Product Development Series #3: About Minimum Viable Products

Previous series articles have discussed about Product Management and Product-Market Fitto find and validate the right product typical. A little review again, that the conclusion of the product definition is the solution offered to solve the problem. In this series, we will discuss how startups test the solutions offered, so as to find out how far the community's acceptance is.

This technique is called Minimum Viable Product (MVP). As the name implies, MVP is the most minimalistic work that can be presented to potential users with the aim of getting a lot of interest and input from potential users. Simply put, let's say a startup has a vision to develop ABC products with X, Y, Z features. Startups only need to launch X (considered the most important feature) to be introduced to the market immediately.

Some of the basic considerations why MVP is needed before the product is actually made are to reduce risk, increase the likelihood of success, get feedback faster, reduce complexity to measure the development process.

Start developing MVP

MVP is created after the startup really knows the vision of the product to be developed, usually it is still an idea and conceptual. Project Manager, makes a list of features or development priorities according to their urgency. The first thing that must be after there is a priority list, do an assessment of each feature that will be developed by bringing together assumptions and risks that may occur.

For example, a startup will develop a platform mobile devices for distance learning. One of the features in it is the interactive content for independent student learning. The assumption is that with this content, students do not depend on the teacher and have a high enthusiasm for learning. And the risk is if students perceive conventional content such as books to be more comfortable to use for daily study.

However, it is still only an estimate, so it needs to be tested. Before doing the test, make sure the startup has identified the variables to validate the validity of the idea being initiated. The easiest way is to determine the success factor with numerical numbers. For example if passing the previous product example, the validation could be: if the content gets rating at least 4 out of 80% of users are said to be liked.

So we get the following formula: We see memiliki . We can help them with . We know we're doing the right thing if .

MVP implementation strategy

Basically, MVP doesn't have to be a ready-to-use item or an operable prototype application – although if possible it tends to be better at providing an overview to consumers. In the product development concept, several popular implementation types of MVP delivery have been identified so far, including:

• Concierge
• Wizard of Oz
• Landing Pages
• Videos
• Crowdfunding
• Single Featured MVP
• Paper Prototypes
• Customer Interviews

From the several forms of MVP implementation above, its use is very dependent on the characteristics of the product that you want to introduce and convey to potential users. For the video format, for example, it can be used to explain a concept that tends to be difficult for users to understand, it could be because it is a new thing. The video created must describe an interface that is similar to the product concept being developed. An example of a popular startup that uses this model in MVP is Dropbox.

Then a landing page or a single website page to provide an explanation and description of the site proof-of-concept of the product. In addition to general product information, here developers can also provide response channels to find out the interests of potential users. An example of a startup that implements this model is Buffer. They see user interest by adding an email field for notification to potential users when the product is actually ready to try.

The current trend is to roll out limited features in apps. Like Foursquare did at the start of development. It only activates a main feature to eliminate user confusion while focusing users on the main service they have, namely check-in at some place.

The end result that is expected from this process is to provide a completely new perspective for the product team from the consumer side who will become the market share. From here the development team can move faster, knowing explicitly what to customize and what to add according to user input. The Product Manager will play a central role in the MVP process, determining iterations and managing communication with users to ensure input is properly captured.