MVP is an abbreviation of Minimum Viable Product, and means exactly what its name suggests: to create a product in a minimal form that is viable, with sufficient features to satisfy stakeholders needs.
Why would we need a minimal set of features that satisfy the customers needs when we might actually have more in mind?
Because we need to have in mind some things as well:
1. Time
2. Budget
3. Risk of failure
We might think of MVPs in 3 phases:
1. Understanding needs
2. Understanding the market
3. Build MVP
In the following lines, I will mostly focus on understanding the needs, as well as understanding the market, while only touching upon the actual MVP building.
Understanding needs
Regardless of the type of project we are working on, we are pretty much dependent on funding and needs. This means we need to have a clear idea of the stakeholders’:
1. Wants, and more specifically, their needs
2. When do they want it or need it
3. How much money are they open to invest
What do the stakeholders need
We can begin with what their claims of wants, and following discussions, build on top of that what it is they need.
We should not shy away from asking questions and be skeptical to the stakeholders claims.
Most of the time, if we dig deep enough, we find out that the needs they have would build an almost different product than what they initially had in mind. And our scope is, after all, to offer the best experience and product they could get, that actually brings them value.
Identify the problem we want to fix
Sometimes we do not have a set of requirements from the stakeholders, but we can begin building them by discussing the problem that we want to fix.
The problem we want to fix should be something that we can rate as big enough that potential customers would pay for it.
Also, if we are the ones working on fixing it, we should have enough experience to understand it and figure out solutions.
We should also not forget that having our business fix this problem means it should be sustainable long-term. We need to get the initial investment back, make a living and pay employees.
When do the stakeholders need it until
After we get to a list of needs, we should clarify when do they need it. Is it a fixed non-negotiable date? Or it is more if a high-level idea?
Budget
And last but not least, it would be helpful to get to a budget sooner rather than later.
Combining the knowledge of what the client needs, with when it needs it and how much money they have, can help us build and propose we can propose a timeline.
If we have no constraints, we can probably just build the entire set of features. If, however, we have constraints, the MVP can be the product that they would agree to, or just a phase in the project.
Understanding the market
Following clarifications of the needs, timeline and budget, we can move forward to understanding the market we are entering in.
And let’s not forget, we have to get as fast as possible to a product that we can see if it fails or not.
It would be of little help to have a large investment of money, time and people in a product just to see it fails.
A few things we should begin from:
1. Identify who has this problem that we are planning to fix
2. Who else has a product that fixes this problem
3. What criteria do we have to consider our product a success
Identify who has this problem
We should do our research when wanting to build a product and find out whom would we be helping with it. Who are the people that would pay money to get our product?
For this we can use the various forum, blogs and online groups where people are discussing and trying to find solutions. If we already have a customer base, we can gather some feedback from them.
Starting from these, we can build up a set of possible customers and have a user personas.
Going further, we can run interviews and/or pitch our idea. That way, we can see how the overall responses are and even how much money would people pay.
Identify competitors
Who else has a product that fixes the same or similar problem, directly or even indirectly?
We can find them through online searches, using similar paths as the one for searching possible customers, or we already are aware of them.
Once we know who they are, we should try to find out as much as possible about them: their growth, their spendings, their customers and how the customers feel about them, professionalism, etc.
The general idea is to see where we would be standing against our competitors.
Success criteria
Something we might be forgetting when we begin to build a product is how to we measure if it is or not a success.
We should be thinking, of course, about profitability of the product, but also keep in mind that its popularity can influence this as well.
After going through all these phases in identifying customer needs, problems we want to fix, budget and time, and it even proves to be something we or the client can proceed with, we can finally build our MVP.
The way we build it also depends on who is funding it, and how much investment can be pushed in it. With that idea, we can either do something from scratch, or build it using third-party system as infrastructure with some third-party integrations.
For more reading, check out:
My previous post on Prioritizations here
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