The development of innovative products is an inherently risky process: this risk pushes companies to reduce their uncertainties, but when they do, they often spend a lot of time and money developing a product that ultimately proves unsuitable, based on incorrect data or irrelevant assumptions.
In this context, the minimum viable product (MVP) has proven its worth.
What is an MVP?
A minimum viable product is the very first version of a product. It contains just enough features to attract an initial group of customers and, most importantly, can provide valuable feedback on how customers use and appreciate the product.
On the contrary, the MVP is the cornerstone of innovation in creating original products: it is a learning mechanism used to test hypotheses, allowing you to discover what will best meet customer needs.
If developing new products in the traditional way is often expensive, risky and frequently fails (for example due to incorrect assumptions), gathering information from an MVP with fewer features is less costly.
It is used so entrepreneurs can know whether their idea is viable (and profitable) by testing their hypotheses. If an MVP can validate a market need for a given product, it also serves to progressively develop an existing product.
All innovation begins with a hypothesis about how a new (or improved) product will find its audience. However, a hypothesis is only a supposition until it is supported by feedback from real customers. It so happens that the Minimum Viable Product is the fastest way to validate or reject a product development hypothesis.
To test the proposed innovation and see whether it leads to the desired results, an MVP must therefore be tested (ideally by people who belong to the target audience). If the feedback is positive, the product is launched on the market. If it is negative, a change of direction is necessary: this can be a simple modification of the product followed by further testing, or a 'pivot' to an entirely different product.
MVP and Agile: the Lean method
In MVP design there is a key point described in the Lean method : the 'build, measure, learn' cycle.
It consists of three phases during which the project manager will gather information, analyze it, and then draw lessons.
Build
You must therefore build a product based on the idea to be tested (or on what was learned from a previous product).
Measure
You now need to test the MVP with customers to determine what is good or bad about the product: do customers actually use it? How many would be willing to pay? And any other question that matters in your case.
Learn
Based on the MVP and the information gathered during testing, the project manager must decide whether to "continue" or to "pivot":
- You should persevere in this direction if testers like the path taken and only adjustments and improvements to the product are needed.
- You should pivot, radically changing the product, if simple adjustments won't suffice and the product doesn't match testers' expectations at all.
A fast feedback loop is essential to validate learning: applying the lessons from the experience and tester feedback leads to a clearer vision of the future and a reduction in waste (of time and money). Without this process, the product risks missing its audience and generating unnecessary expenses.
MVP production steps within an Agile methodology
1. Study the market
You will need to conduct market researchto know your target, why and how your product will meet their expectations.
Here are some questions to ask to ensure the success of a new product:
- Who is the target audience? Who is your product aimed at, and what problems does this audience face in a particular area?
- Why does this target audience need this product? You must identify the product's purpose and what it offers potential customers.
- In what situation would they use it? It's important to answer this question: if the product is a new gardening tool, it must meet different criteria than if it were a device used in the kitchen, for example.
2. Analyze the competition
Once the problem to be solved is identified, you should examine how other companies are addressing it (or attempting to).
And if there are no (yet) direct competitors, the product's uniqueness will allow you to launch it on the market with confidence.
3. Define the core features
45% of the features included in software products are rarely or never used.
So start with the "killer feature(s)": what will revolutionize your users' lives. What is the most important action the product will offer its users? That will be its main feature.
One method for prioritizing features is the MoSCoW method, which helps determine which functions to build first, which to develop later, and which to ignore.
A second technique for measuring the necessity of features is based on business value (development time, benefits and costs).
4. Build the MVP
Building the future product requires focusing only on its main objective.
At this stage, you should not think in terms of features, but only about the basic tasks end users perform with this product, their expectations, etc.
Once the characteristics of the minimum viable product are clearly defined, it's time to move on to the development stage.
The aim is simply to be able to test something, get feedback, and gather useful information and data, all with minimal time and money invested — unlike a prototype, which is closer to the final product.
It's important to keep the V in MVP in mind: the product must be viable. That means it should enable your customers to complete a task or project and provide a high-quality user experience.
An MVP can't be loaded with many half-developed tools and features. It's a functional product your company should be able to sell if the tests are conclusive. Speaking of tests…
5. Test the MVP
The MVP is an opportunity to obtain product validation from customers. MVP tests are designed not only to determine the viability of the product proposition but also its technical elements.
User testing is the most important test for an MVP. It analyzes how the user uses the product and evaluates whether the feature(s) are relevant, effective, and easy enough to use.
Naturally, testers may identify issues, more or less serious, that will determine the product's future: improve the MVP or pivot to a completely different product?
6. Learn and repeat
At the end of the cycle, the MVP's objective has been met and user feedback has been collected.
You must now draw conclusions to make corresponding improvements to the product: if user feedback is generally positive and shows majority adoption, the MVP method will have been very successful and the product can be launched.
Otherwise, you'll need to start again from the MVP construction stage:
- Either by improving the existing MVP while taking requested improvements into account,
- Or by starting from scratch and pivoting to another product, with a different "killer feature", a completely different approach to solving the problem, or a different product positioning, for example.
Once the new MVP is built, it will in turn go back to testing; the new feedback will be used to further improve this version of the product until testers are enthusiastic enough for a market launch.
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