Creating an MVP is your first step in kickstarting your business. It is the best way for any business to express its visions. However, there are advantages and disadvantages to creating an MVP.
We’ll be discussing the pros and cons of MVP in this article. But first, let us jog your memory about the importance of MVP for startups.
Why is an MVP Important for Startups?
When you have an MVP prepared for your target audience, you are reducing your chances of failure and risks with every iteration of your app released.
When you’ve identified one core pain point of your target market, it’s your priority to turn that pain point into gains with a service that’ll help. That’s the main purpose of your MVP project.
An MVP can also get you essential information about the customer’s preferences from their interactions with your application, making collecting user feedback much easier.
“The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”
-Eric Ries
Considering all the benefits on both sides, your startup’s MVP creates a win-win situation.
When Should You Create an MVP?
When building an MVP, you don’t just release a product and call it a day. Much time and other resources are spent on creating an MVP, so it’s better to be thorough from the first step.
An MVP comes into play to solve a problem of a particular user base. To know the said problem, you need to understand the market first and then the people within the market.
Once you have an idea for a specific audience, you need to validate it to ensure it’ll be feasible to spend time and money after developing a product that the users will appreciate.
Once all that is done, you proceed with creating your MVP.
Advantages of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Now that we know how vital an MVP is let’s take a look at the bright sides of building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
1. Cost-Efficiency
When you look at a functional product, underneath a high-quality product’s shiny exterior lies a long app development process that is very expensive and high-end.
If you’re a small-medium business, you can only afford some of the expenses of creating a complete product.
That is where MVP comes in as a cost-efficient savior. With an MVP, you’re only focusing on core functionalities that will solve a core pain point of your target ideal users.
Working on a minimum amount of features reduces the overall cost of product development while providing a decent user experience, which is always a plus.
2. Reduced Delivery Time
Many companies choose MVP over a finished product because of the relatively shorter delivery window.
The faster you can launch a functional product, the quicker you will receive feedback, based on which you can work to improve your product. The best way to achieve a successful short launch window is by launching an MVP.
With an MVP, you’re catering to the actual customers’ needs as fast as possible and attracting more people’s attention with a tangible product instead of a concept.
3. React Faster to Customer Feedback
MVPs can be developed at a faster rate, so they enable you to implement improvements faster as well.
When you start receiving MVP feedback, it’s easier to check your competitors and implement the best features to benefit your potential customers.
If you continue to deliver improvements at a faster rate, you will receive more attention and positive feedback than your competitors.
4. Ability to Change the Business Direction
When you release an MVP, it gives you an insight into the mindset of the active users. When you release an MVP, it’s an embodiment of your ideas. You release the idea among the users to see if it resonates with them.
If it doesn’t, you can always switch your development process up to create something the user base wants. That way, you provide a desired product within the same industry.
This is a huge decision that should be taken after thoroughly investigating all the feedback received on the MVP. But if done right, it can bring a massive wave of success.
5. Open Path for Investors With Less Risk
There are very few investors out there who are willing to fund a project that only exists on paper and in theory. When you have an MVP in your hands, you have a tangible product you can represent in front of the investors and use your MVP for funding.
An MVP helps you present the best aspects of your idea in front of the investors. If you’re pitching your ideas right, you will receive project financing for further development.
Disadvantages of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
There are two sides to every coin, and even something as beneficial as MVPs has its downsides. Here, we discuss five of them.
1. Competitive Disadvantages
In today’s world, barely any idea is 100% unique. Whenever you have a product idea, there is a high chance that someone else has the same vision and they already released a similar product. So when you’re releasing your own, it might be another member in an oversaturated market.
Another possible instance is when someone takes note of your shortcomings and creates a better MVP to release under their banner, setting the competition bar higher. That way, it takes much more effort for your app to catch up to the competition.
2. Lack of Focus
When creating your MVP, you must know exactly what you want to deliver and how you want to reach the stage where your product is ready for delivery. But since we’re all humans, it’s very easy to lose your focus during development.
When it happens, there’s no doubt that you’ll end up spending more than you were planning to, setting you behind in terms of both time and development costs.
It also causes your app to stray from the initial version and turn out entirely different than any previous version.
3. Mistakes Choosing The Technology Stack
Even though an MVP is a product version, a path for scaling the product should always be open. The best way to do it is to choose the right tech stack.
Many startup founders don’t choose the right technology stack since they only want to make the basic functionalities work.
But when doing so, they close the path for future development of the app. It can happen to you as well if you are not careful.
4. Confusion Over Core Features
Defining a single core feature can be tricky when developing a software product. It’ll seem very convenient to add a bit more that will complement the app’s core feature and limited functionality.
Sometimes, the bare minimum of the product does not represent the exact idea or vision you are trying to deliver to your audience.
To avoid such a situation, define the mission parameters of your app before you even go into development.
5. Undefined MVP
When defining the exact purpose of your MVP, you must be aware of what your app is about and what it wants to achieve. An MVP with no specific definition can be considered an undefined MVP.
When you have an approximate app definition, you develop unnecessary features that cost you valuable time, resources, and money.
As a result, you need to present your idea correctly and defeat the true purpose of your MVP.
To Wrap it All Up
With an MVP, you connect to your audience by spending as little development time and resources as possible.
When building your MVP, always start with thorough market and audience research, and develop your hypothesis accordingly.
You might create hundreds of product demos before seeing a hint of success, but once you’ve built an MVP that is constantly receiving praise and feedback will be worth the work and wait!
FAQs
You can define the scope and identify necessary features by doing detailed target market research. When you know what people want, you know the scope, along with what you want to include in your product.
Customers want a convenient solution that is easy to use. It’s about giving the users what they want in a way that feels unique, and easy to apply as a solution. Failing to do so can spell doom for the project.
Customer feedback shapes the future of a product during the MVP development stage. You use customer feedback to figure out the demands and then re-iterate the MVP in a way that people will find more useful.
If your MVP has received a positive response, and you already have investors and potential paying customers backing you up, it’s time to scale up your product from MVP to a full-fledged product.
If you create your development plan around the core features you want to integrate, and nothing else, you can focus on specific solutions for the problem of your targeted audience.
