Imagine that you want to throw a ball. For the throw to be solid and accurate, you must calculate the trajectory, body position, and height. The ball is your MVP that helps you capture the market to reach the user’s heart. But this imagination ball consists of many components – correct hypotheses, accurate statistics, development, attracting clients, etc. Each MVP stage is essential and shouldn’t be ignored.

The impact will be high-quality if all the components work as they should. And if you dug in with the development but still need to figure out how to attract users, then even a perfectly working idea can succeed.

What Are the Most Common Errors When Launching MVP?

The abbreviation MVP (minimum viable product) is known to many. But simultaneously, teams often make the same mistakes during development. SECL Group experts have created a short checklist to help you assess whether you are doing something wrong.

You May Confuse the Purpose of MVP

The task of MVP is to help the company enter the market as soon as possible. But this is not quite so. The primary mission is to check hypotheses about whether customers need your product. That’s what MVP is needed for. If the product is not in demand in the audience, then it is necessary to change the positioning and refine the idea. And no matter how quickly you enter the market, you need interest from customers to help you in any way.

You May Overdo It With New Technologies

Are you going to try something new in the development of your product? When growth cannot be avoided, work with well-known tools. Sometimes there is a temptation to try something new. “Let’s use a new language or framework since we are making a new product.” Of course, node.js example sites are proved to be the most commercially attractive developments, but you may need more than your expertise. And in the end, this development is delayed, and the budget grows, which is especially harmful to MVP.

Use the tools you are familiar with. The first version of Twitter was made in Ruby, and Instagram – in Python. There may be more suitable tools for such products, but they are ideal for the first version. Your task is to make a working prototype as quickly and efficiently as possible.

You Forget About CustDev

Do you have a brilliant idea that will turn the world upside down? Excellent! And you are sure that the problem you want to solve does not only concern you. This often happens when launching products: the founders think that absolutely everyone needs their product, but it turns out that the problem needs to be solved. This is where CustDev (Customer Development) is required.

This technique helps to find insights from users: by communicating with them, you learn their pain points and try to cover them with your product. They only ask in front of their faces, “Would you use such a product?” will hardly help.

You May Overdo It With MVP Functional

Imagine that your product should ideally have 100 functions. It is possible, of course, to make them all, but for MVP, it is too much. It is necessary to choose the minimum set of functions that will cover the client’s needs and simultaneously test the hypothesis.

How to choose?

• Rank tasks by priority and select the most important. For this, the team must first have a vision of the product and an understanding of which functions are needed.
• At the same time, if you make an insufficiently functional product as an MVP, users may not appreciate it.
• If you choose the right set of functions and get into the client’s pain, this minimal product will bring in at least some money and pay off further development.

You Try to Bring the Product to the Ideal

With this approach, product development can take months or even years. And when it enters the market, it turns out that no one needs it. It is possible to improve and perfect the product endlessly. But your task is to test the hypotheses quickly and start working further. For example, if the project needs its website, it can initially be just a landing page on Tilda that you will redo later.

You Cover All Platforms (web/iOS/Android)

Of course, it is good if your product is available on all platforms. But for MVP, it is entirely optional. You can test hypotheses only for iOS users, and if successful, then make an application for Android as well. From the moment of the first MVP to a fully functional product, you will go through more than one iteration, and concentrating on one platform will help you save budget and time.

Of course, it is necessary to consider expanding the product to new platforms, but the MVP can be tested on one. You can also consider cross-platform (React Native, Flutter). This will be enough for some tasks but will also significantly reduce the cost in the first stages. And then, the application can be rewritten. If only an Android developer is on the team, it is easier to start with Android.

You Put the Wrong Goals and Key Metrics

You have an idea, and you made an MVP to test it. How to understand that the hypothesis was confirmed? There should be some success criteria. Pre-established metrics allow talking about confirming the hypothesis – a certain amount of downloads, payments, views, or something else. As a rule, it is possible to test several ideas simultaneously – for example, to test the product on different audiences. Which hypothesis will show itself better? Don’t forget about criteria to determine the success of one or another idea.

You Don’t Process Feedback from Users

This is another way to understand how much you have attracted potential clients. The more feedback you process, the more insights you will receive from clients. Of course, you can’t trust only feedback – sometimes, the user’s words are at odds with the case. It should be a comprehensive approach based on feedback and metrics.

What to Do After Launching the Product?

Do you have a plan for how to attract users after launching the product? You made an MVP – for example, an application. You uploaded it to the app store. What’s next? If you expect the audience to appreciate your unique product and users will rush to download it, then we will upset you – they will not rush.

You should have a clear plan for attracting the audience and the budget for it. Advertising on social networks, with influencers, and with B2B clients (if your product is in this niche) requires time and money. And it is better to have such a plan in advance to avoid wasting time. Otherwise, it is better to entrust your work on MVP to a professional company and promote your brilliant product.