Going Beyond An MVP: 4 Ways To Prepare Your Product For Future Growth

Building a minimum viable product (MVP) is a low-risk way to see if your business idea has a shot at success. But in the rush to succeed, few leaders think of the risks associated with project growth from the project’s very beginning.

I’ve seen many clients come to my company with an MVP that’s not suitable for scaling. In some cases, we’ve even had to rebuild the MVP from scratch to make it capable of growth. In this article, I share insights on how to make sure your MVP allows for future changes to your product.

What is wrong with the MVP approach?

By following several steps , you can build an MVP that helps raise funds and gather valuable feedback from end users. You can also use the blue ocean strategy to determine the right niche.

All MVPs share the same idea—put minimum effort into proving the viability of your business idea now and scale the product later. This approach works great in the short run, yet I’ve seen many clients struggle to turn their successful MVPs into full-scale products that are just as successful.

The reasons behind this struggle are the same for most projects, no matter the industry or the software’s purpose. Below are a few of the most common ones.

Weak Security Measures

As the frequency of cyberattacks and data breaches keeps rising , software investors and end users look for solutions that can keep their private data secure. But ensuring high-end security is a resource-hungry task, which is why it’s often overlooked at the MVP stage.

Inability To Handle High Loads

It’s easy to ensure smooth product performance when you deal with a limited number of MVP users. However, if unprepared for real-life loads, your product won’t scale properly once it moves past the MVP stage.

In the best-case scenario, adding more computing power will be enough. However, some companies have MVPs that require critical changes at the architectural level to keep up with real-life loads.

Incomplete Or Absent Documentation

Speed is crucial when building an MVP. And when you are in a hurry, it’s easy to underestimate the importance of keeping a project well-documented.

Many of the MVPs my team has worked with have had poorly documented code—or no documentation at all. This forces developers to spend extra time reversing the original product to document the existing code in order to efficiently upgrade and maintain the product.

No Room For Further Innovation

Choosing the simplest solutions, frameworks and technologies is a common strategy for MVP development. But while this approach works fine at the MVP stage, it creates complications once you decide to build a full-scale product and add functionality that wasn’t initially planned.

For instance, I’ve seen several MVP projects with the original UI written in pure JavaScript and lots of manual data mapping. To cut maintenance costs for such products and make it easier to expand the existing feature set, my team has had to rewrite the original code using more advanced UI frameworks like Angular or React.js.

Four Ways To Make Your MVP Growth-Oriented

Let’s talk about ways you can make your MVP scaling-friendly right from the start.

1. Think about security beforehand.

Architect your MVP taking into account the security mechanisms your final product must have to meet the audience’s expectations as well as the requirements of your industry and the current market . Alongside reducing the risk of post-release security breaches, this approach gives you an extra selling point when approaching investors.

Perform thorough security audits of your MVP to discover and address possible vulnerabilities promptly. To get the most out of these audits and improve your overall cybersecurity efforts, consider augmenting your development team with a dedicated security manager.

2. Plan for performance growth.

Build your MVP accounting for the approximate estimated load on the final product. Your project team might need to look at similar products to calculate that estimate. Your product vision might also be helpful in understanding what load the final product should be able to handle in the future.

To avoid possible code-related performance and load issues, developers should regularly perform code reviews and static code analysis when working on MVPs. Another helpful practice is to make sure that your MVP supports horizontal scaling so your solution remains flexible and cost-efficient as it grows.

3. Keep the code well-documented.

Detailed technical documentation is a must for every project. I recommend using elements such as:

? A high-level description of your product.

? The product’s business goals and values.

? Key functional and nonfunctional requirements.

? A list of features and their specifications.

? An overview of the product architecture.

? Development standards and best practices.

Working with clearly documented code ensures that everyone on the team is on the same page and reduces the risk of incompatibility and introducing new bugs to the product. It also creates a great development experience , making it easier for new team members to join the development process.

4. Compose a flexible technology stack.

With an MVP, you don’t want to over-engineer your product at the early stages. But once you move past the MVP stage, you need to be ready to significantly change the initial feature set based on the feedback from project stakeholders, investors and early users.

Therefore, it’s best to use common development frameworks even if they seem too complex for an MVP. This way, you increase the project’s flexibility and make it easier to expand your product’s feature set if needed.

Following these easy steps, you can help to drastically increase the chances of turning your promising MVP into a full-scale product your customers love.

The article was originally published at www.forbes.com .

At Apriorit, we always pay attention to software scalability, flexibility, security, and documentation when working on an MVP. Our experienced dedicated teams carefully assess the initial project requirements and possible future improvements to take into account when planning MVP development.

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