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Brief introduction of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
For businesses to succeed in today’s modern world, they must know and understand what their target audience really wants. And the most efficient way to know this is to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). In an MVP, the business house can include just enough features to check whether their product will be accepted by the users or not. Moreover, building an MVP requires less resources, thus it is a cost effective method as well.
Now to build good quality MVPs, it is important to follow a superlative process. Thus, businesses who develop Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in agile reap rich benefits as this method is the most adaptable to changes. In addition, it reduces risks and increases the chances of building a more successful product.
Therefore, in this blog, we will get deep and understand what MVP is in agile and how the method assists in developing good quality products. Moreover, we will also see the benefits of developing an MVP software and how this method is beneficial in the long run.
Read More: 10 Essential Steps To Build a SaaS MVP
Brief introduction of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
MVPs are basic or the essential elements of what the actual, full-blown application is supposed to cater to, just at a lower scale. The main purpose of developing an MVP product is to see how end-users interact with it. It collects user data and renders valuable insights to the business owners as to how the final app would perform.
Building an MVP allows businesses to fix the issues at an affordable rate and is an important step in the agile development process. Along with the business owners, MVP allows a team of developers to see whether the final application will resonate with the users or not. Moreover, developing a minimum viable product in agile, it becomes a learning tool in new product development.
What is MVP in agile development?
Agile methodology is flexible and highly useful in the fast-changing business world. This process divides the entire software development into small parts (iterations). Thus, it becomes easier for the team to analyze each iteration, collect feedback and move forward. On the cost to risk ratio, agile methodology knocks out the traditional method and emerges as a true champion.
Now building an MVP is one of the main hypotheses of the agile development process. Every business runs on assumptions while developing a new product. The assumptions can be finding an effect of solving a problem or including newer features in the app. But with the agile process, businesses can avoid irrelevant decisions and validate their beliefs in an effective way.
The power of market validation is often underestimated by businesses. But if you hire a custom software development company, it will understand the essential requirements of the target audience and develop the MVP accordingly.
Are MVPs only for startups?
Business houses that think developing an MVP through agile methodology is only for startups are making a huge mistake. Although an MVP is created during the early stages, it evolves as the brand evolves. Thus, firms while adding a feature or presenting a new product should always have an MVP mentality.
Through the agile methodology, MVP in product management becomes a streamlined affair. Thus along with the startups, this process aids and helps even the established businesses in the same way. This methodology helps companies to refine the quality of their product at every instance allowing them to render better services to the customers.
Read More: How To Build A SaaS Product: A Complete Guide
Benefits of developing an MVP
Businesses must understand that developing an MVP is not just building a product with some features missing. The products are often sensible and render immense benefits. We will be discussing some of the major advantages of developing an MVP product below:
Gets quality product to users easily
Building a minimum viable product can play an important role in facilitating the customer discovery process. For example, Bumble found that its users are finding the platform extremely helpful for meeting business partners and networking. Thus, this led to the development of Bumble Bizz that connected the professionals at one place.
MVP in agile allows businesses to find new market and revenue options in the most unanticipated way. More so, there may be cases like in Bumble that the product is used other ways apart from the initially intended purpose. Thus, MVP renders good quality products at the hand of the users at the earliest.
Prevents waste building
In today’s constantly evolving business realm, time is the most important entity. Thus, as a business owner, if you are thinking of building an app that would take months and require thousands of dollars, you might lose the essence of it. The new age customers have a plethora of options for everything these days. Thus, along with providing quality, organizations have to do it at the earliest as well.
Building an MVP project before the actual application can save time and money and also render the product an edge over its peers. The basic foundation and features would make it easier to validate your idea in actual conditions and see if the target audience actually wants your app. Once the minimum features are validated, it becomes easier to add new features and roll out the app.
Testing the hypothesis
Through MVP, the business owner can quickly realize that whether they are wrong or the world around them is wrong. If the targeted customers are willing to pay for the solution the application renders, then the hypothesis related to the app is right.
On the other hand, if the product is discarded by the target audience, the business organization must reconsider their strategies. Therefore, an MVP project helps in realizing which priority is beneficial for the business. Thus, it is necessary to implement the best testing strategies for MVP software.
How to make MVP concepts work for a business?
It is a no-brainer that every business wants to build an app for which the target customers are willing to pay the money. Developing an MVP product with agile is a concrete step in this direction. It will develop a pathway for the business enterprises and assist them in avoiding unnecessary complexities.
To make the MVP concept work for a business, it has to be designed around serving the customers. In addition, it should be easy to launch, must be easy to navigate and solves a specific problem. Therefore, a business organization must test their MVP concept on these parameters. And if their product does not fit in the above description, it is not a worthy MVP software.
Top myths busted about MVP
Like every technology concept, the realm of MVP is also marred with certain myths going around. Here we will be giving our readers a reality check that will help them in the long run.
1. It is about ‘time-to-market’
Developing an MVP is not just about developing a product to deliver it rapidly to the market. An MVP project focuses on speed but also on market acceptance as well. Speed is essential only in the context of obtaining the information to enhance the quality of other projects.
2. It is all about ‘making profit’
Businesses must not make this mistake of considering MVP in project management is just about profit. But the reality involves other factors as well. Along with making money, developing a minimum viable product focuses on testing the app idea as well. It is an easier way to analyze the app, get feedback and improve on the shortcomings to develop a better product in the future.
3. It is for ‘startups only’
Developing a minimum viable product is a comprehensive step and doesn’t only work for startups. In fact, even the established organization can follow this method and earn huge profits. The MVP concept is all about making small and incremental changes that are safe for the product. It allows having new upgrades and functionality without causing much inconvenience.
4. It is designed just to make an ‘impression’
If a business develops the minimum viable product in Agile, it becomes a full-featured solution right at the nascent stage. This means that it can solve the customer problems with full authority using the basic features and design. An MVP is a fine balance between efficiency, effectiveness and usability.
5. It is an ‘end-product’
Businesses must not make a mistake regarding the MVP project as an end product. Developing an MVP doesn’t mean having a fully-featured app with some extra specifications. In reality, it is just a Launchpad for upscaling entrepreneurship. It is just the starting point towards an immaculate digital journey.
Read More: MVP For Startups: How it Helps Reduce Development Costs
What makes an MVP team?
Having understood what MVP is in agile, we will now see what it takes to make a competent MVP team. To begin with, the team working on the MVP software has some peculiar requirements. For starters, the team is responsible for testing the concept of the product efficiently. In addition, the team focuses on gathering and analyzing feedback for creating a basic version of the product. These steps are influential in the next stages of product development.
So what will the MVP team look like? The answer to this question depends on the product requirements and the list of challenges. According to the requirement and area of competence, a general MVP team comprises of:
· Visual designer
· UI/UX designer
· Front-end and back-end development team
· Scrum Master
· DevOps
· Business Analyst
Along with gathering people with superlative technical expertise, the MVP team should follow three basic rules as well.
1) The team members should have a good combination of hard and soft skills.
2) If the members have worked on any other project before, it would be an added advantage.
3) There must be space for fresh perspectives during the course of development.
Minimum Loveable Product (MLP): An alternative to MVP
An MVP project is developed so see how the audience will react to the product. While on the other hand, Minimum Loveable Product is created just to bring delight to the faces of the customers. The main aim of this product is to make the customers admire it and enhance the positive ‘word of mouth’ marketing.
The whole concept of a minimum loveable product is to make the users recommend it to their friends and families. Moreover, with the increased competition, it may not be enough for the businesses to create MVP in agile and enjoy the success. They would need smart features and a loveable design to attract the customers.
MVP helps in finding out what kind of functionality is essential for the project. Whereas the MLP approach focuses on conquering a wider range of audiences. But together, they make a ‘dream team’.
The Takeaway
MVP in project management is essential for any business in the long run. Whether it is data collection at the initial stages or implementing customer feedback to improve the quality, MVP does everything. But to avail the benefits of designing a profound minimum viable product in agile, it is necessary to hire a custom software development company. This organization will work according to the client requirements and render a superlative, market defining solution,Therefore, if you have an idea, we have a vibrant, experienced and competent team of developers and designers to turn that dream into reality, so get in touch with us.