When a business launches a new product, it doesn’t just need to bring it to market. This should be done as quickly as possible. At the same time, not to lose in the quality and cost of development. Not an easy task.

How to check a business idea of ​​a project in a short time and use a minimum budget? What is an MVP in business? Do startups need MVP and why? What is the MVP of a project? What are the best questions to answer before launching? We tried to touch on all these issues in our article.

MVP what is it and how does it work?

MVP is a Minimum Viable Product (Minimal Viable Product) with the minimum required functionality, which at the same time brings value to the end user.

MVP will help startups and business representatives test the idea and main functionality of the product at the initial stages of its development. MVP test results and feedback from the target audience will help you understand:

• How viable the product is.

• Is it useful to end users.

• What needs to be changed in functionality or strategy.

• What is important to leave unchanged.

• Is it worth further developing the product.

• Will it be in demand in the market?

However, keep in mind that when using MVP, it is important to focus on users and their problems, instead of developing a product that you like and not the fact that your users will like it.

The idea is simple, but it’s not uncommon for startups and businesses to miss an opportunity to add value to their product. Often a critical mistake happens at the very beginning: they build their MVP around features, not clients.

Ask yourself a few questions to help you avoid mistakes.

Can you explain a product idea in 2 minutes?

In short product announcements, many describe functionality, use cases, and main idea, but do not mention anything about value to the user. You can get so immersed in the project and admire your idea that you forget who you are creating the application for.

Try to fix this as early as possible so as not to scare users away.

Is your MVP feature-oriented or customer-oriented?

The difference between feature oriented MVP and customer oriented MVP seems to be subtle. You could even say that there are scenarios that require feature orientation, but when launching a new product, market success is far more important than your ambition.

A landing page often gives a person information about what a product can do, but hardly mentions a specific benefit to him or the business. The instructions also do not say why the user should take certain actions and what they will lead to. As a result, halfway to more complex tasks, the user does not understand what and why he is doing, and the product begins to seem like an obstacle course to him.

Test your MVP as early as possible with real customers to get feedback and give yourself plenty of time to make changes. Sometimes even the smallest little things can affect the success of a product.

Do you think as a buyer?

Telling you to put yourself in the customer’s shoes is not difficult. The question is how to do it.

• Stop thinking like an entrepreneur.
• Think about the purpose of the product instead of its features.
• Focus not on functional areas, but on use cases.
• Think not about income, but about return on investment.

These changes in thinking must occur as early as possible in order to properly plan the communication with the client. This will determine the language of your product, its positioning and the main message.

Here are some ways to achieve these goals:

• Talk to users, prospects, and customers of your competitors. Get a good sample size and never be limited to just your circle of friends. Compose several user stories, describe 4-5 different types of people your product can help. Determine why they will use the product and what their goals are.
• Take an open mind about what people say. Ask why they want what they ask for. Ask for clarifications if you don’t understand what they need. Collect all the data and be ready to translate their requests into your functionality.

Are you trying to be “everything to everyone”?

Your MVP doesn’t have to be right for everyone – you just need to get the right people to react. Trim the feature set to navigate and serve only the customers you can help the most.

Instead of offering a complete line of products for different audience segments, launch one product for a specific market. Later, you can add additional functionality if there are active requests from other users.

Are you thinking about what you are writing?

Many companies are fond of the corporate language, so their texts turn into a block of meaningless words that do not help users in any way. Take away all the unnecessary from your descriptions and focus on the benefits for people.

There are answers to all of these questions, and all of these answers can lead to changes – before, during, or after the MVP is launched. Do not be afraid of feedback and changes that will need to be implemented in your idea and product, because the only thing that matters is value to users.