What is an MVP? What tasks can be solved with its help? How to create it? All questions are answered here!
Creating an MVP: the game is worth the candle!
An MVP, or in other words, a Minimum Viable Product, is a product built most simply but also least expensively possible in order to quickly offer a first version on the market. Your product, designed only with essential features, will allow you to compare its usefulness to the market, in addition to being fast, relevant, and offering a neat design.
Many tools and solutions can help you create an MVP, no matter what it is: a site, an app, etc. There are websites built with Django, Flask, Web2Py, etc. There are also diverse specific solutions for apps.
This article will first define the four good reasons to create an MVP. Secondly, we will give you the keys to creating an MVP.
Our top 4 reasons to create an MVP
So, let’s take a look at the reasons we came up with.
1st reason to create an MVP: test and validate achievements during the creation process
Have your product tested as much as possible in beta. The feedback from your first users will be rich in clues about what they expect in the next version. This feedback will guide you through the design of your final product. This will allow you to improve your product with the assurance that the need and future users are real. In concrete terms, this will allow you to establish the list of the most used and desired features of your product but also those that are not in order to create the most relevant product according to user feedback.
2nd reason to create an MVP: make significant savings
For example, if your goal is to test a new innovative product, you will not need to create a wide range of product versions right away or a complex website that will cost you a fortune. You will first have to create the simplest and most neat website possible, which will cost you around €150 thanks to easy-to-use tools. It is important to calibrate your budget in order to be able to optimize it and especially not to feel helpless if new unforeseen obstacles are added along the way.
3rd reason to create an MVP: acquire prospects and customers even before the product is released
Keep in mind that your first users will have come to a product with the minimum number of features. Treat them as your best friends because they will be your first ambassadors. If you give them the attention they deserve, it is a good bet that they will talk about your product, increasing your visibility and, thus, the number of prospects and customers.
4th reason to create an MVP: get funding/succeed in your crowdfunding campaign
Thanks to your MVP, you will get more than project validation. Your first users will have tested and given enough feedback to improve your product to be much more likely to succeed. Thanks to these first advances, it will be easier for you to pitch the interest of your product that has already been confronted by the market thanks to concrete arguments based on established facts and figures. In other words, you will create a perfect match between your product and your market. So you will have created what is called the product market fit!
You are now convinced that the MVP is a must-have in the face of the success of your project, but you don’t know where to start? In this second part, discover the essential steps for creating an MVP.
How to create an MVP?
As in every project idea, the first thing to do is, above all, to study your market.
Market
This study will first allow you to see and understand the catchment area where you want to import. Their culture, their way of doing and seeing things.
The competitive study is not negligible because it will allow you to check what your competitors are doing and ask yourself how to differentiate yourself from them. Indeed, it will be useful to you on two distinct points:
The problem: during this study, you will identify the limits of the problem you initially raised in order to refine it and make it even stronger.
Digital strategy: you can start developing your digital strategy based on the knowledge provided by your competitive study.
The targets
When developing an MVP, remember to know your targets better through surveys and meetings (events). This will allow you to create your personas, in other words, the typical profile or profiles of your ideal customers.
The list of essential features
We come to the most important part to understand in creating your MVP. When you think about your project, you obviously think about the two hundred features that go with it. But what you must keep in mind when creating MVP is to create a version that allows you to get a maximum of customer feedback with a minimum of effort.
The objective is to list all the features you would like to appear in your project and then classify them, starting with the essentials to determine in which version they should be integrated into your product.
Create your models
After completing all the previous steps, it is important to start the visual design of your product.
Because yes, you will focus on a minimally functional and useful product, but this does not mean that you must neglect the design, the user experience, or the content (because, as most marketers know, content is king!).
Creating an MVP to launch your project can only be a relevant methodology to confirm your product’s viability, feasibility, and interest.
