As an entrepreneur, and like many other entrepreneurs, Capyba’ s CEO, Ronald Dener, has gone through some big struggles when building the first version of his dream product. He didn’t know exactly what he was supposed to build to test if his idea had a potential, without investing too much money or time. And, he used to wonder things like: what should it include? Or, what should it look like?
So, after many years of trial and error, Dener finally found out his way out to make the most of his MVPs, depending on the core of each project and its objectives. And, the best thing is that, during the last Rec’n’Play festival, he decided to share it with all of us.
Because of the success of his lecture, I understood that building an MVP was a common struggle for entrepreneurs and, thus, I have decided to write this step by step guide on how to build effective MVPs.
To understand how to efficiently create a good MVP, first we need to understand what an MVP is.
According to Gartner ¨A minimum viable product (MVP) is the release of a new product (or a major new feature) that is used to validate customer needs and demands prior to developing a fully featured product.¨
This means that an MVP is a basic version of your product. However, an MVP is expected to be as functional, reliable, and usable as your final product will be. It must already solve the problem you want to tackle with your solution.
A lot of people think of an MVP as something that has just the minimum functionalities of a final product. But it is more than that.
The most important aspect of an MVP is to have its focus on the problem you want to solve, which features are going to solve that problem, how will they solve them and what the user flow should be in order to solve that problem.
That MVP will allow you to test the product and give you insights about what your desired customer thinks about your solution, what can be improved and how. This way, you will mitigate the risks of failure when creating a more elaborated product.
An MVP is the easiest and fastest way to test your idea, analyze it, and prepare it for success. (Dener)
An MVP needs to cover the minimum functionalities of a product to be able to be tested. But it is not just that. A good MVP should also be reliable, usable, and its design should be aligned with the brand’s image and the final product’s expected design.
An MVP needs to cover the minimum functionalities of a product to be able to be tested. But it is not just that. A good MVP should also be reliable, usable, and its design should be aligned with the brand’s image and the final product’s expected design.
Only this way, you will be able to test, not only the problem, but also the specific solution you will propose for your audience.
According to Endeavor, a roadmap is a visual tool that describes how the product will be in the different phases of its development process.
Defining a roadmap is crucial to defining a successful MVP because it will help you understand your goals for each step of the process, who your stakeholders are and what will you need in each phase.
Although building a roadmap is the first step in building a software MVP, our team highly recommends creating a prototype of the solution, and testing it with your audience first. Building a prototype will make the process much easier and it will give you a clearer idea of what you want to build and why.
Once you know in which state of the process you are, what are your objectives and which features your product needs to have, it is time to choose a framework to build your MVP.
Lots of people make the mistake of choosing an easier framework to build the MVP than the one they are planning to use later on.
However, as Ronald Dener strongly recommended during his lecture, it is better to first think about what the features your solution will have, as well as which objectives you want to reach, before you can see which framework will be the best fit for your needs.
In case you don’t have the resources to start building on that framework yet, it is ok to use a more available tool. However, that may cost you extra money and time, since you will have to build the solution in two different frameworks.
According to the different business cores, objectives and budgets, we can consider two different MVP categories entrepreneurs can build.
Next I will talk more about the two MVP categories you can adopt and why you should adopt each of them.
1.PoC (Proof of concept). As Dener always likes to say `the PoC is the MVP of the MVP’. This is because the PoC is just a set of proofs that determine the criteria needed to succeed. That proof can help entrepreneurs make sure the idea is worth it to develop and realistic, before starting the actual process of development.
This type of MVP is best for entrepreneurs who need quick validation, with little risk and have a low budget.
In this case, the best strategy would be a low-code solution, where entrepreneurs or team members can follow user flows to find out what is working and what is failing in their solution.
2.Detailed MVP. In case you won´t have a second chance of leaving a good impression when showing your MVP to stakeholders, you may want to start creating a more detailed version right away.
That detailed version of the product will need to include all the functionalities your solution will provide to solve your niche’s problem and, at least the basic UX/ UI design your final product will have.
While the PoC was just to firstly test the problem and the initial idea, this detailed MVP will be testing more in depth the features of the solution, and therefore, it will be oriented towards a longer-term. Since it will already be the first version of your MVP, working on the same framework and using the same tools will facilitate the process for the future.
Building a more detailed MVP, though, may require a higher budget, so it is important that you already have an allocated budget for it, or some interested investors.
In this case, the best strategy will be transforming the most basic and simple version of your final product into a software solution, using a framework that will adapt long-term to your product´s needs.
Then test the solution with your target audience and start adapting it to their feedback. You can learn about your audience by conducting surveys or interviews with them. Or in the case you want to launch your MVP, you can test it by analytics as well, which will give you a higher amount of data.
However, as I mentioned before, it will be very beneficial for your business to test your idea even before starting thinking about building your first MVP. So, Dener, I and our entire team highly recommend you to start with a design thinking process, then build a prototype, and test your idea in a prototype format, before going into any development activities.
As many of you may already know, Ronald Dener is the CEO and founder of Capyba, a software studio located in Recife. At the moment, Capyba is collaborating in software and design projects, at a national and international level. It has more than 30 employees and more than 70 partners around the world.
However, it wasn’t always like that. Capyba started as a product in 2013. Its name was concretID and it was created by Ronald Dener and some of his University peers. The product was not successful enough, so they kept creating products, until they reached success in 2015. However, although the product (Soar) had tens of thousands of subscriptions, it was not profitable enough to keep them going with it.
Failure after failure, Dener and his team learnt a lot about business, MVPs and how to invest their time and money more wisely and efficiently. In 2017, they realized it would be best to focus on what they were good at: bringing their partner ideas into life by developing and designing creative solutions.
The first MVP of Capyba was called Imply studio, and test after test, it advanced till reach what they have today.
So, why am I telling you all that? Well, I just want you to know that success is not reached from day to night, and even less it is reached by luck.
Effort and hard work is important, but the most important thing is to know what you want to do and achieve, having clear objectives and optimizing your work as much as you can to avoid any type of waste.
And that is the main reason why I wanted to share with you this little step by step guide on how to create effective MVPs, since it will help you be more organized and mitigate any type of risk when building the first version of your product.
And now, I would only like to encourage you to bring that idea into life as soon as you can, before someone launches it first! Start with the resources you have, and if you don’t have any, keep learning about the market, and growing your network. Then, make a plan and, as soon as you realize, you will be ready to start building your dream product.
Are you already building your first MVP? Drop any questions you may have in the comments’ section. Our team is always up to give you feedback and advice, to facilitate your process.
