How To Define Your Minimum Viable Product?

It's not everyday that one comes up with an out-of-the-box innovative idea. So, whenever such an idea strikes anybody, they try their best to get the idea straight out of their minds on to the paper and then make it come alive in reality. If you think have one such innovative mind, then you should make yourself aware of the term "Minimum viable product" (MVP), if you don't know about it already.

While a particular idea might sound great in our minds, but until and unless there's an audience or customer base which accepts the idea or will use the product, there is no use in putting so much hard work and brains into it. This is where MVP comes into the picture.

MVP, in product development, is a term used to refer a product which has just enough features to gather validated learning about the product and its continued development. In layman terms, it can be referred to as a trial product used to gather customer feedback.

When we think about making a billion order product, the first phase of process involves coming out with a minimum viable product to test the products acceptability among the people and garner constructive feedback which can help us make the product better.

Hence, deciding the MVP is the first most important and difficult step in the execution process.

How to decide the MVP for your next billion dollar idea?

1) Scalability Of Idea

Once you have an idea in mind, you need to invest some time in finding out if your idea is feasible or not. You need to focus on the cost effective features that are important and will not difficult for you to implement. Hence, you need to spend your energy and brains on entering the market first and once that is successfully achieved, you can spend to scale the product in a later stage.

2) Target Audience

After all, a product or service is developed to be sold to the people and earn some profits. Hence, finding your target audience is one of the most important part of the process.

A target audience can be identified on the basis of the following factors:

a) Age and Gender

Spend your time in analysing and understanding which particular age bracket or gender is more likely to be interested in your products and will spend their hard-earned money in buying them. This will help you in better spending your marketing budget on campaigns catering to that particular gender and age bracket and may even help in bettering the product by adding some features specific to the target audience.

b) Region

Understanding the market behaviour and customer needs in the market in which you're planning to launch your product is very important. For example, if you decide to launch a LTE enabled smartphone in an area with limited Internet connectivity, there's a huge possibility that no one will buy your product.

Start by launching your product in a limited market so as to get a better idea of the customers needs and feedback and then use the feedback constructively to better the product for the global market.

c) Price

If the product is priced too high for the target audience, then it is almost similar to digging once own grave. Hence, launching the product in the relevant market will act as a guiding factor in the product's conversion later on. Here, conversion means cost per unit and the number of units sold.

d) Market Research and Survey

Before deciding to dive into an idea/product fully, do a market research and survey to understand what do the people think about that product. Try analysing the current market of the product and find out the gaps people think that need to be catered, and then contemplate how you can fill those gaps with your product.

3) Top 3 Features

There's a necessity for you to make your product distinct from others in the market because clones hardly win the final race. Hence, at any point of time, you should be able to name at least 3 features that are going to attract the target audience towards the market and make them take their money out of their pockets and pay for the product.

According to experts, it is better to go with minimum features initially as that gives you flexibility and courage to pivot on your idea. You can add several more features in the later versions of the product.

4) Cost Of Releasing

Start small but aim to go big. This is the mantra that you should follow. Start by manufacturing your product for a small market and then use the money earned to expand to bigger markets. Try to stay away from running into debts and focus your energy into the product and expanding its features rather than wasting time worrying on getting yourself out of debt.

5) Regional Knowledge

You should have a basic knowledge about your users which you should keep in mind while defining your minimum buyable product. For example, if you're launching a movie trailer in Kolkata, then you must implement Hindi to Bangla subtitles so as to make sure the product reaches a wider audience there.

How is MVP beneficial to the entrepreneur ?

1) Idea Validation

Sometimes some ideas sound better in our minds than they actually are; hence, a MVP helps you in getting a validation of the idea that the idea will also find acceptability in the public when fully launched.

2) Initial Seed Funding

Your MVP will not only help in garnering feedback from the target audience but will also help you prove your credibility to venture capitalists and earn you your initial seed funding.

3) Demand Of Features

Your MVP will help you garner constructive feedback on what all features the users feel that need to be added in order to make the product more sellable.

4) Brand Name

Your initial set of customers will be the most loyal ones if they find your products useful. Not only this, they will also be your biggest marketers as even now nothing works more effectively than word of mouth.

Few Tips for Launching Minimum Viable Products Inside Big Companies

While we mostly talk about startups and young entrepreneurs on IndianWeb2, today is going to a bit different. Today, we're going to talk about ways in which established enterprises can keep pace with their startup counterparts.

According to me, there has been no better approach in the history which has been able to capture the yearning of big companies wanting to get more nimble than the lean startup method. The startup method involves quick building and launching of minimum viable products (MVPs) and then iterating and pivoting based on the market feedback.

"We have to disrupt ourselves before the market does." It's not an uncommon mandate today. Established enterprises need to innovate to keep pace with the more nimble, smaller startups.

Here are some ways in which big startups can keep with startups.

1) Make failure an option -

In a big enterprise, the team building the minimum viable products should try acting like a real startup. They need to workout a mechanism where they should have funding to take care of salaries for the team as well as money for all their expenses. Further, this funding needs to be calculated on the basis of the company's expectations around the team's performance. If those expectations are not met by the team, the funding also needs to stop. We know this is a little harsh but this can prove to be very effective for the business.

2) Build a good team -

A good team can take you great miles. Startups have the option of hiring and building a team with the right people according to their needs and demands. This is what makes a lot of difference to their business. They have people who are right for the job and enthusiastic about the product. When forming a team for a particular purpose or project in a big company, make sure you get the right people on the team. Even if it takes a lot of time or involves hiring people from outside the company on freelance basis.

3) Get out of those cubicles -

A major reason for the success of the startups and their products is their proximity to their end users. They know what the consumer needs and how they need it. This is majorly because of the rigorous ground work that they have done. Nothing new can be achieved if the big enterprises keep themselves confined in those buildings. There is an urgent need for them to get out of their building and get to know their users/customers.

4) Creating a realistic MVP is the key -

Nowadays, the concept of MVP means different things to different people. In order to be successful, remember to keep it simple and stick to basics. MVPs are meant to be very simple products that let you test your concept. A good MVP can become a catalyst in enabling big enterprises to innovate and give a good competition to smaller organisations.