Minimum viable product refers to a product with the bare minimum features required to test the market potential in a given region. Basically, an MVP is cheaper to build than the final product and a useful concept to test the profitability of an innovative idea before investing millions in production. Thus, it creates a safe space for entrepreneurs where they can freely experiment with their creative freedom and try out business ideas.
Some benefits of using MVP to test market viability are feedback generation from early adapters, faster development and increased chances of securing generous investment. Before establishing a successful business, several big names in the world also started their journey with MVP development.
Some of the Companies that Started with an MVP Are:
Amazon
One of the world’s leading eCommerce companies and also a household name, Amazon started its business operations back in the year 1994. Its owner Jeff Bezos launched the company to sell books, and it only had 5 products to sell. Later Bezos looked for some other categories and collected consumer feedback. Gradually, Amazon started selling various types of products including furniture, food, toys, electronics, etc. and gained worldwide success.
Twitter started in 2006 as an idea of a platform that allowed people to send messages to a group. It was capitalized by its four board members, who launched it first for intra-business communication and then made it public in July 2006. A year later, Twitter was recording 60,000 tweets a day and had already become a successful social media platform. Currently, Twitter is available in over 200 countries and records 500 million daily tweets on an average.
Groupon
Similar to Twitter, Groupon was executed on an intra-business structure. Before jumping on to the final product, Groupon’s founder Andrew Mason released another software named ‘The Point’ that sent coupons to around a 1000 employees. Mason received feedback on the software for 10 months. After catching up with the exact user demands, Mason launched Groupon in 2010 and made it one of the world’s leading daily deals platforms. Not to mention, it only took Andew Mason a month to turn ‘The Point’, his MVP, into the final product ‘Groupon’.
AirBnb
Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were two friends who were having some budget problems to pay the rent of their apartment. However, they had some free space and some mattresses to offer. They tested out their idea at a tech conference and offered people resting space at $80 per night. At this point, their MVP had no website or a full-fledged team of customer support. Later on, they tested on sellers if they’d be willing to let strangers stay in their houses in exchange for some payment.
Before being a global hype in the 2000s, Facebook was launched as ‘TheFacebook’. Meant to connect college students with each other, Facebook simplified the approach to socialize and disrupted the way popular social media sites of that time worked. With time, it became a social media giant that also connected family, friends, businesspeople and even strangers with each other.
How to Modify your MVP?
MVP takes the form of iterative development. However, there are also three simple concepts that you can remember. These are MUP (Minimum Usable Product), MMP (Minimum Marketable Product) and MLP (Minimum Lovable Product).
MUP:This product has all minimum features to make the product usable for the targeted consumers.
MMP:This product has all the features and defined USPs to make the product fit for marketing
MLP:This product focuses on those minimum requirements that are necessary to make the product lovable.
How to Find a Reliable Agency for MVP Development?
Entrepreneurs cannot develop an MVP on their own. They are required to hire a mvp software development company. Excluding the time and budget constraints, there are some suggested measures that you can take to find a reliable MVP development firm:
1. View the Case Studies: Case studies stay true to the capabilities of a firm. They are a direct indicator of the skill set of a company.
2. Critic Reviews:Truspilot, Clutch, G2 and UpCity are reliable critic websites who constantly review software development companies to save the trouble for entrepreneurs like you.
3. Talk to Sales:Discuss your idea with the company before selection. They can guide you about all the complications while allowing you to evaluate their expertise in real time.
4. Consider Multiple Options:Consult multiple companies before selecting your MVP development firm.
5. Ask for Demo:Some companies provide demos of their products and services. In the end, it is the demos that leave a major impact on a business prospect and help you make an informed decision.
6. Technical Support: Technical support can be as costly as the development itself. You want to hire the company with the most favorable technical support policies.
Conclusion
Although the main purpose of an MVP is to validate a market idea, it may fail to do so. However, you can still capitalize by collecting consumer feedback and continuously improving your product like the aforementioned companies did. In the end, they were able to gain success due to validated ideas, iterative improvement and consistency in their approach.
