MVP Development Mistakes

MVP development is often focused on quickly testing hypotheses that emerge during the development process. Building a minimum viable product is more cost-effective, as it incorporates only a subset of the originally planned features. However, it provides valuable insights into market demand for specific features or the product as a whole by enabling rapid feedback collection from consumers.

When you are implementing a mobile application, landing page or website with minimal key functionality, the development includes the most important things for a potential client and the least resource-intensive for you. Based on the test results, you can decide whether to develop the product further, what needs to be changed in the development strategy, and which of the features has proven its value.

If MVP finds its dedicated customers, then the product can be scaled, supplemented and becomes a full-fledged business. So, what mistakes should startups avoid?

The best is the enemy of the good

Keep in mind the main idea of MVP and implement only the key functions, provide customers with a general understanding of the future product. If the product is not needed, neither design nor fast performance will save it, and resources will already be spent.

A miser pays twice, or from one extreme to another

The fact that we do not waste resources on unnecessary functionality does not mean that we save on everything. We concentrate on the key functions and do them as efficiently as possible. If you decide to make an MVP site on a free hosting, you will lose. It is important to show customers the key functions and moreover show its quality. In the case of a website, it is better to have a simple, but reliable and customizable web page than a free one, which takes a long time to load. Friendly reminder: minimum does not mean “unfinished” or “minimal quality”.

Take it seriously

MVP should be a full-fledged product with a specific function. Throughout the entire period of product introduction, customers just enjoy its “lite version”. This can be compared to the invention of the automobile: no one puts the wheel on the market first, then the wheel and the body, and so on incrementally. Each time a full-fledged and ready to use product is issued, customer loyalty is evaluated and then functionality is added.

Lack of feedback analysis

It can be a trivial thing, but many startups fail because of ignoring feedback from users and testers. React to the signals from them and eliminate the shortcomings. If you do not collect data about the “place” of the MVP in the market, the interaction of users with it, it is very difficult to build a strategy for its further development. Decisions made about improving the product must necessarily be based on metrics and figures, be data-driven.

Important indicators to measure are:

• daily number of users
• retention rate
• average time spent in the app or on the website

After MVP has been tested, and it is obvious that the application will be in demand and it works, in parallel with this version, you can launch the creation of a full-fledged service with a thoughtful architecture and other necessary characteristics. And then you just need to “make friends” with both applications and transfer the customer base from MVP to a new product.

Strong passion for the idea

Sometimes obsession with the success of a business idea prevents a reasonable assessment of how things really happen. Yes, your brainchild is very dear to you, but it is not an idol to pray blindly.

Important: if tests show that it is better to abandon some element, do not resist. Save the idea for the future.

For example, we were approached to develop an application for a healthcare marketplace. At the stage of collecting requirements, we prepared a prototype of the future application and decided to conduct a UX study — interview potential users, evaluate the convenience of the service, and at the same time find out possible pitfalls. The results made us doubt the success of the product implementation. After discussing the results of the analysis with the customer, we adjusted the business task and the composition of the features.

Let’s summarize

MVP carries value for the user, on the one hand, and helps to confirm or refute the hypothesis of its creators, on the other. To achieve this, the “first date” with your application must be successful, otherwise it will not go further than just dating. To work comfortably with the application, it should be based on an easy and understandable user script.

MVP development requires the correct implementation of key features from the first time: the owner has no right to make mistakes. Therefore, for the successful launch of the product, the customer and the Plavno team function as a single organism, we offer and discuss all MVP solutions together, taking into account the risks and opportunities.