A minimum viable product or MVP can assist the development staff in receiving customer reviews as soon as possible to be iterated and improved. MVP is a product with only enough functionality to entice early-adopter buyers and confirm a product design early in the production cycle.
Toronata Tambun, the Founder and Director of Aren Energy Investment Pte Ltd, highlighted it in his lecture about Business Planning and Feasibility, Thursday (25/3/2021). Before evaluating the features to create, the first step in building an MVP is to ensure that the product can comply with the team’s or company’s strategic objectives.
“What are the goals? Does the company have the resources to achieve those goals? These questions will influence the decision to create the MVP, whether now is the ideal time to begin or later,” Toronata said.
Then, identify the aim of this minimum viable product. Will it bring in more customers in a market that is adjacent to that of the current products? If that is one of the company’s current goals, this MVP strategy could be strategically feasible. However, if the company’s current priority is to continue concentrating on its key markets, this proposal will need to be shelved in favor of an MVP that offers new features to existing clients.
Toronata used the analogy of the assumption that customers want to move from one place to another faster. Hence, the proposed solution is to construct a car. However, building a car will require time and money. So, before investing in this invention, the company decides to bring the theory to the test by producing a minimum viable product.
An MVP will assist the company in validating the product definition. The company proposes that a skateboard, a basic tool that fixes the stated problem, be used to make people travel quicker. And the company was right if the target demographic is involved in skateboarding. They are in desperate need of a vehicle and are willing to pay for it. So, the company should go ahead and add some more options before finally building a car.
After the core features are defined, the company can finally build the product. As mentioned earlier, to build an MVP, the company’s first product may be primitive. However, if the concept solves a challenge effectively without sacrificing the user interface, it will gain traction, and the MVP will demonstrate this presumption.
The next step is then to test the MVP with users. The feedback from customers will determine whether the product is worth investing in, whether the target audience is determined accurately. It will give further ideas on how to develop the product in the future, and last but not least, it will exhibit the features that the product does not need in future development. This experiment reveals factual information and not just assumptions as to the one the company initially established.
Receiving negative feedback may seem frightening, however, it is important to know that in the business world, negative feedback is better than no feedback. Afterwards, the company can further develop the product according to the feedback given, and this step will be repeated for as long as criticism and analysis come that could improve the product even further.