Attention, startup founders! Are you not tired of the traditional way of building an MVP that costs you a fortune? Are you worried that creating an MVP requires technical skills?
We’re on a mission to show you how to build a no-code MVP for your SaaS startup. With this guide, you can create a functional MVP fast without writing a single line of code. Let’s dive into the no-code world.
What is an MVP in SaaS?
When building a SaaS, there’s no need to rush into complex development that requires time, money, and resources. Instead, you can create software that has a minimal amount of functionalities. That can be considered as an MVP in SaaS, or in other words, a SaaS MVP.
With a SaaS MVP, you can validate your startup idea by presenting it to potential customers. Creating a SaaS can be highly expensive and risky too. If you can validate your idea in front of a target audience, you can justify financially submitting to further development.
Understanding No-Code MVP
To understand a no-code MVP, you must understand a few different aspects. Let’s have a look:
- Zero Dependency: Your MVP will depend on something other than technical engineers or their expertise. You have complete control over all kinds of development and get to interact with your customers all the way.
- Saves Time: As the name suggests, you won’t need thousands of lines of code to make your MVP work. By doing so, you get to save a lot of time during development, helping you get your MVP out the door earlier compared to most others.
- Validates Your Hypotheses: An MVP should enable you to collect valuable data about your hypothesis. Learning precisely what you want to know about the target market and your potential user base helps validate if you should continue with product development.
- No Expertise: When creating a no-code MVP, you don’t have professionals on board since there’s no need for complex codes or expert guidance to solve issues regarding the code.
- Supplies The Demand Faster: With a no-code MVP, the development process is much shorter, enabling you to deliver your target audience’s demands without further complications.
When Should You Build an MVP Without Code?
No-Code MVP building is a faster way to provide what your audience needs. But it only makes sense when you’re trying to validate your ideas. Here are a few reasons why we think you should build a no-code MVP
- To Find A Solution: If you’re looking for a solution to a problem you’ve spotted within your target audience.
- To Test Your Hypotheses: If you’re looking to validate your hypotheses and determine if developing your MVP is feasible.
- To Improve Your Product: If you want to improve your product but need help knowing where to start, you should build your MVP. You can perform improvements based on customer feedback.
- To Deliver Your Mission: If you’re trying to express your mission vision in front of your user base, the best way to do it is to build a no-code MVP.
- To Save Development Costs: When you want to deliver the most to your customers without creating an expensive product, no-code MVP is the way to go.
MVP Development Cycle
No matter the MVP type, you should follow the development cycle we’re about to discuss accordingly.
- Create A Concept: First, start by brainstorming for a creative product idea that will solve a core pain point of a specific audience within your target market.
- Create A Roadmap: Once you’ve determined the core pain point, build a roadmap based on the approach you need to take for development, as well as improvement of the product.
- Launch Your MVP: Once you’ve finished developing your MVP with the necessary core features, launch it for your target audience to experience and leave their feedback.
- Optimize and Tweak Accordingly: Collect and analyze every valuable customer feedback you receive, and continue developing your product based on the results.
Detailed Guide to Building No-Code MVP
Building an MVP is the best way to determine if you should invest your time and money in a product to develop it further. But even with your best approaches, building an MVP can seem very timely.
We provide a detailed guide to building your own no-code MVP with minimal effort and pain involved in the development cycle to ease your pain.
1. Market Research
Start with a comprehensive research of the industry market you are trying to enter. The study thoroughly analyzes your targeted user base and all your competitors.
If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, ask yourself the following questions, and find answers to them:
- “What is the problem that you’ve identified?”: Before building the product, you have to identify a problem that you want to solve with your product. Since you cannot solve every current problem, focus on one significant issue instead.
- “Do their solutions already exist in the market?”: If you’ve had the idea to solve a specific issue, chances are that someone else has tried the same. These people are your competitors. Research them thoroughly to find out if they are solving the same issue better than you. And if you need help finding their shortcomings, you can improve your product.
- “Who’s My Target Persona In The Market?”: It’s not just about your target audience; their persona matters too. When analyzing the user base, focus on collecting user behavior data to determine their persona. Based on the results, determine if your product will appeal to people with a specific user persona.
2. Prioritize Core Features
Now that you have found several potential features you wish to include within the app, start MVP feature prioritization to deliver the right app with the right features to your audience.
These features receive their high or low priority based on a few different factors:
- Features that solve a core issue of the user base
- Features that take less time to develop
- Features that take fewer resources to develop
- Features that you can make functional as soon as possible for a faster launch
3. Choose Your No-Code MVP Approach
There are many different approaches to creating an MVP. A few of the important types of MVP include:
- Single-feature MVP
- Concierge MVP
- Landing Page MVP
- Email MVP
Pick the one that fits the no-code MVP perfectly, and proceed with development till your minimum viable product is ready for launch.
4. Define Success Metrics
Measuring MVP success can be complicated since multiple metrics factor into the overall success of your MVP. Here are the ones you need to look out for the most:
- User Engagement Score: Total number of active user accounts
- Net Promoter Score: A rating of how useful or helpful your app was after launch.
- Total Downloads: The total number of people who downloaded your app for usage.
- Customer Lifetime Metrics: The amount of time a user spends with the app from the time of downloading to the time of uninstalling.
Best No-Code Tools for Building an MVP
We looked around and gathered a list of the top 10 tools you can use to build your no-code MVP. Without further adieu, let’s take a look. We also have another detailed list of MVP tools if you want more information
1. Google AppSheets
Google Sheets can double as a no-code startup creation tool. You can create bootstrapped startups with Google Sheets. Aside from that, it also provides you with enough options to develop a backend for your upcoming product.
2. Airtable
Airtable can help you create user-friendly databases by collecting information from available sources online. Airtable takes the data you collect and gathers them into catchy, visualized formats that are very easy for consumers to understand.
When you’re trying to create an MVP in the form of visual content that can present your idea in front of your target audience, Airtable is a highly recommended choice.
3. Typeform
Typeform helps you create forms and surveys that anyone can interact with very quickly. You can create customer feedback forms, user persona surveys, and more.
You can even embed interactive content with Typeform, making filling your forms more exciting. A wide array of graphics options to add in color schemes and logos makes it a personal choice for many no-code MVP developers.
4. Thunkable
Thunkable is the most suitable app for creating no-code apps for mobile platforms. Though it uses HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc., you don’t have to write anything yourself. And the best part? It’s free!
5. Bubble.io
Bubble allows you to create both desktop and mobile apps with multi-user functionalities. It’s the best app to choose if you want to create a full-fledged application without writing any lines of code.
6. Glide
Glide is another no-code developer that helps you create mobile apps using spreadsheets created in Google Sheets. Even if you have yet to gain prior coding experience. There are hundreds of templates, and it’s the best choice if you are going for a mobile-based MVP.
7. Webflow
Webflow is an excellent drag-and-drop responsive website builder. It allows you to create different website elements. The visual developer and web design tools will enable you to create a website from scratch without writing a single line of code.
You can also design complicated web elements like payment and transactions via Webflow. It has multiple integrations for WordPress, Wix, etc., so you never have to worry about compatibility.
8. Zapier
Zapier lets you automate your startup process by connecting multiple services. It’s a great tool that creates a chain of tools by interconnecting them and triggering all connected apps accordingly if something happens in any one of the apps.
9. Hotjar
Hotjar is the best analytical tool you can have for your browser. Topic heatmaps, form analytics, conversion funnels: you name it, Hotjar has it. Hotjar even allows you to record sessions for every user that uses your website or application.
10. Google Analytics
Last, Google’s free analytics tool is the best help you can get when measuring your MVP’s success. Google Analytics is your best bet when you need deep insight into user behavior.
When You Shouldn’t Use No Code App Builders
Though No-code MVP building has a lot of benefits, there are a few reasons you should avoid no-code app builder/ product builder.
- No control over features
- Feature limitations
- Time-consuming
- Lack of scalability
- Lack of native functionalities
- Excessive dependency
- Security issues
To Wrap It All Up
No-Code MVP building is the best option for non-technical founders without remarkable programming skills. Many shy away from creating their MVPs just because coding and thorough expertise are related to the development cycle. But no-code platforms have opened a new door of possibilities for everyone.
With no-code MVP, you can always get a full-fledged product at minimal cost and get it all done without a dev team!
But you’re still unsure about your approach. In that case, our professionals at Impala are always ready to help you on your journey.
FAQs
When you build MVP without any code, it takes away the intricacy of creating complex code for the app to function, and it saves you a lot of development time.
A no-code MVP can go several ways, but you should choose the approach that suits your business practices the most.
Since no-code MVPs don’t require any knowledge of programming language or development, you can build your MVP without hiring professionals and getting tech stacks. It can save you a ton of money in the long run.
There are many tools out there that serve different purposes. So there is no specific “best tool” out there. You can pick anything that serves what you’re trying to do.
The primary features of your product depend on the user’s needs. Find out the problem that needs a solution within your target market, and create an app whose functions can solve those problems.
