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The Real MVP: Why you need a Minimum Viable Product

Did you know that nearly 66% of startups fail because they don’t understand market demand? Did you also know building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a solution that can save the life of your business?

The concept of MVP’s originated in Eric Ries  “Lean Startup Methodology” in 2011. MVPs help business owners and operators like you increase your chance of success by collecting priceless data such as user feedback for a fraction of the cost of building a fully specced product that fails to achieve Product-market fit.

In this article, we will take a look at why business needs an MVP, what pros and cons are, and how to start building an MVP for your business. 

Why do you need A Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

You’ve got a great concept for a new digital product unlike anything seen before. This could be groundbreaking! Marketing plans are being drawn up, pitch decks are being made, and meetings are being set.

But will it work?

Whether you’re a startup gearing for launch or an SME or large Enterprise creating a new product, you’re going to need a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). If you’re not sure what that is, it’s transforming your concept into a product in its most basic form with the objective of validating your idea and understanding if it meets the Product-Market fit.

Bells and whistles can be added later, you just need to make sure your idea works.

3 Undeniable Reasons You Need An MVP

There are many pros and a lot less cons for building an MVP. Here, we investigate three of the undeniable reasons you need to build an MVP at the start of your software development journey.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

1. Generate Real User Feedback & Gauge Product-Market Fit

You don’t want to build a product that nobody wants. 

By partnering with an experienced technical team like Trienpont you can break your idea down into a collection of core features that should appeal to your target market. Next, validate these features with real users and collect valuable feedback that will fuel future iterations of your groundbreaking digital product. 

2. Save precious time and money

It can take years (and a lot of cash) to finish a complex project. In fact, 29% of startups fail due to running out of money. 

Building a barebones MVP to validate your idea will absolutely save you time, money, and the shame of going to your old boss begging for your job back. 

3. Unlock funding with a bonafide product 

A great chef will win accolades by creating mouth-watering dishes – not from creating menus filled with pretty pictures. Showcasing a working product that proves your concept has a market will have would-be investors salivating as they fight to give you cheques. 

A few pretty pictures and stats on Google slides won’t have quite the same effect..  

Trienpont’s 5 Step MVP Process

Not everyone knows what Minimum Viable Products are, especially those not familiar with the startup and tech worlds. We often explain the concept to our clients and suggest they reduce risk and exposure by first scoping a scaled back version of their idea. To do this, we follow a 5 step process:

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

We will do a deep dive into this process soon (so stay tuned!), but a quick synopsis is as follows:

1. Ideation

Your idea or concept is broken down and refined in a structured way to understand what your overall objective is, and how we can achieve it together. Here we consider how users will interact with your product and what core features should be included in the MVP. 

2. Scoping

We take the concept and objective of your MVP and translate it into a technical blueprint, including Requirements, Wireframes and UX/UI Design. This gives you the opportunity to see and understand the  full flow and feel of your product before we start building. 

3. Building

The fun part begins! Your concept takes shape before your eyes as we build and refine your MVP following the Agile methodology. Work is broken down into 2 week sprints and you can witness the progress and give regular feedback with fortnightly product demos. 

4. Validation

This is where your identified test subjects get their hands on early versions of the product to test and give feedback. This process can take days, weeks or months but will provide vital insight to fuel the future development of your product!

5. Iteration

Feedback fuels the direction of development. To best ensure Product-Market Fit is achieved, the insights gained through the validation process are used to improve your product in an iterative manner. This allows your product to slowly transform into what your users really need, not what you think they might want. 

I’m sold. How do I start building my MVP?

Our team of MVPs have built plenty of Minimum Viable Products Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for budding entrepreneurs just like you. There are a few considerations before we get started:

1. You’ve identified your product and its objective(s)

You know what you want to achieve and are able to articulate or demonstrate what the end product is, and what you want it to achieve. We can help you develop coherence and are fluent in layman’s terms.

2. You know what features should be included

Focus on the core components that will solve the problem your users currently face and the solution your product will bring to them. Rest assured features can be added, removed and refined in future iterations based on market feedback.

3. You have an understanding of the costs involved

The more complex your project is, the more time and money it will take to produce. You may have absolute faith that your product will work and you’re 100% committed to its success, but developers can’t survive on your hopes and dreams.

4. KISS (Keep It Simple & Straightforward)

I’m pretty sure that’s what this acronym stands for… Simplicity can be the key to success when it comes to MVPs. The clue is in the name (twice), minimum viable product. You’re proving your concept and testing reactions from users, investors, executives etc. Extra features can always be added.

Let’s Build Your Minimum Viable Product!

A Minimum Viable Product is the first giant leap into making your vision a reality. The team at Trienpont International has more than 14 years experience designing and building MVPs for individuals, startups, agencies and enterprises. We’d love to work together to craft your problem-solving product and start getting real feedback and traction for your project.

MVPs help startups to test the market and verify the potential of their product. MVPs are commonplace today and help startups to launch products without breaking the bank.

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