The recipe for success is simple: study the market in a cycle of planning, testing, getting feedback, and redrafting.

However, almost every startup faces the problem of running out of money before they get a product the market really wants and (which is even more important) is willing to buy. When the idea is worth creating a product on its basis, most of the startups start small and develop an MVP first.

Why an MVP?

MVP stands for minimum viable product. This means that an MVP is a complete solution (e.g., a mobile or web app) that has only minimal, core feature set. Unlike a prototype, an MVP is a ready-for-use product and enables to test the idea on a real audience.

On the other hand, unlike a fully-custom solution, this is still a testing version; its aim is rather to test the perception by its target audience and then quickly adapt it to the audience’s needs.

Thus, MVP development is a thrifty way to enter the market. An MVP enables product owners to shorten the development time, get the user feedback as soon as possible, and save on the design of unwanted software.

What Does MVP Development Look Like?

List of Requirements and Prioritization

After the startups founders have formulated their idea, they determine list of requirements for the future system and prioritize the features in order to leave only the core features on the list.

When the list of requirements is ready it is good to show it to a development team. Also, when having no previous development experience, startups might struggle with formulations or possible development challenges. They can turn to software development companies who specialize on MVP development services for their help. Usually, they offer free initial quotes. A Project Manager or a Business Analyst, based on the discussion of the list, will offer a possible plan and a sketchy cost estimate. When startups like what they see, they initiate work on a detailed plan.

Marketing and Development

Startups must work simultaneously on two resource-intensive directions: product development and market visibility. They must split their efforts into a development and sales and marketing team. Alternatively, they can hire a reliable outsourced development team who focuses on the development cycle: coding, QA, and delivery. This ensures the MVP solution runs as expected while the startup concentrate on the key: product design, promotion, and networking.

Here is the bright side: while design, branding, and marketing require elaborative work, MVP development can be done extensively across the Internet. Startups can choose among all software development experts from all over the world.

User Feedback and Software Improvement

The most important step is certainly end user feedback, when users try the product and say what they like about it and what could use futher improvement.

There can be various both technical and non-technical issues that become visible only after real users work with the MVP. Startup need to collect and analyze this experience and then create an improvement plan on its basis.

Quite often, startups pivot to a more profitable model when their MVP proves uninteresting. Then, startups continue working on both business and technical sides of their projects to solve the needs the audience wants to be solved and/or deliver the expected level of quality.

To summarize, proving success or failure of an idea is only possible when it is tested on a real audience; thus, when a startup launches a product, they should always launch on its basis. However, this is a both costly and risky way, which can be easier through MVP development. In this case, startups offer their core service, shortening development time and using minimal investment.