What is MVP?

MVP is the first version of a product with a limited feature set which is usually minimal but sufficient to understand if it works.

First mentioned by Frank Robinson in 2001 and emphasized by Eric Ries in his Lean Startup, MVP is a Minimum Viable Product. Minimum because it considers the least effort possible for the initial release. Viable because it definitely shows the minimal environmental requirements and functional characteristics of your product. Product is what you believe in; something you are about to deliver to your potential audience in order to validate its future perspective.

How MVP works?

MVP could be considered as an experiment, which is called “Will my product show some perspective if launched with a minimal feature set?”. The biggest advantage of such an approach is that with no dependency on the result of the experiment, its budget and timeframe will be significantly optimized in comparison with the usual development process, which preassumes a full feature set.

MVP in agile

Agile methodology is quite popular in the world of software development. It implies dividing the project into smaller parts called iterations. The result of each iteration is a working piece of software that allows collecting the feedback, analyzing it and moving forward. Considering this, we may confidently state that MVP perfectly matches almost any agile approach, being it’s first iteration deliverable to the end users.

Benefits of MVP

Cost Efficiency, Time to MarketBased on the explanation of the general sense of the MVP, it considers as minimal commitment as possible from the perspective of time and money required to meet its goal.

Initial Consumer ResearchWe can do many assumptions, predictions, calculations, and other analytics before we start a software product but theory is theory while the reality is different and it could crash all predictions in a moment. So this is exactly the aspect in which MVP helps to neutralize the risks with minimal effort and see how real users will utilize your product.

MVP allows to shorten the budget and timeline of the project

Disadvantages of MVP

From a perspective of long-term business development, MVP may fall into the “negative” sorting bucket. Despite all MVPs’ leaning, there is a big number of various factors, which define if and when the business succeeds. According to the statistics 15% of businesses in some specific domains like International Ground Transportation, Sea Climate Observation, and many others, the start-up gains demand, popularity, and positive ROI once it approaches the state of optimal functionality, which may significantly vary from the MVP version. Moreover for such startups MVP may show disappointing statistics.

Summary

Starting with MVP is a very popular approach for a software product launch. The article describes benefits and advantages of such strategy, that are really important and helpful, while the disadvantages are minor and have a low probability of occasion. This makes MVP a perfect launcher for most of the software-related beginnings, especially when it comes to the start-up.

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