One of the biggest mysteries when trying to launch a new business or product is
In the tech industry, there is a strategy of launching an MVP before investing time, money and resources to a product. You might be wondering what is MVP? MVP or minimum viable product is defined as a new product’s version that allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about the customer with the least effort. You can learn more about it in our previous article - How Can Minimum Viable Products Work for Your Business
This can be very helpful especially when you have several ideas and want to test which one would customers love the most. Instead of the time -consuming and expensive focus group discussions, why not create an updateable product based on customer feedback. If you are worried about the maintenance and updating cost, then you should also consider doing no-code development. There are a number of reasons to choose no-code for your website or app and you can read them all HERE
However, there seems to be a challenge in opting for this approach and how to maximize MVP wisely. In this blog, we will take a look at the MVP examples and how to use them wisely. We will be talking about the following examples:
These are short videos that explains what the product is and who is it for. The more concise the better since you don’t want to bore yourcustomers and get the important information in. This strategy worked for Dropbox with their 90-second explainer video. They gathered over 5,000subscribers before launching which gave customers a clear idea of what they will be getting. When the new version of the email was released after that, the subscribers went from 5,000 to 75,000after so much buzz.
As of 2020, Dropbox is valued at $8.82B already. And it all started with a video.
You can share the design of your product so potential customers can have an idea of what you plan to offer. It can range from a realistic mockup, flat sketches, or a 3D rendition. What’s good is that you can also include it in the explainer video if ever you are planning to do one. Under this example, there are other examples of product design MVPs.
These are drawing of the product you wish to present produced using free-hand format or with drawing tools. These sketches can present various web pages and show their functionality.
Wireframes also called user experience can represent the flow of the system. When using this, remember to show product features, navigation and where the system elements are.
Mockups or user interfaces are almost a complete part of your product design can work within the software. Mockups are supposed to give a simulation already of your product so make sure that main features areclickable and working already.
Landing pages are single page websites that are optimized to be SEO with all the important information about the product. It is a safe way to gauge interest from the market, get feedback and spread awareness about the product. A great example of this is Buffer, social media toolkit for small businesses.
Buffer founder Joel Gascoigne started with a landing page and is now is a prime example of an effective minimum viable product. For interested customers, they can click the Plans & Pricing tab but it didn’t have any information yet. Instead, they were told to send their email so they will be updated as soon as it is ready. By that, they already have database when their pricing is ready to launch.
Crowd-funding MVP is when you have a landing page explaining the product and asking for financial assistance to kick off the production of the project. This worked for Pebble, an e-paper watch for smartphones that raised over $10M in Kickstarter.
With crowd-funding MVP, its a low-risk MVP with maximum benefits. One one hand, you can have an investment if there are interested customers and you lose nothing if it doesn't get any investors. One risk though is that the idea might be copied by another firm which has more money or capability than you do.
Don’t think any of these fit your business? We will have another article for other MVPs to discuss the other examples and see what else you cantry. As you can see there are several options for you to test-drive your product or service before fully investing.
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