Test Your Startup With the MVP

That's it, you've finally had a brilliant idea for your product! After months, if not years, of development, it is finally ready to meet its audience. But what will happen if ultimately the imagined features do not suit your users? Before embarking on a long and expensive development cycle, we recommend that you take a few minutes to learn about the concept of MVP.

What is an MVP?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product), is a concept resulting from the concept of Lean Startup, a famous method of product creation proposed by Eric Ries. In other words, it is about experimenting with a product idea by offering the smallest possible version (created with the least possible resources and costs), with end-users, our early adopters, to collect rapid feedback and empirically measure the chances of product success.

As part of an entrepreneurial project, the concept of MVP is most often respected because we try to offer the first version of our product, produced with little financial means. As a startup, he can also be at the origin of a new release of an existing product, to test its viability. In large companies, the term "MVP" is often overused because it is used to refer to the first batch of functionality to be delivered. As initially proposed by Ries, it is primarily used to validate hypotheses on the response to a user need. MVP is not a simplified version of an end product, it is the first step in the iterative development of a solution based on a permanent feedback loop.

MVP concept

The image of the skateboard or the scooter is a popular image in the world of product design. In this example, the user's goal is to get around. A common mistake is to go straight into designing a full-featured sports car. Why not offer the most basic version of the product possible that already allows it to move from point A to point B? This makes it possible to study how the user appropriates a product and to develop it in the right direction. Indeed, perhaps a skateboard or a scooter will be more than enough to satisfy their need, cruise controls, and leather seats were perhaps superfluous.

The advantages of MVP

• Quick learning about the real needs of end-users

With the feedback loop being reduced, you quickly confront your solution to the market. This allows you to learn more about the real needs of your target group and iteratively propose the most suitable solution (the user prefers a tractor rather than a sports car).

• Greater cost control

The investment being reduced to a minimum, you thus save yourself the development of superfluous features that would not create value (a manual gearbox rather than an automatic gearbox)

• A reduction in time to market

The concept in its simplest version is brought to market faster than the finished product. As the market evolves very quickly, features thought up several years ago may seem totally "has-been" 2 years later. In addition, we can generate value very quickly.

• A competitive advantage

This point follows from the previous one. If you take too long to try and craft a complete answer, chances are someone with an MVP will market it before you. You will then lose a clear competitive advantage because your competitor will have a better knowledge of the market and better notoriety because it will be the precursor actor.

In short: by starting the design of your product with the launch of an MVP, you maximize the chances of achieving an end product that responds in a relevant way to the needs of end-users. This is the whole goal of the Lean Startup method: to reach the product-market fit as quickly as possible.