When creating a business, entrepreneurs are faced with the task of implementing the maximum possible functionality for the idea that they create, solving all kinds of client problems that may arise. You can validate and improve your product as much as you want, but it will never be perfect. And you may spend a lot of time and money making a product that will not be in demand among the target audience.

The most effective strategy is an ongoing process of improvement and communication with customers. It is an opportunity to meet their needs on time and ask directly about the improvements they want to see. There is much more you can do with simple feedback instead of trying to build the perfect business right away.

What is MVP approach

One of the ways to launch your business, test the idea and avoid the mistake of creating a product that is complex and unnecessary for the market is to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

The goal is to create a minimum viable product that will solve the main problems of customers.

Minimum

It is not uncommon for people to create a business in secret for years. And then it turns out that no one needs it in this form. A lot of research has been done about startups, today the following is interesting for us (link).

In first place with an indicator of 42% - the product is not in demand on the market (No market need). In this case entrepreneurs did not create minimal functionality and test their idea, but immediately began to solve many problems and went deep into development.

But what is the assurance that the founders' vision is 100% in line with the expectations of potential customers? To answer this question, it is better to carry out Customer Development (СustDev) and create something "minimal". A small process, a product, something that will help you test an idea in a short time without a lot of effort.

For example, the Dropbox case is illustrative, whose example is constantly cited. The founding team made a video about the work of their service and showed it to users. They had no product, just a 2 minute long video. The result is the growth of subscribers to their project from 5 to 75 thousand. Without spending anything, people found a way to test their own idea and succeed.

It should always be remembered that any idea is an assertion about something. It is limited by the person's own outlook, point of view, and external factors. It should always be tested on something small, rather than trying to create a perfect implementation for several years.

Viable

At the start of the project, many startups strive to create a product with the widest possible functionality, with the coolest design, etc. But often such a product failed, because startups did not ask themselves the most important question "Do users need all these goodies?"

Owners of business ahould realize the main point - first of all the product created to test theories should work. This process, the product, should solve main customer's problem.

Let's say that you decide to create an electronic wallet which can transfer cryptocurrency to employees of your own company. The website, the design, the service, it can all be horrible. But the user will come to you not to see a perfect design or thousands of technical options but to solve his main problem - the transaction to the necessary persons. This process should work flawlessly. In this case, the transaction must go through, user A must receive funds from user B. The product should be helpfull and usefull, other factors are much less important. This is an indicator of whether your product is viable or not.

Product

This concept is often the subject of controversy and criticism. There is a position that MVP is not a "product" per se. It is a process that you repeat constantly, testing your ideas. The goal is the answer to the question: "what to do next?"

Principles to follow when creating an MVP:

• Solve only the main problem of users
  
  
• It should be possible to collect data and get feedback from users
  
  
• Draw conclusions after each touch of the client and determine the direction in accordance with them

The main advantages of the MVP approach to validating your idea and launching a business are speed, cheapness and efficiency. Most of the companies are focused on the market that is presented now, not in 5 years. Nobody will wait for your product for years if it is possible to make it in a few months. During creating, you do not spend a colossal amount of money on development, team, logo design. You don't need all of this for testing.

The result you get will be useful anyway.

• If customers refuse to use your product, it means that you have saved a lot of time, money, effort and energy even before starting to implement an idea that the market does not need.
  
  
• If the hypothesis has shown that it works, customers use what you have created - this is a sign for further development.

To summarize, the MVP approach is about the correct use of the tool. Do not try to cover all the intended functionality of the product immediately, use prototypes and test hypotheses on users. Give the user the opportunity to love your product today.


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Do you have a fantastic idea to implement? Contact us and let's start!