What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and why does it matter?

When you first have an idea it is very easy to get carried away with development and to want multiple shiny features added at once. There are a number of reasons why this is not the best approach, and instead we look at the reasons you should prioritise an MVP below:

1. Money, Money, Money

For a lot of small businesses when it initially comes to developing and launching a new product, cashflow can often be tight. Consider using an MVP as a way to create a first phase of your product to help your idea gain the necessary traction to attract potential investors. Just make sure that your MVP is developed to a high quality, so that your idea truly comes to life.    

2. Learn and Adapt

When you initially launch your MVP, you are still early enough into your development journey to make changes to your product. Listen to initial user feedback, undertake some additional market research and decide what you would like to do next. 

3. Savings 

Creating an MVP is a great way to manage your budget and plan for the future. Before you commit all your resources to one project, an MVP allows you to test the basic features of your app and gradually build upon these during future phases of development. This enables you to plan financials better and not waste money developing features early on that you do not need. 

With this considered, MVPs are great value for money - the foundations are laid to get people using your product, and in turn get your revenue streams up and running. 

4. Development Speed 

An MVP is preferable to building a prototype or proof-of-concept in that you don’t have to throw it away when you decide to go ahead and build the full product - you simply build on top of the MVP to add more features. 

Due to the fact that an MVP is essentially the starting point for the end product, scaling up on top of this foundation brings down development time. Ultimately resulting in faster lead times for you as the customer. 

5. Gain early adopters

At Bad Dinosaur, we typically produce an MVP for our clients within 12 weeks. This means that you can have testers and/or customers using your product within a fairly short period of time. Early adopters will help to promote your app and should be considered a valuable part of your marketing plan.

In summary, an MVP lets you gauge the demand and test your idea without the risk of sinking significant resources into full development. Theoretically, you don’t need an MVP to launch your product but at Bad Dinosaur, we strongly believe the benefits are much greater than if you were to proceed without one.

Please feel free to reach out to a member of the Bad Dinosaur team if you would like to find out more about our MVP process, we would love to chat with you.