How to Build Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with Only 4 Steps

Have you ever heard about the term “minimum viable product (MVP)”? An MVP is a basic product version that includes only the crucial features needed to solve the core problem of the target audience. Building an MVP can help you validate your product idea, test the market, and gather user feedback before investing in full-scale product development.

When building the minimum viable product properly, businesses, regardless of size, receive unexpected results. You may not believe in the effectiveness of building MVP development at first glance. However, it is no coincidence that many large companies have taken such a way and are successful in their field.

Uber is one of the typical minimum viable product examples. Instead of developing a complete mobile app development to realize the idea of pair drivers willing to take passengers at an affordable price, Uber takes it small by creating an MVP called UberCab in the San Francisco market. Not very long, UberCab helped Uber become one of the most valued companies in this country.

But how to build a minimum viable in the simplest way while still maintaining the best performance? In this article, we will walk you through the process of building an MVP from start to finish. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a product manager, this guide will provide you with the needed knowledge and tools to make a successful MVP and take your product to the next level. So, if you’re ready to turn your product idea into a reality, let’s get started on building your MVP!

What is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)?

An MVP, or what we call a Minimum Viable Product, is a product development strategy in which a basic version of a product is released to the market as quickly as possible, with only the essential features included. The goal of an MVP is to better customer development and gather qualitative feedback and quantitative feedback from early adopters and real users, which can then be used to improve and refine the product in later versions.

The concept of an MVP was popularized by entrepreneur and author Eric Ries in his book, “The Lean Startup.” In this book, Ries emphasizes the importance of building products that are validated by real-world feedback rather than relying on assumptions and guesswork.

By releasing a minimum viable product (MVP), product teams can test their assumptions and hypotheses about target users’ needs and preferences without investing significant time and resources in a fully-featured product. This approach allows companies to quickly iterate, and pivot based on user feedback, leading to better products that are more in line with customer needs.

There are many types of minimum viable products, and the four most common types include concierge MVP, oz MVP (wizard of oz MVP), content MVP and software prototype.

Distinguish Qualitative Feedback from Quantitative Feedback in Minimum Viable Product Software

As mentioned in the definition, the ultimate goal of minimum viable products is still to collect qualitative feedback and quantitative feedback. However, many product teams may experience confusion around the distinction between these two.

Qualitative feedback in a software MVP typically involves gathering opinions, beliefs, and attitudes from target users through techniques such as surveys, user interviews, or focus groups. This type of feedback can be useful for understanding how users feel about the product and business idea, what they like or dislike, and what improvements they would like to see.

Quantitative feedback, on the other hand, involves measuring specific metrics such as usage data, conversion rates, or customer retention rates. This type of feedback can provide more objective insights into how well the product is performing and can be used to track progress over time.

Both of these types of feedback can be valuable to a business for improving an MVP. However, qualitative and quantitative feedback is not done in isolation but needs to work in parallel to meet user satisfaction and achieve business goals.

MVP Development: Benefits for Business

Why launch your product from the very beginning with only a few core features when you can wait a little longer to offer the target audience a full-fledged product? Why are startup founders and owners of large businesses so fond of using MVP product development? There must be reasons.

Validate Your Product Idea

The software development process is long and difficult, starting from ideation to bringing the product to market. When businesses develop a new product idea, they often have many assumptions about the target audience, needs, and how people will respond to the product. However, these assumptions are not accurate. You can never know if your banking app will meet the needs of the target market or not without trying to put it to the test. That is why businesses develop a minimum viable product (MVP).

In case the product receives positive feedback, you continue to release more upgraded versions with all the features. In case of receiving dissatisfaction from early adopters, you can completely take your time and modify it based on the feedback.

Place a Low-Risk Experiment

Imagine you bring a product to market without developing an MVP app. If the product is not successful, the significant time and money poured into the product will be a heavy loss for the business, not only bringing no profit but also wasting resources.

In contrast, placing low-risk experiments through minimum viable products is a smart way for businesses to test the viability of their product idea without committing any significant resources. By launching an MVP development product with only the basic features, businesses can test the waters and gauge user flow and engagement without investing too much effort into building a fully-featured future product that may not succeed in the market.

Also, maybe you don’t think about it. However, MVP product development also helps businesses in the testing stage of the product, thanks to customer feedback and reviews. The company’s development team probably won’t be as large as the number of potential customers experiencing the product. It is they who will be the most effective testers when they have the ability to find flaws in the product that oftentimes insiders do not even notice.

Attract Third-party Investment

The technology market is competitive. To attract users and investors, businesses are forced to constantly update new technology trends and develop quality products. Investors are often risk-averse and want to see evidence that a product or business has potential before investing their money. Between a theoretical idea and an intangible product, it is obvious that investors will choose an intangible one even though it is only a minimum viable product with crucial features.

By launching a minimum viable product (MVP), businesses can demonstrate that they have a product that has been validated by real-world feedback and increase their chances of securing funding from investors. At this point, the MVP development cost in the early stages is totally worth it.

Wrapping Up

The MVP development process is quite simple and does not take as much time and investment as a completed functional product when it only includes prioritize features with the least effort. However, do not take this process lightly when it is the first impression for customers. Starting from small things, elaborating on each stage of development will help you win over the market.

Don’t be afraid to modify or even change the features or interface on minimum viable products based on real-world feedback since that is the reason why you start this whole process. In case this product development is too much for your business, let Orient Software give you a hand!