How to Make Your MVP a Nightmare – or a Success!

You will hear the term MVP pretty early on in your startup journey. It’s been around for decades now, but it seems that many people still don’t really understand the concept. Here’s the thing - if you want your MVP creation to be a nightmare that haunts you constantly, then start treating it as a product. You won’t believe how many startups are doing exactly that! 

The core concept of an MVP is that it is not a product, but a process which should help you to create a product, after a series of experiments, validations and learnings. We at NerdCloud have all the necessary expertise to help you with your MVP, and to learn tons of stuff in the process!

What is an MVP?

An MVP is a version of your ideal product that’s basic but launchable. It will have all of your must-have features, but be minimal on pretty much everything else. 

Its whole purpose is to help you:

• Focus on its core
• Plan out user flow
• Prioritize features
• Test it early on

How to make your MVP a nightmare

Here are some ways that MVPs can be done wrong and create a truly astounding business failure. 

1. Focusing on the wrong problem

The number one reason that a product should exist is to serve a purpose. In order to even begin developing a product, you should be able to answer:

• Who will this product cater to?
• What problems will it be solving?
• Will this product be a good solution for that problem?

The worst MVPs are the ones that don’t answer one or more of these questions, but are created anyway. 

2. Skipping prototypes

The process of developing a product relies heavily on the evolution of a concept into a fully-functional good or service. The prototype phase is a key part of this process and skipping it is one of the worst things you could do. 

3. Targeting the wrong persona

Once you have your MVP prototype, you will need to test it in order to validate it. This means getting feedback and comments from your target audience. 

“The wrong persona” refers to anyone that isn’t a potential customer for whom the product is intended to be bought by – so don’t just ask all of your friends and family for their feedback!

4. Using a development method that doesn’t work

The traditional method of development is Waterfall, but Agile product development is a lot more efficient. It has the potential to complete a project in a given time frame and can adapt to changing circumstances consistently with high-quality results. 

5. Neglecting feedback

There are two types of feedback, qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative feedback will help you assess how usable your MVP is and what specific problems users are facing when using it. Quantitative feedback is given in the form of metrics and will help you assess the design’s usability and performance.

Both are indispensable and you must take both of them into account when implementing changes. 

How to make your MVP a success

1. Research the market

However good your ideas are, they need to fit into the needs of the market. You should work on an MVP that won’t be released into a saturated market, but instead will be fix a problem and improve customers’ way of life. 

2. Decide on value

Your product should focus on one main value point, and be clear on the essential reason that it exists. 

Some questions that can help you figure this out are:

• What value does this product give to users?
• How would this product benefit users?
• Why would someone buy this product?

3. Plan out user flow

The entire process of buying and using your product should be mapped out and planned to give the customer the best process possible. 

Your user flow should include planning out:

• Creating/finding and buying the product
• Managing and receiving orders
• Packaging and shipping
• Returns/refunds/exchanges
• Managing complaints
• Receiving and implementing feedback

4. Prioritize features

In the planning stages, your MVP might be bursting with great ideas and features. Try and prioritize which are most essential and leave out the rest to be added as time progresses. 

5. Get and use feedback

After your launch, make sure you collect as much feedback from your users as possible. Use their feedback on the next iteration of your MVP and continue to improve!

We hope this has been a helpful article for your product journey! If you have any questions or need more info, don’t hesitate to contact us.