Most common mistakes while building MVPs

MVP is a very popular approach to product construction and development. According to this idea, the initial product should contain basic functionalities that allow you to verify its value, collect feedback from the market and make effective business decisions regarding further development.

“A minimum viable product (MVP) is a development technique in which a new product or website is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters.”

However, the whole process does not always progress as defined. Along the way, errors that often affect the effectiveness of MVPs may occur. What do we mean? Check out the 7 most common slippery areas!

Building a comprehensive product that is not an MVP

The MVP is not a final product. Some companies assume the wrong approach, wanting to include a lot of functionalities and actually steering away from the MVP idea. It stems from the fact that the client would like to present their product in the best light from the very beginning, offering potential clients a full range of functionalities. This approach can lead to failure, especially if the functionalities do not coincide with customer preferences.

Striving for minimalism

Let’s turn the situation around. You can’t go from one extreme to another. If you limit the functionalities of the product too much and deprive it of its most important features, then the MVP will be ineffective as customers will not be able to test and assess the real value of your product. As a result, your research and tests will prove unprofitable and incorrect.

No market research

Are you developing an MVP? Great. Do you remember about research and analysis of your target group, their behavior, preferences? The most important thing is to get to know your intended market thoroughly – not just the potential customers, but also competition as well as specificity of market conditions. First of all, before starting your MVP work, you need to be sure that there is a demand for your product. It is also good to know what requirements you will have to meet when entering the market. Such research also hints where lies the added value to customers. If you know that a competitive product already exists on the market, try to think about how to can convince the clients to switch to your services.

No A/B tests

A/B testing is one of the most important elements of MVP. They give the answer about solutions your users prefer and discard. Good A/B tests increase the value of a product and help make accurate business decisions. Therefore, when building a product, it is always worth preparing a few variants and checking which one works best. A/B tests undoubtedly require the work of an experienced team –  including UX designers.

Not drawing conclusions

The MVP should give you the answer to many bothering questions and suggest how to make your product perfectly suited to the needs of your users. It is obvious that the conclusions from each stage of development have to be analyzed. However, practice does not always match theory. The results of the research and tests you receive may be surprising and diverging from your assumptions. However, they cannot be underestimated. You must follow the feedback you receive.

Ill-fitted team and technology

In order for your MVP to be implemented effectively, you need the support of an experienced team. They will guide you through all the stages, help you manage the entire process and make strategic decisions. One of those can be, for example, choosing the right technology. In addition, remember that a well-chosen team will not only speed up the construction time for the MVP, but also allow you to minimize costs and avoid the risk of making grave mistakes.

Incorrect MVP project management methodology

MVP building brings many challenges for every team. To successfully meet them, establishing the right project management methodology is essential. It will help efficiently manage the entire team and assign roles, along with positively affecting the communication. To this end, your team will benefit from following the latest trends. Agile and Scrum approaches are certainly recommendable (they are adjusted to software development processes).

Summary

Before you start building the MVP, you should analyze potential threats and manage the entire process in a way leading you to all the assumed goals. It is advisable to use the help of a team that already has experience in implementing these types of projects. It may even be necessary, reduce some costs and minimize development time.

Read more:

– 10 Dubai companies worth watching in 2020

– These can kill tech startups. Why is software development so crucial?