Definition of MVP
Minimum Viable Products are versions of products with limited features, but still offer some usability. This differs from alpha versions which may not have much at all in the way of usability.
When developing an MVP, it’s important to make sure the focus is on simplicity. When you remove any additional features, you can see if the concept is something people want.
To start a good startup, it is very wise to understand the problem before you build your MVP. To do this, find out what pain points your potential users have. Speak to as many people as possible to see if they share the same need and get an idea of their specific needs rather than focusing on one pain point and figuring out how other solutions don’t work for them.
If you can solve a problem with the product, you’ll be more confident of getting a first user. If you have personal experience with the problem, it will be easier for you to find your first user. It is imperative that you first identify your target users, in order to know their pain points and speak with them.
What is an MVP mobile app?
It’s essential to test a platform business model with a minimum amount of custom coding and complex features. We replace “product” with “platform” to create a Minimum Viable Platform (MVP). The same basic concepts apply, but the output is different.
TheUsefulApps is a company that takes development one step further and creates a prototype MVP for client-specific needs.
The Lean Startup is very popular in business. The main difference between an MVP and a final product is that an MVP may not be polished or complete, but it still has all the functionality you need. When trying out new things, the key is to learn quickly and iterate.
This is different from most software which deploys a basic product and then adds on to it overtime. Instead, Spotify deployed a full, yet not overly complicated product in the beginning, with an expectation of adding more features to increase efficiency and improve capabilities.
Majority of MVPs don’t fail to hit the minimum viable platform. You have an idea that you build with feedback, then adjust and repeat. The MVP for this game does not take into account any potential for the game to be a platform. It’s missing a core transaction. The game begins within the app itself, and there is no exchange of value (or reward) between two sets of users.
You need to focus on the core of the problem you are solving. Uber started by focusing on their main trade and then gradually expanded with different versions.
Amazon may be considered a retail giant now, but in 1995, it was nothing more than a few people packing and shipping boxes of books from a two-car garage. Amazon is known to have manually bought and packaged their own items before they had the right supplier. They didn’t allow other sellers onto their platform for years, but instead took time to understand what they could sell on the platform and how they could sell it. They first understood what they wanted to do, and from there expanded. They didn’t have all of the bells and whistles at launch–they knew this would be an expensive mistake if they tried to test everything at once. Amazon just needed to see if the concept would work and how they could improve it.
UberEATS is a delivery service that uses Uber’s existing platform. There are no complex systems to handle changes in demand, and delivery workers just carry one set of inventory around on their shift. Orders are done through the app, and they only deliver within a certain number of blocks in a specific amount of time. The ordering process isn’t much different than an Uber ride, as people can still see menus for the next week with email receipts using the same template as ride receipts.
Conclusion
An MVP is a minimum viable product and is the first step to building a successful app. You can think of an MVP as a beta version of your app, with just the features necessary to solve the problem you want it to solve. It’s also important that, while building an MVP, you stay focused on solving one problem, not multiples. Make sure you understand what problem you want to solve before adding other things to your app. Once you’ve found your first user, you’ll want to iterate and fail fast. This means that the instant someone shares feedback about how your product could be improved, you will take their suggestion and try it out for yourself. If it works for both parties then great! If not, then learn from the mistake and move on until you find something that does work for everyone involved.