This is why the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach is so crucial to your product strategy. It enables you to test your ideas quickly and effectively in the real world, allowing you to iterate and improve your product over time.

What is the MVP approach?

The MVP approach involves specifying a product with only the essential features. The product is launched to market, allowing you to gather valuable data and insights on customer behaviour, preferences, pain points and more.

This feedback is essential. It’s used to improve your product offering and hone your development process while ensuring it aligns with customer needs and preferences.

Why is MVP important?

A MVP is important because it enables you to test your ideas and assumptions without spending a significant amount of time and resources on product development. If you don’t take the MVP approach and budget accordingly, all your hard work could be in vain.

To avoid the disappointment and pitfalls of investing in a product that may fail, consider launching a Minimum Viable Product to give yourself a fighting chance.

Doing so will enable your company to get your digital product to market a lot faster. And by focusing on the essential feature sets you can start gathering valuable feedback. This will go a long way to helping you iterate your product over time, improve its functionality and deliver a better user experience.

The MVP approach also means your product teams remain agile and responsive to market changes. As the market evolves and customer needs change, you can quickly pivot and adjust accordingly. This helps in maintaining your product’s relevance and competitiveness.

Benefits of the MVP approach

• Reduced risk: Minimise the risk of building a product that no one wants

• Increased speed: Get your product to market faster.

• Improved product quality: Improve your product quality over time

There are a few things to keep in mind however, when adopting MVP approach:

• Define your best possible MVP: This means defining what features you need to include for optimum usability, and what metrics you’ll use to measure its success

• Be prepared to make changes: The MVP approach is an iterative process. This means that you must make changes to your product based on user research and feedback

• You need to be patient: It takes time to build a successful product. Even if you release a successful MVP, it will take time to build a sustainable business around your product

Real world example of MVP success

Airbnb had to start somewhere. It launched with a simple website and a limited set of features.

Customer feedback allowed Airbnb to improve its offering over time. The results have seen a meteoric rise in its fortunes. Today, Airbnb is a multi-billion-dollar company with a huge global presence.

Real world examples of MVP failure

Google is no slouch when it comes to advanced and disruptive digital products, but even this behemoth has failed.

In 2010 Google’s MVP, Google Wave, was launched. Google Wave was a communication and collaboration tool that was launched with a lot of features.

The MVP product was so complex and confusing, it failed to gain traction. The result? Google eventually pulled the product, citing low user adoption.

Another example of MVP failure is the Microsoft Zune music player. Zune was launched as a competitor to the Apple iPod. Unfortunately, it lacked the essential features that users wanted. The product failed and was eventually discontinued.

Working with Codehouse

While there are risks associated with MVP, the potential benefits make it a worthwhile approach to consider. You’ll be able to stay agile, responsive, and competitive in an ever-changing digital market.

At Codehouse our Product Development team is available to discuss your digital product and get your business idea off the ground in the shape of a Minimum Viable Product.  Get in touch to find out more.