How can you use a minimum viable product approach?

1 What is an MVP?

An MVP is not a prototype, a demo, or a beta version of your product. It's a product that you can actually sell or deliver to your customers, even if it's not perfect or complete. The goal of an MVP is to test your hypothesis about what your customers want, need, and are willing to pay for. By launching an MVP, you can avoid wasting time and money on building features that nobody cares about or that don't work as expected.

2 Why use an MVP approach?

An MVP approach can help you achieve several benefits for your product innovation process. First, it can help you reduce the risk of failure by validating your assumptions and learning from real data. Second, it can help you increase the speed of development by focusing on the most essential features and iterating based on feedback. Third, it can help you improve the quality of your product by incorporating customer insights and solving their pain points.

3 How to create an MVP?

To create an MVP, you need to follow a few steps. First, you need to define your problem statement and your value proposition. What is the main problem that you are trying to solve for your customers, and how does your product solve it better than the alternatives? Second, you need to identify your target market and your early adopters. Who are the customers that have the most urgent need for your solution, and how can you reach them? Third, you need to prioritize your features and scope your MVP. What are the minimum requirements that your product must have to deliver your value proposition, and what are the nice-to-have features that you can add later? Fourth, you need to build and launch your MVP. How can you create a functional and usable product with the least amount of resources and time, and how can you distribute it to your target customers? Fifth, you need to measure and learn from your MVP. How can you collect and analyze feedback and data from your customers, and how can you use them to improve your product or pivot if needed?

4 What are some examples of MVPs?

Successful products often start as MVPs and evolve over time. For example, Dropbox began with a simple landing page that included a video that demonstrated how the product worked and invited users to sign up for the beta. The video generated a lot of interest and increased the sign-ups by 10 times. Similarly, Airbnb started with a website offering air mattresses and breakfast to attendees of a conference in San Francisco. They used customer feedback and revenue to improve their product and expand their market. Another example is Zappos, an online shoe retailer that started with a website displaying photos of shoes from local stores. The founder would buy the shoes from the stores and ship them to customers in order to test the demand and viability of his business idea.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?