Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – What is it & how to start

What is a minimum viable product (MVP)?

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the most basic version of a product that can still deliver value to users and allow a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

Key Elements of an MVP:

1. Core Functionality – Only the essential features that solve the main problem.
   
2. User Feedback Loop – Built to learn how users respond and what they need.
   
3. Rapid Deployment – Quickly created and launched to test assumptions.
   

MVP Example:

Imagine you’re building an app for food delivery.

Full Product Vision: Real-time tracking, reviews, loyalty rewards, AI-based recommendations, etc.

MVP: A basic app where users can:

View restaurants

Place an order

Get a delivery

Why Build an MVP?

To validate an idea before investing more time and money

To test product-market fit

Avoid wasting time and money building things no one wants.

Launch quickly to get early feedback.

Learn what users really need, not just what they say they want.

To pivot if necessary based on real user feedback

Would you like help sketching out an MVP for a specific idea or product you’re working on?

Benefits of an MVP

🚀 Faster time to market

💸 Lower development costs

🧪 Real-world validation

🔄 Ability to pivot or adapt quickly

🤝 Early customer engagement

How to Build an MVP – Step-by-Step

1. Define the Problem

What problem are you solving? For whom?

2. Identify Your Target Users

Who are your early adopters? Focus on a specific niche.

3. Map the User Journey

From discovering the product to solving their problem—what are the steps?

4. Choose Core Features

What is the minimum set of features that can solve the problem?

5. Build the MVP

Keep it simple, functional, and fast.

6. Launch & Measure

Release it to a small group. Collect usage data and feedback.

7. Learn & Iterate

What worked? What didn’t? Improve based on real input.

Why Does Agile Use MVPs?

Agile/Scrum uses MVPs for two primary reasons:

To get feedback from end-users and customers as quickly as possible.Humans are better at responding to and giving feedback on physical objects than on abstract concepts or ideas.

To allow software engineers and software development teams to exercise the entire workflow of getting software into production. Getting operational software into production confirms that all of the plumbing and automated testing required to get software deployed is functional, especially in consulting when we don’t control our own settings. Getting something into production as soon as possible, even if it’s only anything that says, “Hello, World,” is best practice in our industry.

Why Are MVPs Important for Businesses?

MVPs allow firms to begin demonstrating value in addition to the previously mentioned reasons.

Companies cannot afford to spend a lot of money on software and then wait forever to see results. Most businesses invest a lot of money in developing software, and they want to get immediate feedback on their work to make sure it’s worth it.

The days of taking eighteen months to develop a product or start a project, and then launching something that doesn’t meet the needs of the client because those needs have changed throughout that time, are done.

Because it had been designed in a specification 20 months earlier, those were very unpleasant days for engineers creating software for something that people never used.

How To Determine Your MVP

An MVP needs to achieve client goals. Looking at this using the OKR framework can be useful. For example,

• My goal is to increase sales, enhance customer satisfaction, reduce expenses, streamline the user experience, and more.

• I will save money, generate more sales, boost revenue through a funnel, or accomplish another goal by doing this

The MVP needs to be strong enough to solve the most basic version of the goal and enable you to get feedback so you can assess whether the goal is being achieved.

Product owners need to consider how to create the most straightforward solution while yet achieving the desired result. Then, they have to push themselves to make things simpler. How can they eliminate unnecessary features to demonstrate the value of this product without making it completely worthless?

To find the MVP and provide answers to these issues, our teams at AIM advocate for the use of user story mapping.

What is MVP in Agile development?

An MVP is a basic version of a new product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and collect maximum feedback.

Minimum: a basic set of features and capabilities which is .

Viable: provides value to the customers so that they are ready to pay money for a.

Product: ready to use today.

Agile MVP development step-by-step

In Agile methodology, defining the problem is the first step in creating an MVP. Create a minimal feature set to address the issue and solicit input from actual consumers. Let’s take a closer look at this now.

Step 1. Identify a problem worth solving

Entrepreneurs may get so caught up with a concept that they lose sight of the issue it attempts to solve. Determine the success criteria (ideally more than one metric) and the necessity at the outset, or why your product should exist.

Consider Uber as an example. It addresses two major issues: finding automobiles for passengers and assisting drivers in finding customers. Uber began as a small group of users with limited access using a basic mobile interface. Additional features like live driver tracking, fare sharing, quick credit card payments, and more were added to the app as the business developed.

Step 2. Analyze competitors

Checking to see if similar products are currently available on the market is crucial after deciding on an idea.

Ignoring competitor analysis and blindly believing that your product is unique could pose a serious risk to the project’s success.

Even if you don’t believe you have any direct competition, market research is still important. You can utilize sites like LinkedIn, Crunchbase, SimilarWeb, Google Trends, and many more to see if the permanent leader has changed or if there is a new “player.” Don’t be afraid to take inspiration from competitors and learn from their failures.

Step 3. Find opportunities to solve the problem (list the features)

As previously said, the MVP’s primary goal is to introduce the most basic iteration of the product with sufficient capability to evaluate basic queries like.

• Is there a real problem?
• Is the problem significant for people?
• Can the solution solve this problem?

Pay attention to the problems that the target audience faces in order to come up with potential features for your Agile MVP. The “How Might We” opportunity statement can be used for this.

Step 4. Prioritize features

You must determine the essence of your initial version after enumerating the features. This is crucial since the Agile MVP methodology should prioritize problem-solving while incorporating the most valuable features.

There are several ways to figure out must-have functionality for your product:

The Pareto principle

20% of causes account for 80% of consequences. Since this is an empirical concept, many global occurrences, including the creation of new products, adhere to this ratio.

Prioritization matrix

A fairly straightforward approach for ranking a diverse collection of features is the prioritizing matrix. present matrix’s primary objective is to identify MVP features that can wait for later releases and those that are necessary at present time. Features are categorized according to their impact and urgency.

MoSCoW method

Your features are separated into Must-Haves, Should-Haves, Could-Haves, and Won’t-Haves using the MoSCoW technique. You can evaluate the complete business concept, features, and functioning using the MoSCow Matrix, and then “carve” out the features that are most essential for delivering the product to the market.

Step 5. Develop the MVP using the Build-Measure-Learn loop

Feedback can be obtained in a variety of efficient ways. They consist of behavior analytics (Hotjar, Mixpanel, Amplitude), surveys, and NPS scores (Google Forms, Typeform).

User reviews can occasionally confirm your convictions and demonstrate that you have made the correct decision (like with The Melody App). On the other hand, it may indicate that you have made a mistake and are heading in the wrong way.

• What are the warning signs an MVP app is going to fail?
• Lots of sign-ups with low engagement.
• Negative feedback on the main functionality and core value prop.
• Monetization isn’t working, and there’s no clear path to revenue.

It’s crucial to pay attention to recurrent themes rather than single grievances when examining consumer feedback. Another helpful approach is to segment feedback. Power users are far more likely to share insightful information on the MVP’s capabilities than casual users, who may complain about unclear UX and inadequate onboarding.

There are, of course, exceptions. For instance, I formerly worked for one of the biggest employment agencies in Europe, where I user-tested an enterprise-grade application. One user’s bad comments prompted the consumer to demand drastic adjustments.

The first thing my project manager did was to persuade them to withdraw the request. A subsequent investigation, however, showed that roughly half of the revenue came from this one person.

Adapting the app to the feedback from that one user made perfect sense.

If customers like some aspects of your product but not the main offering, you can easily pivot and eliminate losses early. 

According to the Startup Genome analysis, founders who make one or two pivots see a 2.5x increase in ROI and 3.6x growth in users. Startups that pivot more than twice, however, see a sharp decline in success. Our page on Agile change management contains further information about this procedure.

Top mistakes to avoid with MVP Agile development

Here are some critical points that can lead to an MVP failure.

1. Audience wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle

One of the most frequent MVP errors, according to Tom Eisenmann’s book Why Startups Fail, is not devoting enough time to customer needs research and validation prior to creating an MVP. The adage “fail fast” encouraged creators to invest in undeveloped concepts since they wanted to come to market as soon as possible.

Having an MVP lets you know exactly who you’re speaking to, which increases your chances of success.

Consider receiving an invitation to host a workshop. The invitation just states that the workshop is open to “anyone who will come.” The topic of your presentation, the length of the workshop, the industry the audience works in, and other details will probably be among your many queries at that point.

• Define your target audience and their hidden needs.
• Analyze competitors and pick a monetization model.
• Map satisfying user journeys and create the UX/UI.
• Develop the solution architecture.

2. Listening to your perfectionism demon

It is impossible to predict with certainty what potential users desire. The majority of these initial presumptions regarding the product are probably incorrect. You run the danger of investing months of time and energy into developing a solution that doesn’t address anyone’s issues.

Make your MVP a useful and easy-to-use tool. As soon as you can, make it accessible to your target audience. To help you create a finished product, people will tell you what they like and dislike.

3. Dropping the ball on user experience

One of the key components of a successful product is UX/UI design, which may increase conversion rates by as much as 400%.

This does not imply that the design must be breathtakingly beautiful or incorporate the newest, most popular effects. It’s okay to be imperfect. Taking into account fundamental concepts like unity, balance, hierarchy, proportion, emphasis, and contrast, MVP design should be straightforward and practical.

It becomes simpler for the end user to comprehend and operate the product when the design satisfies these specifications. Building trust begins with making a positive first impression. 

There are typically no second chances to make up for a negative impression.

4. Allowing the scope to creep

Thousands of promising ideas have been killed by this problem. An MVP should have the lowest feature set that generates, gains, and lessens customer problems, according to American entrepreneur, lecturer, and startup book author Steve Blank.

• Focus on one core problem to solve.
• Use various prioritization methods I mentioned earlier.
• Validate the need for a feature before building it.
• Set a strict deadline (and stick to it)!
• Improve usability instead of adding features.

5. Releasing too early

The Startup Genome estimates that entrepreneurs must invest three times as much time in market validation as they had anticipated. This lessens the likelihood of problems with cash flow.

Another issue is that if you concentrate too much on reducing your feature set, you may end up with a product that doesn’t meet the needs of customers or your company’s objectives.

Making sure you can assist clients with their issues or even make them happy in the process is another aspect of MVP. The goal of Minimum Awesome Product (MAP) is for customers to genuinely like the product and voluntarily recommend it to their friends.

Conclusion of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Understanding what Agile’s MVP is can help you launch a product that is genuinely successful. The process of developing an MVP is both creative and difficult. It calls for knowledge in business, software development, and analysis.

Startups frequently search for a reliable software development partner for precisely this reason.

At MindK, we’ve finished more than 170 MVP projects. The majority of them have developed into sizable and prosperous goods. Simply get in touch with us to arrange a free, non-binding consultation if you’re interested in beginning AI-driven MVP development or if your project requires an experienced team.

If you want to create a basic version of your product, our team can assist you. Our mvp startups software development company has vast experience in marketplaces, travel, e-commerce, finance, healthcare, and more. Feel free to contact us for any inquiries or information you may need. Additionally, we invite you to explore our portfolio, where you can check our diverse projects.