The MVP is the foundation of Agile development and has completely changed the way that products are conceived, created, and released onto the market. Using and using the MVP has become essential for companies looking to develop successful products that meet user requirements and wants in an era of swiftly changing market trends and constantly changing consumer expectations. Explore what MVP actually is, how it fits into the Agile framework, why companies might not agree with the idea, and how it helps companies and makes their products successful in this post.
Things to know about MVP in Agile:
What Is Agile?
Agile is a methodology primarily used in software development and project management that emphasizes:
Flexibility
Customer collaboration
Incremental progress
Adaptability to change
Key Concepts of Agile:
Iterative Development
Work is done in small, manageable units called iterations or sprints (typically 1–4 weeks). Each sprint delivers a potentially shippable product increment.
Customer Collaboration
Agile encourages ongoing involvement from the customer or end-user to ensure the product being developed meets actual needs.
Responding to Change
Agile welcomes changes to requirements, even late in development. This allows teams to adapt to evolving business environments.
Cross-Functional Teams
Agile teams are usually small, self-organizing, and consist of members with various skills to complete the work.
Continuous Improvement
Agile includes regular reflection and adaptation, such as through retrospectives at the end of each sprint.
Why Does Agile Use MVPs?
Agile/Scrum uses MVP for two primary reasons:
To obtain end-user and client input as soon as feasible. Humans are better at responding to and giving feedback on physical objects than on abstract concepts or ideas.
To enable software development teams and engineers to practice the complete software production workflow.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,
- I have an objective to drive revenue, improve customer experience, save costs in this regard, simplify this user experience, etc.
- By doing this I will save money, increase revenue through a funnel, drive more sales, or achieve some other result
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 User Story Mapping?
Product managers and their development teams can better outline the work that will result in the best user experience by using a visual exercise called user story mapping. User tales are arranged according to two separate dimensions in this activity. Along the horizontal axis, the “map” displays user actions in approximate priority order, or “the order in which you would describe activities to explain the behavior of the system.” It shows the implementation’s growing sophistication along the vertical axis. The elements included in an MVP are the most important and high priority features. Product managers can arrange the different elements of their MVP into a sprint or release plan after they have been laid out. The MVP is frequently released first, followed by release two.
Common MVP Mistakes
The belief that you only get one chance at anything and that your idea is doomed if people don’t like it is a common misconception. Because of this mindset, people attempt to include too much in their MVP, which raises costs, lengthens turnaround times, and slows down the feedback loop.
Experts in software engineering, product development, and delivery leadership make up our teams at AIM Consulting. We constantly mentor and train our clients to understand that an MVP’s goal is to gather customer feedback and gain knowledge.
The sooner teams are able to accomplish it, the better the project will be. On the other hand, teams cannot be sure if they are spending time and money on the appropriate item when they add unnecessary features to wait for feedback.
Finding a balance between releasing something quickly enough and making sure it has enough features to receive positive feedback is crucial. After releasing an MVP, a team may occasionally get comments along the lines of, “This thing is missing.” Where is this supposed capability located? For a product owner, this can be tremendously reassuring, proving that functionality is the best investment.
When a product team is asked by leadership, “Why are you investing in this feature?” Instead of relying just on their instincts or gut feelings to determine whether this is the proper investment, the team now has customer data. Getting user input on an MVP allows product teams and business leaders to strategically customize their products based on data, which is crucial in a world where data-driven decision-making is essential.