If you’ve been in the startup game for some time, you’ve probably heard of the term MVP—Minimum Viable Product. Today, we’re going to look at how to build your MVP for success, highlighting some of the key do’s and don’ts during this critical phase for Australian startups.
A minimum viable product (MVP) helps entrepreneurs start the process of learning as quickly as possible. According to “The Lean Startup,” an MVP is not necessarily the smallest product imaginable but rather the fastest way to get through the build-measure-learn feedback loop with minimal effort. For Australian startups, this means focusing on the core value proposition you are bringing to your customers. As experienced app developers, we know the importance of building an MVP that addresses real user needs.
You should build an MVP when you’re trying to solve a problem that you think exists, but you’re not quite sure if it’s a desperate pain point. The idea behind an MVP is to spend the minimum amount of time to get data and information back from customers that aren’t just conversations. This step is crucial, especially for app developers and mobile app developers in Australia, where the market demands precise solutions.
The overall idea of an MVP is sound—being able to ship a stripped-down product, test it with real customers, and measure its success in the marketplace without building a full-fledged application is a developer’s dream. In the early 2000s, this idea of MVP was widely embraced, with many reaping the benefits of saving time and money and getting user feedback quickly.
However, over time, a problem emerged. Instead of using an MVP for the aforementioned reasons, product managers, developers, and designers began to use MVPs as an excuse to be lazy. They cut corners, removed necessary features, and sacrificed the user experience in the name of staying lean and shipping fast. This comes from the common misconception that an MVP is all about stripping down a product to ship as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Your core product hook is the first element that will attract your customers. It’s vital to clearly identify the core pain you are addressing and how your product will serve your customers. This approach is particularly important in the competitive Australian market, where standing out with a clear value proposition can make or break a startup. Mobile app developers in Australia must focus on what will truly engage their users from the very first interaction.
A great example of a product hook is seen with Xero, a widely used business accounting software. Xero played a huge role in digitizing accounting software by focusing on what business owners did each morning when managing their businesses. They realized that owners often check who paid them overnight, so Xero designed their product to allow users to reconcile their bank accounts automatically with the previous day’s transactions. This feature became Xero’s product hook, laying the foundation for additional features like profit and loss reports, payroll, and forecasting.
One particularly clever MVP example is Zappos, an online shoe retailer. The founder initially went to local shoe stores, took pictures of their inventory, and posted them online. When a customer bought a pair, he would purchase the shoes at full price from the store and ship them himself. This approach validated the business model and consumer interest without a huge upfront investment, eventually leading to Zappos being sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion.
One of the biggest mistakes many startups make is trying to build a product that competes with established giants like Instagram, Facebook, or Amazon from day one. They attempt to incorporate features from these trillion-dollar companies without realizing the complexity involved.
To avoid this, focus on building a minimum viable product with just three to five features to hook your customers. This allows you to start learning about their usage patterns early on. For example, in the early days of Facebook, despite having fewer users than MySpace, Facebook had a large percentage of daily active users, which was crucial for their early success.
If you think your MVP’s main value is in being cheaper than competitors, think again. While price can be a selling point, it’s not sustainable unless you have the infrastructure to support it. This is especially true in Australia, where costs can be high, and startups need to focus on addressing significant pain points rather than just lowering prices.
Instead, focus on solving a significant pain point for your customers. It could be a problem that’s costly or emotionally intense. By addressing these issues, you can justify your pricing and build a product that provides real value, rather than simply competing on cost.
Before diving into full-scale development, it’s essential to validate your idea. Many startups fail because they create a product without a market need. Remember, your idea is an assumption at best—it needs to be tested, validated, and refined before you start building your MVP. For app developers in Australia, this step is critical to ensure that the product meets the specific needs of the market.
Consider non-product ways to validate your idea. For example, some early food delivery services like Menulog started by manually taking orders and delivering them. This approach allowed them to validate their concept without the need for a fully developed product.
Once you have your product hook, it’s crucial to focus on how you will keep customers coming back. Retention is just as important as acquisition. Over time, you want to ensure your product provides ongoing value, leading to a higher lifetime value of your customers.
Should you build your MVP on a budget or invest in a scalable solution? The answer depends on your long-term goals. A scalable MVP is built with a robust infrastructure that can support growth, while a disposable MVP may be more cost-effective initially but won’t handle long-term scaling.
The most effective MVPs still maintain a high quality of code, design, user experience, and content. They simply limit the scope. The wrong way is to slap something together and hope for the best. The right way to build an MVP is to create a limited-scope version of your product that solves at least one problem for one audience in a unique way. Otherwise, there’s no point in anyone caring about your product at all.
The whole point of an MVP is to conduct an experiment—to test if your hypothesis is accurate. To do this effectively, your MVP needs to satisfy a few key parameters:
1. Target Audience: Serve at least one specific targeted audience.
2. Address a Pain Point: Solve at least one key problem or pain point for that audience.
3. User Experience: Provide a distinct, well-designed user experience that’s functional, usable, and comfortable.
4. Quick to Build: Be built and launched quickly.
If any of these characteristics are missing, your test results will be skewed, leading to biased decisions and potential product failure.
One approach to building an MVP is what some call “human automation,” or the Wizard of Oz approach. This method involves having a service that appears to be automated, but in reality, you have humans working behind the scenes. For example, if you wanted to sell sales leads to freelance web developers, you could manually gather these leads instead of building a complex scraping engine. This approach is about testing the hypothesis: Will anyone pay for this service?
Another approach is to use no-code tools. For example, you might need an audio and video project management tool. Instead of writing code, you can build the entire system using platforms like Airtable or Bubble. This approach allows you to test your idea quickly and efficiently, which is particularly beneficial for mobile app developers who need to validate concepts before full-scale development.
The third approach is full-code development. If you’re a developer and feel that writing code is the best way to build your MVP, this might be your route. However, for non-developers, the odds are stacked against you. Hiring a developer or an agency can work, but it’s risky, especially if you’re not experienced in evaluating technical talent.
An MVP is usually ready when it solves the minimum pain point that someone might be willing to pay for or at least engage with. You have to think about what features are absolutely necessary and what can be left out. Even if you’re building software, many features like billing, refunds, or password resets are not essential in an MVP and can be handled manually.
The time it takes to build an MVP varies. Some MVPs can be launched in a weekend, while others might take a few months of part-time work. If you’re spending more than two or three months on an MVP, you may be tackling a problem that’s too complex or overbuilding your MVP.
Building an MVP is not just about getting a product to market quickly—it’s about laying a foundation for future growth. By focusing on the core product hook, validating your idea, and addressing real pain points, Australian startups can build an MVP that not only attracts customers but keeps them coming back. With the right approach, mobile app developers in Australia can create products that stand out in a competitive market and drive long-term success.
