Is Your MVP Design Viable and Minimal?

February 20, 2023 | Read Time : 3 mins

What is an MVP?

A minimal viable product, or MVP, is a way to create an early iteration of your product that enables you to test key business assumptions and hypotheses. MVP strives to provide clear answers on your product’s key elements, target market, and the problems it wants to address. Additionally, MVPs let you test the fundamental assumptions of your business product.

Every new project these days develops an MVP. This pattern has emerged in businesses embracing Agile and learning about Design Thinking.

The issue is that the MVP frequently misses a fundamental element.

Actually, it isn’t Viable.

Minimum Project Scope = Minimum Viable Product

The main point of creating an MVP is validating a business assumption (ideally from a customer-centric perspective), with viability serving as the primary success metric. A product’s viability is determined by its capacity to generate revenue for the company; hence it must do so.

So, what makes a good MVP?

How can you tell whether you have a strong MVP, and what should you do in their absence?

An effective MVP meets a customer’s need. A distinct start and end state should provide a consumer benefit.

Creating an MVP is validating a business assumption (ideally from a customer-centric perspective), with viability serving as the primary success metric.

A decent MVP should have minimal features. We must keep the MVP’s bare minimum in mind with all this discussion of need fulfilment and validation. Maintain simplicity.

Essentials of MVP Design

Let’s learn more about the essentials of MVP Design:

Identify Your marketing and business needs

Identifying your marketing and business needs is the first step in creating an MVP. The next step is choosing your target market, so your attention should be directed toward the most effective marketing strategy rather than concentrating on adding new features. Finally, knowing your customers and having a clear objective will help you to select the best solution.

Planning and Ideation

Ideate and planning is the next phase. You must know every feature your product needs and wants, but the MVP should be clutter-free, especially in the beginning. Start by listing all potential features, and then decide which features short-term users would find most useful. Having an MVP that is merely the core of your product will allow you to collect critical feedback while ensuring that you produce a solution that customers desire.

Mapping User Journey Map

The User Journey Map is a useful and important stage in creating an MVP. It’s crucial to understand what your customers need and where they get stuck. However, it is crucial to know how you might assist people in completing their tasks or solving their problems.

You’ll be able to concentrate on the most significant activities and issues your users have by developing a target portfolio. Your key consumers are the ones that will not only buy your product but also provide you with feedback; thus, having a target customer portfolio can help you discover who they are.

A Map of Gain and Pain

A pain and gain map will show you what your users are doing to address the issue that needs to be solved. You will also better understand how challenging it is for users to accomplish their goals and what obstacles stand in their way. This will assist you in identifying the challenges your customers have and offer some suggestions for improving the user experience.

Build, Measure and Learn

The key to creating an MVP is to measure and learn. Measure your users’ behaviour, the features they like or dislike, and the objectives they want to achieve first. With this knowledge, you can improve your product and spot any flaws that could be problematic for users. The ‘L’ in B.M.L stands for reviewing this data since you’ll utilise it to enhance your product and develop an additional MVP with brand-new features that people want.

Acquisition and Market Validation

Building an MVP primarily tests and confirms assumptions about the market and your product. Once you have a model, you should start validating it to see whether the market demands your product and whether customers are prepared to pay for your offering. Having an MVP enables you to interact with consumers and gather insightful feedback to determine a market for your product.

Finding the correct balance for your MVP is a process that takes some consideration. It is the first indicator of your product’s capability to succeed in the market. Make sure you give yourself a better picture of whether to move forward or pivot.

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OriginUX Studio

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Team OriginUX

OriginUX Studio is a CoE for User Experience providing UI & UX across Product, Service and Customer Experience Design. We are a cross-disciplinary design team that loves to create great experiences and make meaningful connections for businesses and their users through UI & UX.

Founded in 2016, our larger purpose is to help brands understand what they want to do and where they want to go. To do that we have to make understanding customer experience simple, effortless, and affordable for everyone.

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