Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - an effective way to develop mobile applications

Do you want to develop a successful mobile application without the risk of time-consuming, demanding and expensive creation? The approach of initially developing only the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has proven its worth many times. In essence, it is a product with the smallest possible functionality, but it is fully usable. Find more benefits of agile development in the article.

Minimum Viable Product always solves the main problem only

There are many products that look great, have a lot of "tweaks", but at the same time are absolutely unusable. Users may get lost in the features, or they do not fulfill what they are interested in at all. In the worst case, such a "great application" has no user. Defining the user and the basic need to which the application responds is one of the prerequisites for creating a successful application. This is what MVP can help you with. The term is used with digital products, websites, web and mobile applications, and software development.

MVP is about finding the basic needs of customers and their specific solution. So do not try to program an application with all sorts of functions, but first start with one single function, e.g. sublet search. Program everything so that it is fully functional and offer it to the people. An application with many features may be attractive, but people may not be interested in it.

Sometimes less is more - you save time, energy and money

Starting to develop a complex application such as Uber or AirBnb is a huge risk. You never know if people will be interested in it and whether it will catch on. You can waste time, energy and a lot of money developing a mobile application just because your ideas about customer needs are different from reality.

With MVP, this risk is significantly reduced. Its initial costs are much lower, the product is faster to market, and most importantly, the speed in which you get the basic user feedback is increased.

Such an approach is part of the development process of mobile applications with agile control. It consists of the fact that we work within the sprint methodology, where we always focus on only one given functionality at a time and only after its completion does the customer decide whether it is enough for them or whether they want to develop further.

Feedback - the way to the perfect product

In an optimum scenario, with MVP development you get the product that the customer is interested in and you can proceed to testing. You will receive feedback on the product, then you will find out what aspects suit the users and what doesn't suit them and what else they would welcome. Gradually, you can begin to further develop it and increase its value. It is the feedback that will show you how much you have estimated the needs of the end user and in which direction to pursue the project.

Benefits of Minimum Viable Product development

For us, the development of a Minimum Viable Product is clearly the way to create a meaningful mobile application. We also advise our clients, when they come in and demand a large application with a lot of functions, that starting the development only with an MVP will bring them several benefits.

Here are some of them:

• Save money - you invest money efficiently and don't need a lot of capital to get started.
• Reduce the need for customization - a simple product doesn't need many adjustments, and you can always improve with what people want.
• You know how much interest product has generated - thanks to regular feedback, you know exactly the next direction of development.
• Build a user base - the first users give you feedback and can become potential customers.
• Competitive advantage - you can create something completely new on the market because you will find out exactly what users are missing.

Did you know that Spotify was originally supposed to be just a music streaming platform and AirBnb was created so that two roommates in San Francisco could rent out a room in their apartment to some attendees of a design conference. These are both examples of product development based on MVP.

MVP in practice - Oriflame Learning Hub

A real world example ofMVP in action is an e-learning platform we created during our 5-year cooperation with Oriflame. It allows brand consultants around the world to educate themselves and obtain information directly from their parent company.

How did it go?

While the goal was to create an environment in which employees around the world would have all the training options - courses, tests, up-to-date information and lots of other features at their fingertips, we started simply. First, we created a single market platform in which the user has their profile and a list of courses that they can play and save.The user therefore has everything that fulfills their ultimate need - to be able to learn online.

Only after verifying the comprehensibility, usability and popularity of the platform, we took the next step. We are planning to expand the platform to the rest of the world, adding new language versions, quizzes or the opportunity to save your current progress in individual courses.

What's next?

We will continue in the same style. It suits us and the client. We have feedback immediately and we minimize the effort, which is really effective and saves money.

Only create products that people appreciate

MVP is therefore a clearlybetter way to create a more useful product. It ensures that you develop a functional and fully usable product in less time and at lower costs. With the help of feedback, you then have the chance to complete it to the required quality and attractiveness without a huge initial risk. That's why MVP is so important. Thanks to it, you can build a product based on real needs from the very beginning, you will save and you can be sure that customers will use it.

Are you considering developing an application or are you already developing it and don't know how to do it with MVP?

We will be happy to help you with that.

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