, they created a multi-billion dollar app and revolutionalized transport all over the world. Today, Uber has many more features, such as fare spitting, gamification elements, and other complex functions that didn’t exist at the time of its first release.

Airbnb

To test their idea of renting a loft for short trips, the founders of Airbnb set up mattresses in their living rooms, created a chopped website to advertise their house available for the weekend and immediately got 3 paying guests.

Soon, they launched a simple website that explained how tourists and owners could take advantage of the service. Airbnb is now worth an estimated $30 billion and it’s being used in 191 countries around the world.

Facebook

In late 2004, Facebook was the definition of MVP on social media, with no timelines, no integrated apps, no newsfeed or anything similar.

They had a simple profile and an excellent opportunity to connect with their friends. This one feature was enough to provide an excellent boost and turn a small project into one of the largest public tech companies in history.

Groupon

Groupon is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world. Its goal is to connect local businesses with customers and to provide goods/services at a discounted price. Groupon is available in 45 countries and connects billions of people. The site processes thousands of transactions every day; but that’s today. In early November 2008, it was just a WordPress website providing users with coupons in PDF format to be downloaded, printed out, and used later offline.

MVP is a strategy that enables you to find out a lot about a user, with the help of a basic and correctly working app, without overspending valuable time and investments. All you need is to formulate your business hypothesis, identify crucial functions, and choose a trustworthy mobile app development company for your project.

If you are seeking a mobile app development partner to help build your MVP, contact Nirvana Canada today.