MVP Development Process: A Step By Step Explanation

When you start building a house, you start with placing the first brick and then other bricks. The same approach is taken in a product-oriented business. When you start a product-oriented business, you launch a single product line and then extend the line with newer products once the previous products successfully gather users for your user base.

Like a house, the product launch strategy has to be built and implemented from the base up. The single most important thing that you need when entering a new market with a new product is to launch the most basic version of the product. The Minimum Viable Product and MVP development solutions aim to float the most basic version for the market.

This article explores the definition of a good MVP Development process and the strategy to build a good MVP for the market. We try to understand the basic features that an MVP sports and how to create one that includes all the important features. Before we go into the development strategy of a marketable MVP, let us first note the features that a good MVP should include so that we can take a more targeted approach to MVP development.

Here are the three core principles that every MVP development company knows well before taking up an MVP development project for their clients.

The minimum viable product should have enough value so that a prospective customer will be compelled to pick it up from the shelves and use it in real life. Without usability, the MVP will fail to achieve its final objective of creating an impact with the customers. A company cannot simply develop an MVP with a blind approach. The company has to find out what the customers need and add value and basic features to the MVP prototype so that the product will appeal to the segment even at the launch level.

Also read: The Truth About the Minimum Viable Product: How To Develop Successful MVPs And Avoid The Pitfalls

The minimum viable product should be viable in the present and show viability for the future. The MVP’s objective is to attract customers initially as early adopters of the product. However, the MVP should also display enough potential for the future so that the early adopters are retained over a long period and turn into regular customers over subsequent launches.

Only when the early adopters are retained will the business start itself as a brand in the market. When the early adopters are convinced about the future benefits and upgrades, they will buy the product again and again. Moreover, they will also recommend the product to more customers and promote your product through word-of-mouth marketing. Without enough benefits and features for early adopters, your products will have a shaky user base to start with.

A good MVP establishes a strong feedback loop for customer-brand interactions to gain future upgrades and development insights. A crucial part of the product development phases is a feedback mechanism firmly in place. The feedback loop helps your brand become a responsive and participative brand that listens to the customers. When you launch the MVP, the main objective is to gather insights from the customers.

Without customer feedback channels integrated into the product, the brand cannot gather feedback to develop user-oriented products in the future. The users are the ones who will generate demand for the product. Therefore, you need to listen to their demands and suggestions before going ahead with further product improvements. Therefore, the Minimum Viable Product development solutions should include multiple feedback loops for a prolonged user-brand interaction.

Even as an MVP, your product should target a specific problem and a specific user group to have a competitive edge. Without a set target, the MVP will lose its standing in the market even before properly establishing it. The MVP strategy starts with a detailed evaluation of the product idea for knowing the problem it is solving and the user group it will cater to after launch.

By knowing the problem and the target group in-depth, the MVP development company can include the exact features and capabilities that the user group wants and needs for solving the problem in its basic form. The MVP development process or product development team can take a  personal and relatable approach to the evaluation process to identify the problem.

On the other hand, the team can look at the problem from a user’s perspective to make the features appealing and usable. Sometimes the problem and solutions already exist in the market. However, the MVP can find a way of providing them more easily.

Also read: Budget Tips To Get The Best Of MVP Development Solutions

Competitor analysis is very important at different phases of business for an organization. You must know that competitor analysis and insights are used for marketing strategy creation and implementation. However, MVP development solutions also need insights from competitor analysis based on the market your company will enter.

Every market already has some leading companies and emerging brands that pose as competitors for a new entrant. It seldom happens that a company launches an MVP into a completely untapped market. Therefore, an in-depth study and analysis of the competitors are important for creating an MVP solution. When you gain insights from the competitor analysis, you get to know the products and features that the competitors are providing.

The aim should be to create an MVP with novel features that the other companies do not offer. The MVP can also include features that improve already offered features. It will be a successful launch if the MVP offers these improvised features at a lower cost. Sometimes, you can find information about competitors’ products from your customer’s feedback.

The user flow or the user journey is the process the customer uses to achieve the basic goals targeted by the MVP. The product designers and developers have to define the user flow to know how the user will use it in real life. By defining the user flow, the development team will be able to include features that complement the user flow and bring it to fruition.

Instead of focusing on features that might look good and fancy, the product development team has to focus on the basic tasks the user will complete in the flow. The product development team can select only those features that help the users complete the tasks and derive desired results by outlining the basic tasks. Once the processes and tasks are defined, the features can be chosen and integrated.

Even in a digital product like a basic ecommerce app, the basic tasks will be to browse products, search for desired products and buy them. Therefore, ecommerce apps in their basic MVP version include features that allow users to find products and buy them easily. Additional features like customized recommendations and personalized shopping assistants are seldom part of the MVP development solutions.

Also read: How To Build MVP For Startups: Guide To Build A Minimum Viable Product

The MVP is all about choosing the right features for a wide-scale launch in the market. The features must be prioritized and listed before integration for its completion and proper integration process. There will be many features that will become apparent after the previous steps of the MVP development strategy. However, the product development team has to study the user flow closely and identify the most vital features.

Integrating these vital features will make the MVP viable in the market. These basic features have to be filtered out, prioritized, and listed for a systematic approach to MVP development services. There might be several features that you may find lucrative and nice. However, these should be classified for the later development and improvement cycles after the MVP launch.

When prioritizing the features you need in the MVP, always try to find the most fundamental action and task the user would complete on the MVP. Try to find the most repeated actions they will be taking up on the digital product. Always try to go ahead with the must-have features of the planned MVP and not the other features.

Once the MVP has been planned and the features have been carefully chosen, the next step is to build the actual MVP development solution. Once the product is built, your team has to test it in different phases. The product has to be tested by quality assurance executives who can test and recommend improvements in the product before launch. After QA testing and a round of improvements, the MVP can be released for alpha and beta testing phases. Once all the testing phases are complete, the MVP can be officially released in the market.

The MVP is an essential market study tool and early entrance for brands. Suppose your company is eager to test the waters with a prototype of a product idea. In that case, Minimum Viable Product development solutions are an answer it should explore for successful brand building.