Learn how to build MVP in software development

Is MVP in software development essential for my business?

Many businesses underestimate the potential of creating MVP for their products and make mistakes that turn into unwanted results. The mistakes mainly happen due to investing too much time and effort in testing their ideas and software.

But, what if there is a way to test your business ideas and the market potential of your software? The MVP concept is in use by companies to test their product and business ideas with less budget and more efficiency. 

Let’s understand MVP in software development and how you can do the same for your business.

What is MVP in software development?

In MVP (a minimum viable product), we build softwares/websites and other products with least features.

MVP saves engineers’ efforts to work on lengthy and unnecessary project parts. Moreover, the MVP for software development helps the development team to get user feedback in the initial development stage for improving their product.

Businesses need to release MVP products for many reasons, such as

• For software launch in the market as quickly as possible.
• To understand how their software can attract more customers.
• For testing business or software-related ideas with real users on less budget. 

However, many business owners assume the app prototype is their MVP, but there is a misconception you can understand.

How does MVP differ from the prototype?

It will be better to clear your misconception that MVP is not a prototype. Even though prototype and MVP behave the same and have multiple similarities, they both are different.

A prototype is a mock-up of any product that conveys your ideas, but the software (prototype) itself is not functional.  App prototype helps developers to create UI/UX elements for deciding how users will interact with your app.

But on the other side, MVP only includes basic features that make the product functional and useful for early customers who give product feedback.  

	Prototype	MVP
Purpose	Validate the problem and find their solution	Valide the solution by doing market tests and collecting feedback
Usage	Used in private users interviews	Used in public user interviews
Complexity	Non Functional model of the product	Fully functional containing basic features
Timeline	Take less time to create prototype	Need more time to create MVP
Functionality	Not fully functional	Contains all the features to make it ready to use
Visibility	Only seen by companies members	Mostly public and can be released in public

Once you go for MVP for software development to test your software’s market potential on less budget, you can check how to build an MVP.

How to build MVP?

Follow these steps to build MVP of your software:

1. Market research

Doing market research would be best to avoid significant effort, time, and financial loss. due to product failure in the market.

During market research, you need to get answers to the following questions:

• What makes your idea unique? 
• How can customer problems be solved with the concept? 
• How to make your product that meets your customers’ needs?
• What values can your product put in their life?

2. Decide your project’s goals.

Having a clear objective will help you track the success of your product launch. So you can decide whether the project development is on the right path or not. 

You can set objectives and measure the following factors:

• Total number of app downloads in a decided duration.
• Finding technical issues in your product. 
• The time duration that users spend on your software or other digital products.

3. Add relevant features to your app

As MVP in software development is the initial development stage of your product, you must include only those relevant features to your app users. 

Even better, you can combine these two points to help you have only relevant features.

• How your software idea is bringing valuable benefit to your customer’s life?
• What are your business goals to achieve at the initial launch of your software?

You must map your customer journey that shows users’ behaviors to identify the series of actions to solve users’ problems. The user journey includes their thoughts, feelings, and decisions that affect their actions.

Always check what your users think and feel while using your product. Knowing their product experience can help you to identify the stages where customers are facing troubles, so you can fix them by adding new features and removing bugs while managing your project.  

4. Develop your MVP.

Based on your project’s objective, you will work on developing your MVP. Make sure the prototypes you made are user-friendly and engaging, as the MVP will represent the final product you will develop. 

You can modify your MVP based on customer feedback to make it more engaging and user-friendly. 

5. Collect customers’ feedback

The user feedback will help you to find the area of improvement in your MVP in software development for releasing the final version of the product. 

Modifying your MVP on customer reviews will improve your product during new product development. Know how you can manage your project from the video so you can develop your product even better.

What are the benefits of creating an MVP?

1. Product testing on low investment 

Creating an MVP can help you avoid wasting your time on years of product development with significant resources, time, and money. With MVP, you can quickly make changes to your product based on customer feedback, increasing the chances of a successful outcome in the market.

Once your business shows positive results like gaining more customers, you can invest more funds for business scaling.

2. Need less time for product launch 

MVP helps you to resolve a problem immediately that your product or customer is facing during the initial stage of your business. 

You can quickly launch a new version of your product with the help of MVP, as you will be working on improving your product regularly, following your customers’ feedback.

3. Ease in product modifications

You can test your product idea with the help of MVP and make instant changes if that idea doesn’t seem valid during the testing. MVP is a great way to test your business ideas in a short period without investing too much effort and funds.

4. Find the right audience 

Reaching the right audience is important for your business growth. The MVP in software development allows you to collect customer feedback and conduct multiple surveys to know the right target audience. 

Once you understand the audience, you can minimize the risk of your product failure. This will speed up the development process and provide a better product experience to your targeted audience. You can target your audience of different demographics, such as their age range and professionals. 

5. Flexibility in changing business direction

You can change your business plan entirely while testing your idea by creating your MVP for software development whenever your business idea doesn’t give the best output as expected. Thus, a minimal viable product helps businesses change their direction by allowing them to do idea testing in less cost and time to avoid huge funds and years of effort.

You can check how many businesses have established themselves on less budget and a fault with the help of the minimal viable product.

How does MVP help these brands to grow bigger?

Many known brands have adopted the MVP approach in their initial days. So they can launch their product quickly and later add functionality to enhance its usability and improve customer experience.

1. Facebook

Facebook was launched in universities of America to help students to stay connected on the internet. MVP helps this brand to launch its product with minimal features to test its business idea. After getting the successful result, Facebook has expanded its business worldwide by including multiple features to enhance the customer experience on its platform.

Started in	2004
Founder	Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes
Available on	Web, Android & iOS
Net revenue	$527 B
Headquarter	US

2. Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud storage platform that stores media files of its customers. In its initial days, Dropbox used the MVP approach by releasing an explanatory video showcasing cloud storage technology’s possibilities and innovative functions. Eventually, the video helped Dropbox increase their sign-up by five times in just a night without releasing their product. The MVP allows Dropbox to test its business idea without launching its product in the market.

Started in	2007
Founder	Drew Houston, Arash Ferdowsi
Available on	Web, Android & iOS
Net revenue	70M
Headquarter	US

3. Groupon

The initial intent of the brand was to gather people on their platform so they could help each other and run crowdfunding campaigns.

After a few months, the users started sharing their special coupons and promo code. The staff manually handled all the users’ requests by sending emails to individual customers with all the information. The MVP approach helps Groupon to know its users’ intent and interest, and later Groupon shifts its intent from mutual crowdfunding to establishing an eCommerce platform.

Started in	2008
Founder	Eric Lefkofsky, Andrew Mason, Brad Keywell
Available on	Web, Android & iOS
Net revenue	$35 M
Headquarter	US

4. Twitter

Initially, Twitter was known as an SMS communication platform. The MVP of Twitter comes with limited features such as sending messages with no hashtags, reposts, replies, etc. After getting a positive result from their MVP testing, Twitter performs product scaling and includes many other features to improve the platform.

Started in	2006
Founder	Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Noah Glass
Available on	Web, Android & iOS
Net revenue	$5 B
Headquarter	US

Contact Idea Usher for building MVP in software development!

For every new business, it is acceptable that they cannot create MVP due to a lack of business experience. Even more, scaling a business without making an MVP is not a great step toward business growth. 

If you are facing difficulties creating the MVP in software development, you can contact Idea User. Idea Usher will help you create a highly effective MVP and provide consultations on project management to help you achieve your business goals. For any queries, contact Idea Usher. 

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FAQ

Q. What is MVP in software development and testing?

A. MVP allows businesses to test their product idea to decide whether their idea for software development is valid. The businesses during MVP prioritize users’ feedback for the modifications in their software. 

Q. What does MVP mean in agile?

A. In agile, MVP stands for a minimal viable product. MVP includes scientific methods for product/software building, including the mechanism for validated learning and market research for meeting the customers’ needs. 

Q. How does MVP apply when developing a service?

A. At the time of product/service development, the company collects customer feedback and made quick modifications to the services.