How To Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): A Guide

Whether it be a mobile app or a piece of software, a lot of time and energy goes into bringing a new product idea to life. But for many entrepreneurs, the worst part of the process is having no idea if the future product will actually appeal to real users.

These are the types of problems that author and entrepreneur Eric Ries set out to solve in his best-selling book “The Lean Startup.” Throughout the book, Ries lays out a methodology designed to help startups test and refine new ideas as early in the development process as possible.

One of the foundational steps of the process is developing a minimum viable product (MVP). Join us for an introduction to what an MVP is, why it can prove so helpful, and how to build one for your next business idea.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:

• Understanding the MVP concept
• The MVP development process
• Validating the MVP
• Iterations and improvements
• Scaling the MVP
• Challenges and best practices
• MVP development for startup success

Understanding the MVP concept

An MVP is an early stage version of a new product that’s designed to give early adopters a chance to test out its core features. The goal of MVP product development is to allow businesses to gauge a product’s odds of success as early in the development process as possible.

To better understand what the MVP concept is designed to do, let’s take a look at an example of the type of problems it can solve. Imagine that the startup founders of a new software development company have an idea for an app they’re sure their target audience will love.

In their excitement, they draw up a product roadmap, pay considerable development costs for its creation, and even begin hyping up its release on social media. After an expensive and lengthy development process, the app is finally released to potential customers.

But to the co-founders’ dismay, the app turns out to be a total flop. At this point, they find themselves with two options, and neither is particularly cost-effective.

The first is to cut their losses and attempt to develop a new, more successful product. The second is to pour more development time and resources into reworking the app in hopes of creating a more compelling unique value proposition.

By releasing an MVP in a much earlier development stage, the startup could have saved considerable time, money, and disappointment. A successful MVP stage release can answer core questions such as:

• Is there enough user need to justify developing a full-fledged product?
• Will the final product be able to solve customer needs better than its competitors?
• Does the target market you’ve chosen offer the best product-market fit?
• Does user feedback indicate that your business model is on point or that you need to pivot your approach?
• Which MVP features proved the most popular and which could be refined?
• Does customer feedback indicate that any new features need to be added to increase the product’s odds of success?

The MVP development process

Interested in minimum viable product development for your next idea? Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started.

Step 1. Market research and identifying the target audience

The first step to developing a successful product is understanding the problem it’s capable of solving. The second is identifying your target users and finding out whether they’re interested enough in your solution to actually purchase it.

Back in 1999, a guy named Nick Swinmurn got an idea after visiting multiple stores in search of a particular pair of shoes. Wouldn’t it be convenient, he reasoned, if you could just buy shoes online?

The problem was that, at the time, online shoe sales were relatively underheard of. So Nick decided to test his idea to make sure it would actually work. He began by posting photos of shoes from local stores on a site he built called “ShoeSite.com.”

Whenever someone made a purchase, he would run to the shoe store, buy the shoes, and mail them to the customer. The more business he drummed up, the easier it became for Nick to convince investors that his idea was worth developing. Today, Shoesite.com lives on under the name Zappos.

Step 2. Defining core functionality and essential features

Once you’ve identified what your product can do and for which consumers, it’s time to figure out the core features to include in your MVP. What is the minimum feature set you’ll need to adequately demonstrate to users how the product will address their pain points?

When Drew Houston first came up with the idea for Dropbox in 2007, he began by creating a series of short product demo videos. The videos, which introduced viewers to an early prototype of the cloud storage solution, were enough to earn Dropbox thousands of initial subscribers before the product even launched.

The videos also searched as a valuable way to gather customer feedback on what features should and shouldn’t be included in the final product. The key is to keep your MVP cost-effective but functional enough to demonstrate the user experience it offers.

Step 3. Developing the first version of the product

Once you’ve nailed down your target market, audience, and essential features, it’s time to design an MVP that users can take for a test drive. How you go about creating your minimum viable product will largely depend on what type of idea you’re testing.

If you plan to create a new iOS or Android app, you might consider working with an app development team or development company. Or you might prefer to use your own skillset to build a simple version of your product.

For example, Airbnb got its start in 2007 when the company’s co-founders rented out a room to three travelers in search of a place to crash. Suspecting that a home-rental service might fill a market need, the founders launched a simple landing page in March of 2008, which managed to secure two bookings.

In August of the same year, they released an updated website called “Air Bed and Breakfast,” which grew their success rate to 80 bookings. It wasn’t until 2009 that the company rebranded as Airbnb, which has since gone on to become a multi-billion dollar company. By starting out small, the company was able to grow alongside interest in its service instead of breaking the bank with a huge initial investment.

Validating the MVP

Once you’re sure that your MVP offers a solid baseline for customer feedback, it’s time to get it out to real users. You might decide to release your MVP to a select beta group or to the public at large.

But once it’s out of the gate, it’s time to shift your entire focus to your early adopters. After all, the entire point of building a minimum viable product is to learn as much as possible about its odds of success as quickly as you can.

Think of an MVP as an experiment that’s conducted to prove (or disprove) a hypothesis. But much like any other experiment, you’ll need to define the metrics you’ll use to assess your MVP’s viability.

In order to make sure you get user feedback that addresses the metrics you’ve chosen, consider creating a customer satisfaction survey with a platform likeSurveyMonkey or Qualtrics. Make it as easy as possible for early adopters to provide customer feedback by sending out your survey through email, posting it on your social media page, or even running ads that link to its landing page.

Iterations and improvements

The major benefit of minimum viable product development is being able to make informed decisions about the future of your product. The more user feedback you collect, the better an idea you’ll have of whether or not your vision is on track.

Flexibility and responsiveness are key when deciding on the best strategy for moving forward. If the response you receive is overwhelmingly positive, then it's a good sign that your product is headed in the right direction.

But resist the urge to overlook any consistent negative feedback from end users that could be helpful in the next stage of development. Additionally, look into which features proved the most popular and which could be revamped or cut altogether.

What if your feedback isn’t as flattering as you’d hoped? Unfortunately, not every idea proves to be as brilliant as it looked on paper. As painful as it can be to realize your MVP isn’t viable, imagine how much worse the realization would be if it were accompanied by massive development costs!

In some instances, it may be best to use what you’ve learned to develop a whole new product. In others, it may be worth exploring whether your MVP could be fixed by adopting a different business model or appealing to another target market.

Scaling the MVP

Even if your MVP is a massive success, resist the urge to throw your startup’s entire capital into it overnight. Uber co-founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp first had the idea to develop their now-famous rideshare app in 2008. But it wasn’t until 2010 that they began testing the app, then known as “Uber Cab,” in New York City with just three cars.

Scaling a startup is an art form, and impatience has been the downfall of many an overenthusiastic new company. A recent study investigated whether it was better for startups to scale early to decrease the risk of product imitation or to scale slower to help decrease commitment risk.

The researchers found that “early scalers are more likely to fail but not more likely to successfully exit.” In plain English, the evidence suggests that the risks of scaling early outweigh the benefits of scaling at a slower rate.

Don’t be afraid to keep your focus on your project and ensure the final version is a perfect product-market fit. If your product continues to experience growth over time, more signs that your startup is ready to scale will naturally begin presenting themselves.

Challenges and best practices

Sometimes the only thing more valuable than knowing what you should do is knowing what you shouldn’t. Let’s take a look at several common mistakes that can derail the MVP development process and how to avoid them:

• Inadequate market research. Failing to understand your target market and audience are among the fastest roads to failure. An MVP should be built to validate market research, not replace it.‍
• Neglecting user experience. Don’t get so caught up on what your product can do that you forget to evaluate things like ease of use. Remember to think like a customer, not just a developer.‍
• Neglecting product testing. While an MVP only needs to include essential features, you’ll need to ensure that they all work. Make sure to product test your MVP before release so you can collect feedback on a functional product.‍
• Not selecting the right team. From co-founders to development teams, never underestimate the power of people who share your vision and have the skills to help carry it out. Take the time to pick the right people for your team, as you may work with some of them for years.‍
• Going overboard. Be careful not to overwhelm early users in your quest to evaluate your product’s best features. If you’re having trouble narrowing them down, consider methods like A/B testing.‍
• Not asking the right questions. A carefully drafted questionnaire will likely inspire far more insights than simply asking for customer feedback in general. Make sure to align your questions to your chosen metrics and include a section for any additional comments.‍
• Neglecting scalability. Don’t get so caught up in rushing your product to market that you forget to make sure it’s ready for scaling in the future. The more solid its foundation, the easier it will be to build on as your audience grows.

MVP development for startup success

The MVP method can help reduce project costs by generating valuable user feedback in the early stages of development. It can also offer your team the opportunity to finalize it with insights from real users in mind.

While building an MVP can save startups a great deal of time and stress, it also requires building the right team for your needs. Upwork is home to a wide range of independent professionals who specialize in everything from ecommerce development to SaaS development.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to world-class experts who would be happy to help bring your vision to life. MVP development can cut the stress of worrying about how your product will be received by inviting your audience to play a key role in shaping its future.

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