Most Valuable Player 🤷 Is that what it means?

You’ve probably heard or read about an MVP in software development. The folks from Silicon Valley love throwing around an acronym, and MVP is the epitome of software acronyms.

MVP simply means: Minimum Viable Product.

Simply put, it refers to the minimum amount of design, development and testing required to get a viable product out there into the market.

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But why does an MVP exist?

The concept of an MVP is rooted in methodology of keeping things ‘Lean’. Essentially emphasising the importance of building fast, learning faster and iterating based on real life feedback. The primary goal of an MVP is to validate a business idea with the least amount of cost, time and resources.

Think of an MVP as launching a product with just enough features to satisfy early adopters. It’s a bit more than a teaser but far from your completed product.

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How can I launch without a finished product?

The purpose of the MVP approach is to minimise the risk of launching a new software. During software design and development, we have to make educated decisions on what we ‘think’ the market needs. An MVP minimises these assumptions and helps avoid investing heavily in features that users may not need or want.

Creating an MVP allows teams to test their hypotheses about the market and their product, ensuring that there is a genuine demand before committing to a full-scale launch. It’s a strategic way to refine the product, prioritise features, and make informed decisions based on real-world feedback.

Once you’ve gathered feedback, you now have full confidence that your next cycle of feature development is going to launch with a bang!

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MVP isn’t low quality!

It's important not to confuse an MVP with a low-quality product. While it may have limited features, the MVP should still provide a coherent and valuable experience for users. It's a balance between minimalism and viability. At no point do we diminish the quality to speed up development. If anything, quality remains high but the volume of features decreases.

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How do I get to MVP?

Let’s put the acronyms aside for a moment. How do you actually get a viable product to market? The first step is defining the core purpose of the product. What problem are you actually trying to solve? Once this is clear, you can start mind mapping the features and functionality needed to deliver this solution. Any ‘nice to haves’ should be kept off this list.

For example, in 2024, the Uber app offers Ride, Reserve, Carshare, Group Ride, Packages, and Food. However, if we boil down all these features to Uber's original core purpose, only the Ride feature would exist in their MVP. When Uber launched, they had one ride type (Black Cabs), in one location (San Francisco), for one demographic (business people). Don’t be misled by the fact that Uber now has tons of features; even the biggest apps in the world started with a single concept solving a core problem.

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In summary, an MVP is a valuable strategy in the product development lifecycle. It allows for rapid learning and iteration, reducing risks and ensuring market fit. However, understanding the MVP process can be confusing. That’s why we’ve designed a rapid 6 week process called our ‘App Blueprint.’ Its primary purpose is to map out everything you need before you start developing your product. Think of it as an MVP with a helping hand.

Feel free to reach out if you’d like to learn more 🤙

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