How to Create an MVP for Your Startup

Many startups have brilliant ideas and the potential to be the next big thing. Not all of them, however, are able to raise funds to bring their idea to life. Most investors, especially past the seeding round, want to see some traction to ensure their investment has potential. And while few startups can afford to spend months working on a product, anyone can create an MVP to showcase to investors. 

Emphasoft helps many startups create their MVPs, and today we will share the key steps that an aspiring business needs to build an MVP that will make a difference. 

What is an MVP?   

MVP stands for a minimum viable product. 

The concept of MVP was popularised by Eric Lies in his best-selling “Lean Startup” book where he defined an MVP as the version of the product that provides the most feedback potential from end-users taking the least effort to create. 

In other words, an MVP is the most basic version of the solution that includes just the core functionality. The goal of an MVP is to share the solution with end-users as soon as possible to get their feedback and incorporate it into further development processes. 

The key benefits of building an MVP 

Many founders who first come to our agency are unsure about an MVP as a concept and want to make a fully working product right away. As an MVP development company with vast experience, we see a lot of value in producing the minimum viable product first. 

#1 Test ideas and concepts 

Creating new products and services is a high-risk activity. It requires months and months of hard work and substantial finances. 

MVP product development, in turn, is much more affordable and, more importantly, faster. It enables companies to test multiple ideas by throwing them at potential clients. No matter how much internal research we do, consumer behaviour is unpredictable. And the best way to verify that our idea will, in fact, work is to get direct feedback from someone who has used the product. 

MVPs ensure customer focus and allow pivoting without substantial loss. Instead of building one product for a year only to find out half the features in it are redundant, startups can develop several MVPs and their iterations in the same timeframe, integrating real user experience in the roadmap and achieving far better results.   

#2 Secure investor funding

The startup market is oversaturated. There are thousands of breathtaking ideas out there, and not enough investors to support them all. This means that in order to stand out, a startup needs to demonstrate some kind of a functioning solution. It’s one thing to hear about a potential revolution, and it’s a completely different story to see it in action, however small it might be. 

#3 Save resources 

MVP promotes building solutions slowly starting off with core functionality, and adding new features and designs over time, after careful user tests. Such an approach means spreading the costs over a longer period of time instead of having to invest a large sum upfront. This makes the startup more sustainable and gives the enterprise time to secure funding and build the team. 

Tip: Many startups don’t have the resources to act right now but don’t want to miss the momentum. A sensible solution for them is outsourcing MVP development services to a trusted partner who will build an MVP much faster and allow the founders to pitch their idea with a real solution or pivot without spending too much time and finances on the initial MVP.    

#4 Faster time to market 

Startups are always in a rush to be the first to release new features and new products. Waiting for a mature product to be ready before the end-users get to see it can mean wasting months and losing competitive advantage. If another company rolls out a similar solution before you do, you are automatically in a losing position. 

Faster time to market also means that you can start generating revenue sooner. Startups are very risky. Nine out of ten startups fail according to the Startup Genome report, and only 1% of startups become unicorns. The sooner the company begins to bring in cash, the more likely it is to beat the odds and continue growing.  

Creating an MVP for your company 

Now that you are convinced that MVP development for startups is like breathing for humans, i.e. imperative for survival, it’s time to get started. 

Identify core assumptions 

Before you do any startup MVP development work, you need to identify the core problem and assumptions. 

• What will your product do for end-users? 
• Who are your product’s end-users exactly?
• Which one of their problems will your product solve and how? 

You can’t postpone answering these questions unless you want to fail. Understanding your target audience and what issue will the solution help resolve is critical. It will influence every decision that you will be making down the line. 

Run a market research

Market research can be a quick google, asking people around you, or a profound analysis with statistics and graphs. Every founder decides the best route themselves, but the more complex the solution and the problem are, the more due diligence a startup is expected to conduct. 

If the solution is expensive and difficult to make, spending a bit more time researching at the beginning can be the difference between time wasted and well spent. 

Research your competition to see what they’re doing and how you can stand out. Identify room for improvement and all unmet needs. Use this to give you inspiration but also to ensure you’re not reinventing the wheel. Or, if you’re up for reinventions, you’ll be able to do it better after your research is done.  

Look for key behaviour patterns that your target audience displays. Analyse their current pains and what can be improved for them.

Tip: Not every startup has the capacity to run thorough market research. Such companies can utilise existing research papers that are usually available online at a small price but there is a risk that they will be generic or not answer your specific questions. An alternative option is to reach out to companies that provide research services for startups. They would likely charge more but in return, you can expect a report that is giving you exactly the information that you need.  

Identify key features 

The core features that your MVP will include are going to help you validate assumptions that you’ve identified in the previous step. 

MVPs are all about moving fast, so there is no time to spare for working on non-essential features. At this stage, do your best to focus on the top-priority tools and ignore anything else. 

To help you understand what is a core feature and what isn’t, outline the user flow. 

The user flow includes all steps that someone needs to make in order to use your product. An example of the user flow with Zoom MVP website development would look something like this:

1. Open Zoom website
2. Click “New meeting”
3. Click “Invite” 
4. Click “Copy invite link”
5. Send link to colleagues

Going through the user flow step by step will pinpoint the features that are a must and cut out anything non-essential. 

Create a roadmap 

One of the factors of startup success is how smooth their MVP development process is. 

And if you are not partnering with a startup web app development agency, then planning out the roadmap needs to become your number one priority. Take a look at the list of features that you’ve selected for the MVP. Estimate how much time and resources each feature requires. Plan the feature development step by step and see if they fit into a timeline. Add milestones to mark progress. Agree on the list of outcomes that you expect at the end of development. 

Tip: When working on the roadmap for the MVP, Emphasoft team pays special attention to the task co-dependencies. As you are drafting the roadmap, make sure there won’t be unnecessary delays and downtime. Plan out the workflow to be as seamless as possible. 

Final thoughts on MVPs 

MVPs are not magic pills. However, when implemented thoughtfully, they can boost the startups’ growth, help attract new investors, and win first end-users who will turn into loyal customers.

Whether you build an MVP internally or outsource it to an agency, make sure enough time is dedicated to planning in the early stages, stick to essential functionality, and check that key decisions are made based on data and not just the founder’s gut feeling.