MVP: Minimum Viable Product

If we translate MVP directly, minimum viable product, we get the smallest usable product. But what does that actually mean?

An MVP works as a prototype to help your colleagues, investors and others understand what it is you want to create. In an investment context an MVP is often seen as the most profitable approach to product development in terms of risk and return. The goal is to show the simplest, most fundamental version of your product, one that works well enough for your early users while giving your customer something concrete to touch and feel.

There are different ways of building an MVP. Dropbox did something very interesting when they first started. They made a three-minute promotional video presenting their product and asked people to sign up to get it. The fun part was that Dropbox as a product did not exist yet, only a way to sign up for it. After the first evening the video was online, the number of registered users went from 5,000 to 75,000. That was when Dropbox understood this was a product the market wanted, so they decided to actually build the service we know today as Dropbox.

Another example of a creative MVP is Virgin Airlines. They had picked up on how much passengers disliked stopovers in the airline industry. But instead of launching lots of routes to different places, they launched only one: the direct route from New York to London. It was such a hit that it did not take long before Virgin Airlines could expand with more routes.

The last example we want to highlight is instructive from an app developer point of view. The MVP technique is called Wizard of Oz and is based on creating an illusion of how the business operates. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon, which at the time was only a marketplace for books, Amazon was far from as advanced as it appeared. When customers wanted to rent books, he went down to his local library or bookshop himself, got the book and sent it off to the customer. In the same way it is possible to create the illusion of a far more advanced app or service than you are currently able to deliver.

If you want to develop your own MVP, test your service and create something that is well received by today's market, get in touch and we will help you.

Sources:

MintyMint - Startup MVP Development: how to build a minimum viable product

Written by Vegard Kallhovd