Why should I build an MVP?

MVP meaning (minimum viable product) is validating your product idea with minimal investment and risk. With its help, you gather valuable feedback from real users early, attracting investors and ensuring your final product meets market needs.

What are the main types of MVPs?

The main types of MVP app development services include landing page, pre-order, single-feature, concierge, and Wizard of Oz MVPs. These approaches help startups validate their ideas and minimize initial development costs.

What are the long-term benefits of building an MVP?

For businesses, MVP app meaning is refining your product based on early user feedback. It enhances user satisfaction and loyalty over time. On top of that, an MVP lets you iterate and innovate more efficiently, establishing a stronger market presence.

How does an MVP speed up the time-to-market?

MVP application development accelerates time to market by focusing on essential features that quickly address core user needs. It minimizes development cycles and ensures a faster rollout of the initial product iteration.

Should I consider outsourcing the development of my MVP?

Outsourcing custom MVP software development is beneficial if you lack in-house expertise or need to accelerate the process with external resources. You can tap into specialized skills and experience, potentially reducing costs and time to market.

How to Build a Minimum Viable Product: [2024 Guide]

Key Takeaways

Developing an MVP involves creating a minimum viable product with just enough features to attract early adopters and validate a business idea.
As for MVP minimum viable product meaning, its benefits include reduced development costs, faster time-to-market, and valuable user feedback for further improvements.
During minimum viable product software development, it’s critical to understand the core problem, ensure usability, and gather continuous user feedback to guide future iterations.

A CB Insights report shows that 42% of failed startups cited lack of market need as the primary reason. If you have an excellent idea for new bespoke software, how can you be sure it will fit the market? The answer is a minimum viable product (MVP), which validates your assumptions quickly and cost-effectively.

If you are considering investing in MVP app development, ask yourself whether you are ready to risk extensive resources with a full-scale product. Isn’t it better to taste the water first before going all in? In this article, we will examine this safe option, discussing the definition of minimum viable product, its benefits, types, and how to build an MVP.

What is MVP development?

First, let’s define minimum viable product. An MVP in app development is a strategy for testing a new product idea by building only the most essential features.

MVP development meaning is invaluable for many types of companies, but it is especially true for the following ones:

Startups use MVPs to validate fresh ideas and confirm market demand.
Technology companies leverage MVPs to ensure innovative products align with market needs.
E-commerce platforms implement MVPs to test customer interest in new features or product categories.
Fintech companies utilize MVPs to ensure compliance and security, gauging client needs.
Health tech startups test new health technologies or applications, ensuring they effectively address medical needs and comply with regulatory standards.
Retailers use MVPs to experiment with new products, strategies, or customer service enhancements.

Why Build an MVP?

There are many reasons for companies to build a minimum viable product. Let’s look at the most significant ones:

You have a new product idea and want to validate its feasibility before committing significant resources.
You need to check technical feasibility and uncover potential development challenges early on.
You have limited time and budget, so you strive to prioritize the essential features.
You’re entering an unfamiliar market or targeting a new demographic and need an MVP to gather insights about local user behavior and preferences.
You’re aiming to build strategic partnerships, so you build MVP app to showcase your product’s potential to stakeholders.
You want to attract investors and present an MVP to demonstrate your idea’s viability.
You are exploring new business models or revenue streams.

Benefits of an MVP App Development

The benefits of developing an MVP

Why is mobile app development MVP crucial for business success? We have prepared six compelling arguments:

1. Market Validation and Risk Mitigation

With an MVP, you can test your product with real customers, providing valuable feedback and data on user preferences and behavior. Moreover, you start with smaller time, money, and resource investments to reduce your risk.

2. Efficient Resource Allocation and Development

Creating a minimum viable product focuses on developing only essential features efficiently using limited time and budget. That means you prioritize your product’s core value, creating a more streamlined and user-friendly offering.

3. Early User Acquisition and Engagement

MVP for software development attracts early users and generates interest in your product before full-scale development. It creates buzz and builds a community around your product, which is critical to long-term success. A loyal user base will drive organic growth and provide constant feedback for further improvements.

4. Investor Attraction and Confidence

According to a survey of startup owners, nearly half mentioned lack of financing as the primary reason for their business failure.

When presenting your MVP to potential investors, you demonstrate your idea’s potential instead of just discussing it. Investors often prefer startups that have validated their ideas with an MVP. A minimum viable product shows the concept has potential and fits real user requirements.

5. Flexibility and Iterative Development

MVP offers room for development, streamlining the integration of new technologies and features. Consequently, your product will evolve according to user needs, creating a more successful offering.

6. Enhanced Domain Knowledge and Competitive Advantage

Building MVP requires thorough market research. Thus, you improve your domain knowledge and discover new opportunities. Plus, you get your product to market faster with an MVP, grabbing market share before competitors catch up.

Different Types of MVPs

Minimum viable product software development types

Before discussing how to create an MVP, let’s learn its various formats that suit different business needs.

Landing Page MVP

A landing page MVP focuses on creating a simple web page that describes your product and encourages visitors to buy it or sign up. It’s a perfect way to gauge interest and collect user data before full product development. For instance, Airbnb launched a basic landing page to validate demand for its apartment booking service.

Pre-Order MVP

MVP Pre-Order uses a crowdfunding approach where customers purchase a product before its official launch or production (similar to pre-orders for video games like GTA VI). This method confirms market demand and provides upfront capital to finance initial production costs.

Single-Feature MVP

Focused on developing a single core functionality, the Single-Feature MVP tests a specific aspect of the product idea to attract users and gain feedback. For example, Uber’s initial MVP focused solely on connecting taxi drivers with iPhone users for rides in San Francisco.

Concierge MVP

Concierge MVP provides manual customer service without automated systems. Companies gather direct feedback and understand customer preferences before investing in full-scale automation. For instance, the founder of Food on the Table used Excel and email to design meal plans.

Wizard of Oz MVP

In the Wizard of Oz MVP, users interact with a product that appears to be fully automated. But behind the scenes, a team performs those operations by hand. Initially, Zappos fulfilled orders manually. This way, the company tested the concept feasibility without creating a complex infrastructure.

With that in mind, the answer to the “how to develop an MVP” question depends heavily on the solution type.

How to Create a Minimum Viable Product: a Step-by-Step Guide

What is an MVP in software development? It’s similar to full-scale platform creation but emphasizes speed and specific goals. Let’s discover how to develop minimum viable product step by step.

Step 1. Define the Problem Statement and Research the Market

First, identify a clear problem statement your MVP will address, validating its existence and significance. Conduct thorough market research to understand your target audience, explore competitors, and gauge market size.

Step 2. Define MVP Scope

Define the core purpose of the MVP in mobile app development and create a comprehensive list of possible features. Use prioritization systems like MoSCoW (must-have, should-have, could-have, and won’t-have) or the Kano (must-be, one-dimensional, attractive, indifferent, and reverse quality) to rank the importance of your features.

Step 3. Prototype Potential Solutions

Create prototypes like sketches or wireframes to visualize the design and functionalities of your MVP. This step is crucial to refining your product concept before proceeding to full-scale development. Learn from historical examples like the Apple Lisa, where skipping prototyping led to costly mistakes.

Step 4. Build Your MVP

Develop MVP based on the defined feature set and validated prototype. Find ways to speed up development or make it cheaper without compromising quality. For example, consider low-code app development (today, low-code MVPs are rising). Also, pay attention to serverless backend providers. With their help, you will focus more on the solution’s business logic.

Step 5. Gather User Feedback and Iterate

Conduct interviews and surveys or utilize feedback software tools to refine features and prioritize enhancements. Prevent feature creep and align your product with market demands.

Step 6. Iterate Constantly

Iterate based on user feedback to continuously improve your MVP. Test new features and changes to validate their impact on user experience and product-market fit.

Now, you may wonder: How much does it cost to build an MVP? To understand the MVP development cost, explore offshore software development rates and ways to optimize the budget with remote cooperation.

How Acropolium Can Help with MVP Development

Are you looking for minimum viable product development services to validate the idea? Consider Acropolium as an experienced IT outsourcing vendor that builds systems from scratch and modernizes legacy ones (with a complete data migration).

Our dedicated team creates GDPR-compliant software through ISO-certified processes, following strict data protection regulations and the highest quality standards. Additionally, we offer cutting-edge serverless solutions that enhance scalability and reduce operational costs.

Our portfolio includes SaaS MVPs for enterprises, mHealth startups, and other businesses. Here are several examples of the MVPs we worked with.

Construction Asset Management Software Development

Build a minimum viable product

A leasing company supplying heavy construction equipment sought custom inventory management software that combined construction asset management and CRM features.

We introduced a minimum viable product app with equipment maintenance schedules and reminders, boosting monthly deals by 47% and reducing the deal cycle by 33%. The solution also increased conversion rates by 25% and grew the customer base by 15%.

Mobile App Development for Shipping Service Provider

A client providing data-driven supply chain management solutions for freight forwarders and 3PLs required a robust solution to compete against Uber Freight and Convoy. In just three months, Acropolium created an MVP mobile app to track truck drivers’ working hours and ensure payment accuracy.

As a result, the client received investments for further solution development. The custom MVP development also achieved a 90% increase in security level and increased session speed by 28%.

Final Thoughts

One can’t overestimate the software MVP meaning for businesses and startups. It’s a critical step for any company looking to validate its ideas, test market demand, and attract early adopters. Thanks to minimum viable product development, you can enter the market quickly, gather valuable user feedback, and make informed decisions about future growth.

Now you know how to build an MVP app. However, partnering with an experienced vendor will ensure your MVP is high-quality, secure, and compliant with industry standards.

Acropolium offers subscription-based custom software development services that cover all standard project needs for a monthly fee. Contact our MVP app development company to bring your idea to life.