What is your MVP?
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To find your MVP, always begin with an idea. Maybe you come across a problem you find a solution to, or maybe you want to break with your permanent employment to create your own?
A company's idea or a new product/service often begins as an idea and later is built on through daydreams, workshops, conversations and more. If you are a creative and positive person, the idea typically quickly turns into a big plan further down the schedule or the product/service lifecycle.
For the sake of simplicity, the idea will then be called the product.
Take off and take away
No, your product doesn't have to have all the features, alternatives, colors, and upgrades from the beginning. Scale down on the product you have in your head and start building the simplest but still marketable version. Think "good enough" when working with your product rather than building the next super product all at once.
Make a layer cake
If you want to make a layer cake that can be eaten or even sold, you need a base to start with, some filling such as bananas and whipped cream. Once you have succeeded in this and have found the flavor in this part, then you can move on to garnish with candles or marzipan. BUT the most important thing in the product is still the original layer cake, which consisted of only 3 parts. Identify early in the process the parts required for you to "bake your layer cake" - This is your MVP
This approach is a linear approach. If you want to work even more with the MVP method, it must go from one finished product to the next.
Like selling a cake, then a muffin, then a pie and finally the layer cake. Throughout the process, you have been able to sell a finished product in the form of the cake, and it has generated revenue and income to start on muffins and so on until you reach the layer cake.
Version 1.0
Feel free to work with processes or versions. Create Product X1.0 and test it on family, friends and acquaintances. Collect feedback and apply the insights and feedback you gained to create Product X 1.1 and so on.
Version 2.0
Just like in the example of the pie, as you gain the skills, finances and demand, you can develop your product. Can version 1.0 be sold or do you still need to develop to version 2.0? Think about not waiting too long. Many startups get into trouble when one's MVP is version 3.0 or even worse - version 12.0.
The example of Flowmotion
Few know about the Norwegian company Flowmotion. It is a company started by a group of young and ambitious people who wanted to develop a stabilizer for your mobile. They set as a goal to finish shaky videos. To finance the production, they launched a Kickstarter campaign and subsequently began developing the product. Month after month of marketing events, PR and movies on youtube led to more and more advance orders and purchases of the product, which was to be revolutionary in mobile film.
Time and time again they found new bugs and improvements. Time and time again, they postponed the delivery date. The occasion was technical failure, factory shutdown due to Chinese New Year, new features, etc. Eventually, those who were early adopters of pre-ordering and paying for the product began to lose confidence. Comments on Instagram, Youtube and Facebook started piling up and they sent informational mail almost every month to reassure customers.
The question is, wouldn't version 2.0 have been enough for Flowmotion?
Here they searched for perfection and along the way, competitors came in and got products on the market. At the same time, the price increased, but customers began to be disappointed, as they could now buy an alternative during the period the product was waiting for.
Today, everyone who pre-ordered has received his product. Many are impressed with the product and are happy with the quality it can deliver on video. On the other hand, flowmotion's trademark may have taken a notch and the question is whether you will order the next product from them in the future?
Ask for feedback, tips and insights
In order to determine and assess whether the product is ready for sale, it is a good idea to follow the advice we gave earlier in the post to ask family, friends and acquaintances for feedback, tips, insights and suggestions on how to improve your product. Then divide the feedback into categories to know if it's something that should be part of your MVP or if it's something for future updates. Keep the customer journey in focus when developing. It will help you when you develop something for upselling or similar.
Other Examples of Minimum Viable Product
It should not be a product or service that is your MVP. It can be your website, an app, a feature or something else related to your business. Try writing down the following:
- What features/capabilities should there be?
- How long is it going to take?
- What will it cost?
The benefits of MVP
The biggest advantage of MVP is that you can work focused and quickly get an effect. You don't have to waste time and money building prototypes or making half-finished products. If you are first with a product, you can get a valuable edge over competitors
Disadvantages of MVP
If you need to find some minuses with this model, it is that it can sometimes go a little fast and the product is not quite finished. But may risk having missed the one feature or feature that is asked by the end user. Sometimes this is the case and then you have to take it on board and improve it for next time.
Qred's tips...
... is just throwing yourself into it. We started in a small room, with laptop, excel and homemade website and our own money. It was our Minimum Viable Product. Today we are more than 100 employees, with branches for Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Norway. And when we sat in a small room with only our MVP was in 2015
Good luck on your journey
//Teamet hos Qred
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