Identifying The Problem

Many ideas are birthed as solutions to different problems and as a result, MVPs are created to solve problems within a market. 

As an entrepreneur, you can start by understanding the challenges of your target market. Several questions such as what problems would you meet? 

Why should people consider your product above your competitions should be raised and properly answered.

There are often several issues or needs to be addressed. Your duty is to figure out which one you want to and are able to proffer solutions to. 

In fact, by focusing on solving a problem, getting the perfect idea your prospective customer needs becomes easy. As an entrepreneur, never forget that to build a product that sells, it should have the customer in mind.

Also, look into what changes can be made to the existing solutions to the observed problems, what technologies can be employed as well as what new things can be added. Answers to these questions give ideas, prompts and birth innovations. 

The selling point of a start-up is innovation. Thus to stand out, make profit and impact, your product should be unique.

Do Your Market Research

From the first stage, you should be able to notice several problems and identify solutions. Next, you should run research to help you understand the market trend and the potential reception of the customers to your products. This way, you validate the ideas you have and avoid creating failed products. 

Apart from the market trend, you want to also understand if your idea or suggestion is acceptable by the potential customers. 

You could get reviews and feedback from potential customers through online surveys, questionings and presenting your ideas to professionals.

You would also want to carry out research to understand the cost of developing the project at each stage. 

Here you would take into account the estimated cost of building and marketing the MVP bearing in mind that you would want to scale it up much later. Determining the prices of your products can also be estimated through the research phase.

Part of your research entails understanding how your competitors are. By clearly knowing them and what they offer, you would be able to know how to deliver a unique product free of imitation. 

By analyzing your competitors, you would also be able to see how they meet the needs of the consumer and what voids exist in their services. 

Define The User Flow

Remember that you are building a product for the user hence their interest should be towards satisfying their needs. To do this, you have to see from their perspective often following the results of your market research. 

It is necessary to pay attention to what goal they would want to achieve using your product as it would help you create a useful MVP.

With your users’ goal in mind, it is important to define the user flow for each task. This simply means to outline the stages or tasks your users would take in ultimately reaching the desired goal. What is your product for and what steps are required for the user to make optimal use of it. 

You can start by highlighting all the stages or processes your product would cover in customer satisfaction. Think of it as a map to guide the user from their entry till their purpose of using your product is achieved. 

For instance, if you are creating an online store, your product would have stages that allow your customers to browse, buy, make payments, confirm orders and exit.

In mapping out the user flow, remember to keep it simple. There are several tasks a user might want to get done, ensuring each task at the different levels can be accomplished easily.

 For your MVP, there is no need to overburden the process. Stick to the essentials, others can be added later.

List the necessary features and prioritize them

With a clear product in mind, the next stage involves identifying what features of the main product are necessary and must be included in your MVP. 

From the stages identified above, you note important stages that contribute to user fulfilment. For each stage, you should define what features are necessary for its smooth running. 

Once that is done, you identify which ones are important in line with the action you want your users to accomplish. 

Identify other features that are also important or that you want to offer as well as those that do not really affect your product. Those that are essential to the purpose of your product are your core features and constitute the framework of your MVP.

After listing all the features needed, you should prioritize them based on how important they are to the essence of the product and the direct value you are providing. You can begin to build your MVP with the main features needed to achieve your needed goal with your product.

Other features when compared might not be included in the MVP and could be shelved for the main product.

Build, Test and Learn

Take it as you have a well-drawn map for your product you can create prototypes to help create a simulation of what your project should look like. When you are past the draft or design part, you can begin the development of your MVP. 

For this, ensure you have the best hands to make it perfect. Although it is an MVP, never be tempted to build it sketchily or to make it empty.

After building, it is also wise to test the product before releasing it into the market. Although an MVP, you do not want to send out a shabby image of your company or brand. It is wise to commit this stage to development experts skilled in the area of your MVP to avoid errors.

Also remember that your MVP is an avenue to gather feedback and reviews from users to help improve your product. 

Including the feedback feature makes it possible to learn what is needed and what features can or should be removed to satisfy the users. It also allows you to measure the performance of your product with time.