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Youâre at a meetup talking tech with the startup folks and the term âMVPâ keeps getting batted around. You know MVP stands for minimum viable product, but what does that really mean?
Product or Process?
For starters, itâs worth noting what the âM,â âV,â and âPâ actually stand forâââthat is, âMinimum Viable Product,â the version of a product that consists of only the features needed to deliver value for those early adopters. Remember, the idea here is to get these folks to want to spend money on your product. Once they do, your product development will start learning from the market in the form of user feedback. Itâs important to get this feedback loop going so that your product development decisions are based on customer feedbackââânot intuition.
The idea behind an MVP originates in âThe Lean Startupâ by Eric Ries, so letâs start with this concept of an MVPÂ first:
An MVP is the version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.âEric Ries
Validated learning. Least effort. Doesnât sound very sexy. Letâs jump over to Techopedia and hear what they have to say:
An MVP is the most pared down version of a product that can still be released. An MVP has three key characteristics:Has enough value that people are willing to use it or buy it initiallyDemonstrates enough future benefit to retain early adopterProvides a feedback loop to guide future developmentTechopedia
Ok, some marketing considerations. And it sounds like the emphasis is on testing rather than building. Letâs review:
- You want people to pay for it.
- You want it to impress the folks who line up to get the latest in tech.
- And you want to provide your customers with a way to give you feedback to improve it moving forward.
The Concept of Iteration
Eric Ries calls it the âbuild, measure, learn, loopâ. Basically you have to test something to get it right.
The core idea behind an MVP is validated learning. As an entrepreneur you want to be constantly checking your assumptions and making adjustments wherever needed. Think of the MVP as an exercise in temporarily shaking off that obstinate entrepreneurial vision of yours.
Remember that markets donât care about entrepreneurs. They listen to customers.
Make sure your vision corresponds with reality, aka âwhat customers want.â This is the part where you fall out of love with your idea and submit to a less warm and fuzzy objective reality.
Hint: Numbers are as objective as it gets. You should be tracking metrics, and metrics galoreâââsite metrics, user metrics, social metrics, sales metrics, cost metrics, etc. If it can be assigned a number you should be paying attention to how that number is changing.
Developing Products Or Customers?
In the app space you want your product in the hands of those early adopters who already get what youâre trying to do as soon as possible. This group is going to understand your product out of the gate and be able to explain it to the folks who wonât. They already want youâre selling. And not only do these people give the best feedback, they also do free word-of-mouth marketing!
Features Versus Benefits
Itâs becoming clear why you want to keep things as simple as possible at the beginning, no? As an entrepreneur you already have way too many assumptions to make about what is or isnât an opportunity. Once you start building a product youâre going to have to make a bunch of additional assumptions about which features to include or leave out. You have no idea whether or not these decisions will ultimately yield the benefits that your customers actually want, but you have to start somewhere. Wouldnât it bŃe nice if you could check these assumptions throughout the process of building your product?
The MVP enables you to do just that. Think of it as the ace up the entrepreneurâs sleeve. With an MVP you can simultaneously build a product, test the market, and flex your assumptions about the features that customers value.
And as you know, more value for the customer means more value for the entrepreneur.
From Testing Features To Designing Experiences
Since the time when the concept of an MVP first appeared, the market for software products has changed. Customers donât want to buy poorly designed products and expect better functionality from newborn applications.
Businesses get only one chance to make a first impression.
This is where UX comes in.
With everyone throwing around this UX term nowadays it would seem that the tech space has developed a more sophisticated concept of value. As apps have become increasingly nuancedâââboth in terms of user interface (UI) and UXââânow even early adopters need that âwow factorâ in the preliminary versions of digital products. Alas, if only there were some middle ground between iteration and design.
Not to worry, Jeff Gothelfâââthought leader in the burgeoning Lean UX movement and author of Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experienceâââhas found it. He believes that incorporating UX into agile product development starts with understanding why designers arenât so keen on MVPs in the first place, pointing to three main reasons:
- MVPs donât allow for that unrestricted ideation phase during which designers can apply blue-sky thinking to business problems. Jeff refers to this as BDUF (Big Design Up Front)âââa term from software developmentâs âwaterfallâ school of thought. In waterfall, planning is emphasized over iterating (the opposite of how the opposing âagileâ camp sees it).
- MVPs force designers to work with non-designers and refocus the design process through the lens of engineering concepts, which runs counter to designersâ natural approach.
- The notion of âgood enough to deployâ is antithetical to the philosophy of design, which is based on realizing robust and complete experiences.
Remember, thereâs a fundamental difference between how designers and engineers create valueâââthe latter iterate, while the former ideate. Letâs delve a little deeper into what drives each of these camps.
So itâs not hard to see why an MVPâââby definition lacking this UX elementâââwould find it hard to drive value in markets driven by such (think digital products). In a post for UXBooth Jerry Cao of UXPin offers some insight into how entrepreneurs could miss the point and fail to properly manage an MVP strategy:
Perhaps the best way to think about the MVP is Brandon Schauerâs cupcake theory, which emphasizes a complete experience each step of the way. Just like a cupcake is a better (and more desirable) MVP for cake than a bowl of flour, make sure the MVP always communicates the value of the product.âJerry Cao
Or in other words: You donât delight customers with product development; you delight them with products. And instead of MVP try to think about MDP (Minimum Delightful Product).
Viability Or Delight?
In his blog Startup Blender, serial entrepreneur Adam Berrey proposes an interesting solution to the problem at hand. Enter the âMinimum Delightful Productâ (MDP).
An MDP is just as âminimum productâ as an MVP only with the MDP the goal is to optimize for UX (delight) rather than time to market. It keeps the MVPâs âbuild only what you needâ spirit while slightly redefining âneed.â With the MDP the goal is to do more than start testing features out of the gateâââitâs a means of engaging customers.
So then whatâs the formula for delight? Based on his experience, Adam breaks it down into three core elements:
- Product Gestalt: âGestaltâ is just a fancy word for how people understand things as complete/irreducible concepts. Itâs an idea from psychology that has applications across various disciplines. Adam sees the right combination of UX and functionality as the source of a fundamentally wonderful andâââover timeââârelatively constant experience.
- Design: Beyond the engineering context, itâs useful to think of design as the means by which people relate to each otherâs aesthetic sensibilities. Adam further adds that with regard to products this element should somehow capture a sense of beauty.
- Quality: Hereâs where we have to take a long hard look at MVPs and question just how much delight they actually inspire among early adopters. The MDP on the other hand iterates according to a higher standard of craftsmanshipâââthat is, your customers donât just get your value proposition, they feel it at every stage.
Delightful products users fall in love with. They immediately become part of a userâs life or work. When a product is delightful it just makes sense. It works the way youâd expect and the experience is highly satisfying. Delightful products are adopted faster, get better word of mouth, and create higher satisfaction.âAdam BerreySo Are MVPs Obsolete Now?
MVP methodology is that as youâre engineering your product development youâre simultaneously developing your customer, as well as iteratively validating your market. Itâs not about the what, itâs about the how.
MVP is more than just a product. As Jerry Cao of UXPin puts it:
The MVP is the smallest experiment that either proves or disproves [your] assumptions about a business idea.âJerry Cao
So, It doesnât matter what you choose MVP or MDP development to test the business idea and validate your market, just remember, donât think prototype, think process.
This article was originally published in Ezetech blog and shared with Medium community.
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MVP vs MDP = Viability vs Delight. What You Really Need? was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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