From startups to Fortune 500, every company has a mind to risk management for dealing with those out of the blue scenarios. In an app development project, it’s the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that helps the businesses to evaluate and forecast the risk, so that a deliverable is rendered, which is accepted by the targeted persona.
What is a Minimum Viable Product? How can it help businesses to to launch their next big idea or services through a versatile mobile app? What are the benefits associated with MVP of an app. The later segment will answer all related queries.
What is Minimum Viable Product?
MVP is an initial version of a product, which is designed and developed to test the acceptability and ability of an idea. You can say, MVP is the base model of your product.
It is built with minimum, but core features of the product, following the standard app development cycle. This way, the team can receive a feedback, understanding how the product is perceived by the users, what are the stumbling blocks in performance, what improvements can be done to make the product impactful etc.
You can launch MVP either to a set of users or released into the market to start the business. If MVP fails to impress the users, it indicates that the roadmap followed for mobile app development is wrong or the app idea needs to be revamped to impress the users.
While MVP is an active, workable model of a product, a lot of people mis-conceptualize it with the product under different stages of development. Here is an example explaining what MVP is and what it is not.
What Minimum Viable Product is not?
It’s not about developing an ammature product model for presenting it to the customers.
What Minimum Viable Product is?
It’s about developing a mature product model, with minimum features for a feedback that helps in further development.
Benefits that you can Derive from MVP
Building MVP for a scalable mobile app development project could bring in a number of advantages to the business. Here are a few of them.
1. Test the Persona: Evaluating success rate of an idea at the initial stage can save millions and let you earn billions. Launch MVP for your product idea amongst a set of users and you can evaluate the possible persona for your product.
2. Rate App’s Performance: With MVP, you can evaluate if you are moving ahead with the right technologies. You can also test the ability of your developer in generating the expected output.
3. Handle Security Issues: If the app have some security loopholes, you can detect and correct them, without harm to a mass. The problem when fixed at a lower level is a reputation saviour, augments retention rate, and ultimately leads to happy customers.
4. Analyse User Expectation: Certainly, MVP will be launched with mobile app analytics tools integrated with it. This will help you to evaluate how users are using your app, what option or features they use often, what is their behaviour with the app, what are they exploring in the app using the search tab etc. Once all of these factors are analyzed, your idea will definitely get a boost.
5. Build Better Version of App: Launching MVP of an app means you are connecting your idea with the users. The feedback thus received gives confidence in the idea, analyze user requirements, and build a product that is a sure hit in the market
How to Create and Launch MVP for Mobile App
Step 1: Think about the Viable Product
Before you commit resources for mobile app development, it is important to define viability of the idea. What exactly should your Minimum Viable Product have. The features, key metrics of the app that you want to be reviewed, in what time do you want to release the MVP etc. Have a discussion on all these factors or if in doubt, you can access our free consultation service to have expert advice. Meanwhile, have a look at few tips that you may find helpful while thinking about the MVP.
- Understand that a mobile app MVP does not necessarily needs to be released to the app store. You can release it to a group of users, who are capable of sharing a feedback for UI/UX, performance, security, features, and other major/minor aspects.
- If a mobile app MVP has to be released, then ensure that you adopt Agile methodology for mobile app development. It’s a flexible approach to development and takes care that continuous testing or changes are implemented at the early stage.
Step 2: Design and Develop the Product
Success of an idea is proportional to its implementation. Choosing the right technologies and development partner is equally important to give the much needed boost to the app. Also, when contracting your app development project to a professional outsourcing partner, ascertain that they offer Minimum Viable Product of the app, as per requirement.
Step 3: Ship the Product to the Users
Once the product is designed, developed, and tested, roll it out for the users. In this stage, you have to ensure that the product that you released is of value to the users. It is recommended to release the app for a small share of users. For example: Even if you are deploying the app on the iOS App Store or Google Play Store, share it amongst a small geographical area.
Step 4: Tweak the Product for Improvement
Until you reach this stage, you will have the user feedback about the app. As a result, there can be suggestions to make changes in the app. There could be changes in UI/UX, app architecture, security services, feature enhancement, and more. You may also come across the limitations of your model and work accordingly. You may realize of the technology stack that you are using and make a switch to another, accordingly.
This will probably the longest stage in the entire cycle as it involves brainstorming for ways to improve the app functionality, work up on what’s not right in the previous version, and then ensure that the changes are in sync with the former and upcoming development model.
Mobile App Development with MVP
Building Minimum Viable Product of an app is just a part of development cycle and is optional. If you are confident about the idea behind development or your app is a small scale solution, then you can simply go for mobile app development using Agile methodology.
However, opting for MVP is a smart step when you have a scalable project or if it needs early release in the market. For any of the development model to deliver expected outcome, your idea should be collaborate with right technology and developers. Therefore, hire mobile app developers with experience and expertise of your arena.
We hope that this segment gave you a clear idea about what MVP is and what are its benefits in mobile app development cycle. Still have any queries? Share with us in the comments below.
