How to Avoid Pitfalls During MVP Development
When you have a goal to develop software or an app, you may face multiple challenges, from the selection of technologies to the ultimate question: what will my product be like? The last option often arises in numerous controversial results, as commonly users need a product to be as follows:
- Quickly developed,
- Functional,
- Attractive to the audience,
- Unique and (preferably) above the competition,
- Scalable,
- Non-costly.
The last option often mitigates all the efforts to meet the previous ones. That’s why often developers decide to make an MVP (Minimal Viable Product). Can it be a good solution, and which pitfalls may occur when you decide to develop an MVP? Let’s talk in detail in our blog.
What Is MVP and Why Chose It as a Model for Product Development
The Minimal Viable Product is, in fact, the first embodiment of your idea. You select one or a couple of crucially important features which meet the audience’s pain and relief and wrap them in a simple shell to launch the market.
Often, MVPs are selected for the following goals:
- To provide a lightning-fast development process to win the race and to be the first. In this case, functions are cut, but the whole product has opportunities and prospects for refinement.
- To evaluate the need of the audience for a peculiar product/function. That case helps to check some hypotheses and to select the best one to build further products on it.
- Low budgets at first stages also may push developers to make an MVP in order to raise funds on it and update it in the future.
In general, an MVP can be a cost-saving and time-saving solution for businesses as it can be redesigned in future to a better version with a full-fledged number of functions.
Main Drawbacks You Can Face When Launching MVP and How to Avoid Them
Yet, when you decide on MVP development for your product, you may face some pitfalls on your path which can mitigate all the efforts and lead to simple money and reputation losses. We have highlighted the most crucial of them.
Wrong Goals or Goal Lack
Of course, each product is developed to chase some goals. But are you sure you have positioned them correctly? When you develop an MVP, you need to evaluate its quality after a release. And you need to use some metrics for this. If you crystallized these metrics at the first stage, it is OK. These metrics are, in fact, your main goals.
No Preliminary Analyses and Research
This drawback derives from the previous one. When you work on a product, you invest money, human resources, and time in it. And all can be for nothing if you haven’t researched the market in advance. This can result in the following disasters:
- Your MVP won’t cover the need of the audience.
- It will lose the game compared to a similar competitor’s product.
- It won’t bring profit or even become detrimental.
- You will lose the clientele which was attracted by your reputation.
So, when you decide on an MVP, a thorough analysis and cost calculation are a must to mitigate risks.
Quality/Speed Imbalance
An MVP is a quickly-made product. It is worth implementing if you know for sure that it will result in further high-quality products, and you need it just for hypothesis proof. But in case if you want to earn money on MVP, you need to maintain balance as no one will use an app or software which was released in a couple of months but brings no efficiency or simply works badly.
Planning Mistakes and Low Feedback
As for not overpaying for an MVP, thorough planning and further feedback are also a must. You need to plan timelines, the human resources you may need, and how to release the product as well. If you miss even one of these points in your plan, it can lead to extra costs spent and a bloated budget. Besides, after you launch it, you need to get maximum feedback to plan your steps to improve it or to refuse it.
Overrated Expectations from the Results
Sometimes, you decide on an MVP just to try to implement some special features which you are sure to be a bombshell for an audience. And it can happen, these things don’t work. They simply don’t work. It’s not bad, but you should not put high expectations on your MVP. Just remember it is quite a raw product you launch to gain experience and feedback, not an ultimate product you will stop with.
Summaries
Developing an MVP is not a bad idea. It can come in handy in the preparatory stages of product development as the first try. It can also become a basement for your further bestseller, which you will develop using the background of an MVP. Moreover, it can help you start your business and then, when the first profit is gained, you will update it and refine it to become a top-notch product. But you shouldn’t expect miracles from MVP development. Without thorough planning, analyzing the market and the audience, keeping your finger on the pulse of the audience’s feedback and improper resource allocation, it can become a hungry abyss gobbling up your money with no results. So, when you decide on an MVP, please, start with a careful evaluation of goals, audiences, resources, timelines, and the results you expect to receive.
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