What are the best ways to prioritize features in MVP design and prototyping?

Begin with thorough market research to define your goals and target audience. Once clear, develop a prototype or MVP, testing feasibility and collecting feedback from potential customers. Personally engage with feedback, as it is a crucial aspect of the process, based on my own experience. Customer feedback is the true essence of the task. "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

Assess the potential impact of each feature on achieving your MVP goal by considering factors such as user value, feasibility, and technical complexity. Prioritize features that contribute directly to validating your assumptions, solving core user problems, or delivering essential functionality for your target audience.

Siempre comienza con la creación de una idea de producto. No producto. Idea de producto. Lo que sigue es testearlo en el nicho de mercado que uno asume tendrá apertura por este producto. Mientras más específico mejor. Por ejemplo, si vendemos máquinas de afeitar delicadas con la piel, es mucho mejor plantear el nicho como "adolescentes con acné" que simplemente "hombres". La meta sigue y puede definirse en términos de KPIs del funnel de marketing: número de clics en el post / ad, cantidad de registros a webinar, porcentaje de visitas vs solicitudes de demo, etc. Conforme se adquiere más conocimiento de lo que busca el mercado se pueden incorporar KPIs como ventas o número de suscriptores.

Having navigated the intricate world of MVP design and prototyping, I've learned that prioritizing features is crucial for success. At Ginkgo Retail, we've honed this process to ensure maximum impact with minimal resources. One effective strategy is to focus on core functionalities that address key customer pain points. By gathering feedback early and iterating based on user insights, we can refine our product offering and deliver value from the outset. Additionally, leveraging data analytics helps identify trends and preferences, guiding feature prioritization decisions. Ultimately, the goal is to strike a balance between innovation and practicality, ensuring that our MVP aligns with our overarching business objectives.

Defining your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) goal involves: Solving a Core Problem: Focus on addressing a primary need or problem of your target audience. Validating the Product Idea: Confirm that there's a market demand for your product Testing Hypotheses: Use the MVP to test assumptions about your product, market, and user behavior Gathering User Feedback: Collect insights from early users to guide future development Establishing Market Fit: Demonstrate that your product meets the needs of your target market Minimizing Development Time: Aim to launch with just enough features to engage users, without unnecessary delay Laying a Foundation for Scaling: Build a base that allows for easy addition and refinement of features based on user demand

Define your customer persona for your product. Don't be too broad in your definition; saying something like "All people who wear glasses are my target customers" or "Parents with at least one child are my target audience" isn't specific enough. Be clear and concise, and focus on a niche. While there are many AI tools like GoZigZag that can help you get started, ultimately, you should be the one to identify your target customers and the MVP features that will work for your target persona.

Utilize market research techniques to gain insights into your target customers' preferences, behaviors, and pain points. Analyze existing data, such as industry reports, competitor analysis, and customer feedback, to understand market trends and opportunities.

Efectivamente el cliente objetivo es básico para ver el interés por un MVP, estos clientes iniciales además de Comunidades como en el comentario anterior también se pueden encontrar en plataformas o marketplace donde ya hay usuarios con necesidades concretas. Por ejemplo si quiero validar el interés por un producto es posible ir a una plataforma donde ya se venda (por ejemplo una web de clasificados) para intentar testear ese interés y posibles primeros usuarios para probarlo.

Identifying your target customers involves: - Demographics: Age, gender, income, education, and occupation. - Geographics: Location, urban vs. rural, climate, and region-specific needs. - Psychographics: Interests, hobbies, values, attitudes, and lifestyles. - Behaviors: Purchasing habits, brand loyalty, product usage rates, and service preferences. - Needs and Challenges: Specific problems your product or service solves. - Market Segmentation: Dividing a broad market into subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics. - Customer Personas: Creating detailed profiles of ideal customers based on research. - Competitor Analysis: Understanding who your competitors are targeting and identifying gaps in the market.

Once you've collected customer feedback, implement an iterative development approach to continuously refine your MVP features based on the insights gathered. Break down your MVP into smaller iterations or sprints, each focusing on adding or improving specific features identified through customer feedback.

To collect and analyze customer feedback: - Surveys: Use online tools to send surveys via email or on your website. - Interviews: Conduct one-on-one interviews for in-depth insights. - Feedback Forms: Embed forms on your website or product pages. - Social Media: Monitor mentions, comments, and direct messages. - Review Sites: Check industry-specific platforms for customer reviews. - Usability Tests: Observe how users interact with your product or service. - Customer Support Logs: Analyze inquiries and complaints for common themes. - Analytics: Use web and app analytics to track user behavior and feedback signals. - Feedback Boxes: Implement a suggestion box feature on your digital platforms.

Customer Feedback needs to be collected not at just one point, but at every point of building an MVP, even before starting out to build it. Take feedback from possible consumers whether it exists as a problem for them or not. Take feedback about how they’re solving their problems when your solution is not there, and how they are missing out on values you can provide better than the current ones. Take feedback on Pricing, Distribution Strategy, Placement, UI, Tech, everything.

El equilibro entre el esfuerzo a desarrollar y el valor aportado en la solución es clave, muchas veces los emprendedores desarrollamos soluciones que no aportan ningún valor, y hasta los clientes al tener demasiadas funciones no llegan a utilizar utilizar las funciones más importantes. Desarrollar poco y probar mucho es sin duda la clave.

Acredito que o enfoque mínimo em um MVP deve ser o núcleo essencial do problema que a startup pretende endere?ar. Com a oferta de uma solu??o mínima é possível validar de maneira ágil a aceita??o do mercado. Este enfoque é crucial antes de realizar investimentos mais abrangente em tecnologia , que demandam recursos consideráveis. Ao criar um MVP, 2 funcionalidades devem ser sempre priorizadas: a interface do usuário (UI) e os mecanismos de feedback dos usuários. A interface do usuário desempenha um papel fundamental na UX, sendo essencial que seja intuitiva e capaz de destacar as principais funcionalidades do produto. Por sua vez, os mecanismos para coletar feedback dos usuários é crucial para entender suas expectativas.

Sou um entusiasta no uso do MVP Concierge para Startups. Essa estratégia n?o apenas valida a viabilidade do conceito, mas também cria uma base sólida para o desenvolvimento futuro, garantindo que a solu??o final seja verdadeiramente alinhada com as expectativas e demandas dos clientes. O MVP Concierge destaca a importancia de ouvir ativamente os usuários, ajustar rapidamente as abordagens com base no feedback em tempo real. Ao adotar essa abordagem, as empresas podem reduzir o risco de investir recursos significativos em um produto ou servi?o que pode n?o atender às expectativas do mercado. Além disso, o MVP Concierge coloca um foco central na experiência do cliente, promovendo a fidelidade desde as fases .

Use MoSCoW method to categorizes features into four groups: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have (this time). This helps in distinguishing between essential features and nice-to-haves.

A lot of times you may get different results from testing the product with targeted audiences and then from using the product in the real market. That may happen because we have targeted audiences from the same customer segmentation and we did not know that! Based on our network the result of our tests maybe different. The more diversified the audience the better and more reliable may be the result of the test to count on it.

In our recent project, we focused on creating a simple, focused MVP. By avoiding unnecessary features, we kept it straightforward for our target customers. We emphasized UI and UX best practices like usability and clarity, ensuring the MVP was not only functional but also user-friendly. This approach allowed us to deliver the essential value our customers sought, making the MVP a solid foundation for future enhancements.

Your plan here should be to get a basic prototype to test whether the solution you have in your mind successfully deals with the pain-point(s) in a positive manner and what can be pivoted based on the results.

Example: Company X began by identifying the core problem their app aimed to solve: efficient task management for small businesses. They then prioritized features that directly addressed this problem, like task creation, assignment, and deadline tracking. Secondary features, like in-app messaging and advanced analytics, were set aside for later versions. Company X used customer feedback from early adopters to validate the importance of these core features and to understand user needs better. This approach ensured they focused on delivering a functional, value-driven product quickly, without overburdening the development process with less critical features while efficiently testing market assumptions and gather valuable insights.

Building, creating, and developing a product or a service should always be upon resolving a market need or enabling an opportunity. Of course, we have to take into consideration how big of a market our solution solves. From SMBs, to early-stage startups, to hypergrowth companies - the development should always rely on market feedback first (know your buyer and your user) and iteration in addition to proper resource allocation. Product teams I work with always make sure to prepare the solution for future changes, as it meets the market. While competitor analysis is important for differentiation or understanding what already working, the more a company can focus on its merit-based solution the better the market can enjoy its fruits.

User Story Mapping: This method involves creating a visual map of user stories that describe the tasks and goals of your users. User stories are organized into themes, epics, and features, and prioritized from left to right and top to bottom. This helps you create a user-centric and outcome-oriented MVP.