We’ve been in the application development business for long enough to know that building an MVP is a sure way of saving time and money when it comes to developing your app. An MVP also allows you to gain valuable user feedback, test your app’s features, and see how your audience reacts to it.
Starting a business is quite easy these days, especially in the era of modern technologies, where you can easily reach your customers with a simple MVP. Using the right digital tools, everything seems effortless now, from buying and selling online to accessing goods or services from your phone with the touch of your finger. Because of this, every organization is hiring app developers to get a piece of the digital market shares and have an exclusive app that helps them build a long-lasting client base.
For new businesses, an app can be a risky investment if it’s not approached with care. And even with the utmost care, the most well-researched, expensive, extravagant app can fail and lead to a disappointing user engagement. Fortunately, developers can help you safeguard your investment, lower your risks and save you a lot of money with a Minimum Viable Product- or MVP. An MVP is ideal to create a low-risk and lower-cost product that you can then scale as you gather user feedback. Using the feedback from the users, you can then build the app to suit their needs exactly. If you don’t have the budget to build an app without knowing your users, then an MVP is your best bet on entering the mobile world.
What is an MVP?
When turning your ideas into a product, you may be tempted to pack in as many features and functionalities as possible, so it carter to every need of your users. Logically, the more features it has, the better, right? While this may apply to other products, it doesn’t work like that with apps. For digital products, such as apps, more features does not equal higher value. An MVP is the perfect example for this. You can develop the initial version of your app that lacks all the bells and whistles but still focuses on the key features that offer value to your users.
An MVP is a strategically basic version of your app that only includes its fundamental components and features. An MVP will directly target the core needs of your audience and have just the main requirements without any extra features. This is why building an MVP can save you money, time and lower your risks. It also helps with simplifying the development process and collecting valuable feedback from users with the least effort.
It’s important to note that releasing and MVP doesn’t mean releasing an unplanned, ugly, bulky, cheap non-functional mobile product. Instead, it means releasing a usable and lightweight app that solves your users problems while giving you the tools to make incremental updates and iterations to designs and features.
Do you need an MVP for your startup?
There have been studies made that show that 90% of startups fail. From this unbelievably high percentage, about 42% fail due to missing market demand and 29% due to funding issues. Here’s where the MVP can be useful, by validating if an app satisfies user needs and if it gets traction. This doesn’t mean that building an MVP is a sure way to success, but it will undoubtedly help your startup avoid those alarming statistics we’ve mentioned earlier. This can be priceless to help you guarantee some success before you spend time and resources on marketing.
What are the top benefits of building an MVP?
It saves you time and money
As we already mentioned earlier, funding problems are one of the main reasons why startups fail. Making smart monetary decisions is crucial to ensure your startup will have a steady flow of cash. Here’s why building an MVP can be highly beneficial for your company. When you put all your resources in an app from the start to develop a sophisticated product, you’ll be waiting for too long before releasing your app, and you’ll likely risk spending well beyond your budget. A mobile product can take an average of 4 to 9 months to develop, depending on the complexity and structure of the app. An MVP takes half the time to develop and you’ll receive instant feedback from users using KPIs, analytics and store reviews. This way, you will learn if your app targets the proper audience and if it’s solving the correct problems, allowing you to plan accordingly.
It helps you deal with competitors
The modern app market is really crowded, coming up with a new idea for an app or developing an existing concept with an innovative approach is getting more difficult and complicated every day. There are currently 9 million different apps available on the app stores worldwide. At this point, market leaders are all set but things are getting trickier as days go by.
Building an MVP instead of a full-featured app will give you the chance to test your app before committing to anything too big and test the waters to see if your users respond. This gives you a significant advantage over your competitors because you will be enriching your app based on customer demands. This way you will be targeting specific needs and you will be continuously building a more valuable and refined mobile product.
You can test your business concepts and verify market demand
This is one of the most relevant benefits of an MVP – testing your concepts by releasing a simplified basic version of your app, rather than a fully specced product gives you the power to verify that users like your mobile product. Your development team gathers all the feedback from the users and uses that to change the product’s direction according to their findings. If the app doesn’t resonate with the users or adds value, you can mold it and adapt it better to the market demand. The MVP also allows your development team to tailor the app’s features and functionality to suit your user base better.
Final thoughts
For businesses of all sizes, an MVP can be a valuable tool that can leverage online presence, promote user engagement and gain market presence without risking too much capital and time. With an MVP, you can discover new needs and new problems, which can help you focus your value proposition better and invest your hard-earned resources more efficiently.
We have developed countless MVPs for several different projects, websites and apps alike. If, after reading this blog, you’re still unsure of how and MVP can leverage your app’s success, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. One of our experts will gladly guide you through the process and help you release your MVP to the market in no time!