MVP (minimum viable product) is the most pared down version of a product with minimum feature set that can still be released and that is able to solve one customer task. MVP is a version of a product that contains minimum necessary features to test its viability in the market. There are no extra or secondary functions at this stage but there is only precisely the essence of the service.
Minimum viable product acted as safety cushion and makes it possible to predict commercial and technical capabilities of the product as well as its implementation. MVP makes it possible to take technical and business solutions based on certainties rather than suppositions.
Thus, concept or product testing in the market is the core idea of creating MVP.
Why do we need MVP?
It doesn’t matter how genius idea is, but it is not the ultimate success.
The minimum viable product design will make the following be possible:
• To save money by not investing in a failed project by means of testing product hypotheses with minimal cost.
• To assess the prospects of the business ideas in the market in a short term.
• To issue quickly a product that solves at least one customer problem.
• To conduct an audience research and collect statistics for later refinement of additional services.
• To find out with the use of iterations which direction of development will be the most optimal way.
• To present an idea to the potential investors.
• To collect the potential client database and to find the early adopters of the product.
• The expedited procedure of information obtaining that is necessary for decision making.
The concept of MVP
To implement the idea successfully, it is necessary to build a path from the point where you are now, to the point where you want to be, and divide it into stages.
Before to begin the development, it is necessary to determine what MVP is for the product, which are the core features of the product and which are not obligatory.
One should not waste time and efforts on features which are of relatively low utility at the current moment. These features are not necessary for the application and its transition to the customers. What is decisive is whether to be in the state of high alert as we approach the product launch time. One must have self-discipline to set the features aside for future versions of the application.
It is very important to understand and constantly appreciate the importance and value of the MVP strategy. One should be very concentrated on the product issue without getting distracted and to remain the improvement of the functionality for the future.
With Lazy User Concept (LUC) in mind
Lazy User Concept
The core idea of LUC is to interpret any business model from the lazy user point of view. The state of comfort is the main goal of such a user. He does not want to make any efforts, does not want to pay or do anything. That is, this user is annoyed by everything that can at least somehow bother him, regardless of whether these are positive or negative. Changes are allowed only if in the near future they are potentially able to bring a state of even greater comfort. Such a user is ready to pay for changes only in case if the planned profit significantly improves his situation. The basic rule when working with such a user is that you can’t just ask him, he needs to offer and analyze the reaction to the proposed. Based on the foregoing, the author of the concept suggests using a tool such as pre-function. This is when the user is prompted for a button responsible for a specific function, which at a given time does not perform its function. Instead, it’s just a counter. The user clicked and the counter counted. Based on the results of statistics, it is possible to research and implement any custom functionality. As soon as more than 2 percent of users poke into the corresponding pre-function button, it makes sense to implement given functionality in full.
What happens when there is no MVP
Not so long ago, a study was undertaken that affected more than 3 thousand of the fastest-growing startups. According to the results of the study, it turned out that 74 percent of the failures of these projects were due to premature scaling. Simply put, the cost of maintaining new users exceeded the income received from them. The reason for this is poor knowledge of the target audience needs. In order to prevent and block that possibility, it is necessary to create MVP, based on which the initial theory of the target audience should be adjusted. That’s why the MVP concept reduces the startup time of the project by creating only the necessary functions and to start receiving real feedback on your product.
Hence the main value of MVP is that it allows to spend very little time on design and development, and very quickly get feedback from users. All this will help to understand in which direction you need to develop and what should be improved.