New Business Model? Start with a Minimum Viable Product
Got an idea that you want to turn into a business? Before you go about building a prototype and investing all of your effort, time, and money into it, consider building a minimum viable product first. After all, you don’t want to waste all of your resources building a product that nobody wants in the first place.
If you don’t have an actual product just yet but you already have an idea, you can build a minimum viable product first to see if it will work and be welcomed by your target audience. Not only that, but this process will also test your audience’ willingness to pay for your product or service once it goes live.
What is an MVP?
The operative word here is “minimal.” Minimum viable product means building the smallest thing with minimal resources that will give value to your customers, instead of turning your idea into reality right away. You then send the MVP to a segment of your targeted audience to test and gauge their interest in your product.
An MVP is a relatively new and practical scientific approach to product development, where the focus is on testing the effectiveness of your product by getting it into the hands of potential customers quickly to see if they will like it.
What Does an MVP Entail?
Too many startups come up with an idea that they will think will be a potential hit with their customers. They spend days, months, and years perfecting the product and launching it once it has been deemed as “perfect” or “complete”, only to fail because of indifferent customers.
On the other hand, the process of building an MVP involves releasing it to its audience even while still in its early stages of development, using its minimum set of core features, and no add-ons as these will come much later.
The idea behind this is that the audience will be more “forgiving” at this stage and will provide constructive criticism. This way, the manufacturer can still tweak and make some changes to the end product based on the feedback that came from its earliest customers. This takes away the uncertainty out of the equation by the time the product is ready for launching.
Why Conserve Resources Early On?
Mature products take years to launch and are expensive to develop. Creating an MVP will save you a lot of money that would have been traditionally used during product development. Instead, an MVP allows you to start with less, and allows you to build on it until you come up with a better product.
You will spend less on your product’s design, packaging, and marketing costs; instead, you will focus more on its main function and will make sure it does this main function very well. These savings can be extremely important in the long run because you don’t know yet if the end product will be well-received in the market.
If you are thinking of bringing a new product into your niche, consider creating a minimum viable product first. For a smaller investment, you will be able to come up with a better product that has a better chance of being a hit among your audience.
This article was originally posted at danielboterhoven.tech. Need a website, web application or mobile app built? I can help! Get in touch.
