Minimum Viable Product is a means to test the product that you are going to be launching in the market. It should be understood that MVP does not mean an unfinished product rather it is a way to get feedback for the final product. Let’s break down the term MVP for better understanding.

Minimum means a product that has simple features and usually, no users want to use or buy it. Viable is the product that a developer dreams of creating with the help of available resources to fulfill the needs of users. So the term MVP means a way to build such a product that has all the features and at the same time, has used fewer resources. It also should be able to get honest feedback which is how the final product will be developed.

The idea minimum viable test does not mean to see if the product can be technically improved or not. MVP shows whether a product should be built in the first place or should not be built at all.

Why does your product need Minimum Viable Product?

Who would have imagined that apps like Twitter, Instagram and Uber would blow up like this and would gain world popularity? We are guessing very few. In fact, Twitter gained its popularity through gradual growth. So, why do you need an Minimum Viable Product ?

Minimum development cost

When an app is developed with many features and attractive designs, it’s development cost is high. An MVP is developed with limited resources and is still a product. The cost of developing an MVP can range between $10,000 to $20,000. However, it can be less than that as well.

Getting paid customers becomes easy

As a startup attracting new users without spending a heavy amount on ads is quite difficult. MVP for startups is a way to bring in more users by spending less. If users find your product good enough, they will communicate it to their friends and that’s how things go viral. Also, when the final product is launched, getting paid customers from the existing user base become possible.

Feedbacks for your product

As stated already in our article, titled “What is Minimum Viable Product?“, considering Minimum Viable Product helps with gathering user feedback. These feedbacks further becomes a way to understand how certain features should be built. And this way, saves the developer the time and cost to go all in with the product while ensuring better market response.

Save your time and efforts

Other very important things that go into making an app are time and effort of the developer. Imagine having spent sleepless nights working on an app and when its launched, it gets very less traction. It will be the most disappointing thing for any developer. It’s better to use time and put the effort into building an MVP which will bring feedbacks.

Raise money

If you have saved a couple of million dollars for the projects then you probably may not need MVP to save money. But if you haven’t then MVP is a great way of attracting investors. It is easy to build an MVP that raises money for your app rather than getting no funding for your final product. There are platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, AppBackr, etc that provide funding for apps.

What is a good Minimum Viable Product ?

Now that we know MVP is important for your product, how do we define if an Minimum Viable Product is good or not? To answer that question, let’s look at the following five traits of a successful MVP:

1. MVP success criteria is achieved when the MVP is focused on one individual. This means that a buyer persona is used to target the audience and is as specific as defining one single person. As it is said that keeping in my one person and solving his problems with your product gives the best results. The biggest mistake usually made is building for multiple audiences.
2. Even though we are building for one person, we do have to listen to multiple feedbacks. Sometimes different opinions and views solve most of the problems. If people fit into the category of your product, take their feedback seriously.
3. MVP does not mean you have to do less and expect more. Your MVP should be able to showcase what problems your product can solve and how can it solve them. This is even more important if your product already has big competition.
4. MVP test is just as important as building an MVP. It is impossible to earn money from a failed MVP, no matter how much you try. So, make sure testing the MVP is an important part of your development process.
5. An MVP is supposed to find mistakes and gather feedback. Keeping the launch of the MVP limited to as less many people as possible is going to be a wise choice.

Some tools to test your product idea

Validation is not a one-time thing but a continuous process. In every stage, a certain type of validation is required to make sure the product is strong for the market. There are some tools which can be used to test the product ideas before building the actual product.

Research study

When the product is just an idea, try to find out as much as possible about it. Gathering significant information will help in improving the product which will stand out in the market. Tools like Google, Crunchbase, Angel.co, LinkedIn, Google Adwords, SEMrush, Alexa, Quora, etc. are some great sources to gather information. These platforms have vast information on the latest market needs and have a large number of active users.

PoC

In order to convince others that your product is great, you need to make sure you understand it well. Once you are through with it, use tools and platforms to tell others about your product. Use Quora, Google spreadsheets, Facebook ads,c etc to present your product in front of users. You can also use UXPin to bring the product sketches to life or create a landing page with Landingi to create a community.

Prototypes

When you see users interact with your product, that’s when you know where the improvements have to be made. Developing a prototype of your product not only ensures success or failure but also creates scope for improvements. Use prototype tools like HotJar, Survicate, SecurionPay, Google Analytics, Woodpecker, Growbots, Appoint.ly, UserEngage, AppSumo, etc. to reach out to a large audience with your prototype and track their behavior.

Mistakes to avoid while building your MVP

Even though MVP is built to reduce the risk, there are some gaps that are formed while building an MVP. Avoid these common mistakes made by most developers:

An improper market, product, customer needs, demographic research.

What most people forget to do is a thorough validation of the market, idea and the product. Building an MVP is quite easy in reality but building a success MVP is where the big difference lies. Without proper research about the market and the product, the chances of succeeding decreases.

Building for multiple platforms

Most startups think that building the MVP for all the platforms will increase the success of the actual product. But in reality, this is just going to make the process complicated. If an MVP fails then the developer may not have any money to start over since all the money was spent on developing for different platforms.

Features and updates

Bringing in users with one solid feature is a more effective approach rather than launching the MVP with all the features. Even if the other features are good, they can be brought in later in the updates. Prioritize the features to see the best results and reduce the chances of failure.

21 Solid ways to test your MVP

Now, that we know why your product needs an MVP, let’s move onto how to test MVP of your product. Building an MVP is not the only important task but testing its viability is just as important too. A company may think that the product can satisfy the needs of the customers but until and unless the MVP test is run, it can not be said for sure.

There are many tactics for testing minimum viable product. But we will discuss only the best ones on this blog. So, let’s begin!

1. Fundraising

Crowdfunding is a way you can test whether your app will do good in the market or not. Platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are a filled with MVPs that get funding from people who find the product interesting enough. This gives your product exposure to a group of interested and active users. The money raised from these platforms will help in building the final product to launch in the market.

2. Blogs

Having a blog is like having a platform for two-way communication with the prospect users of your product. Blogs are a way to discuss and gather feedback about a product. This will give you an honest opinion about the product by seeing how much keenness the users are showing.

3. Customer interviews

Talking face to face with customers provide the most honest reviews. People may lie or sugarcoat the opinions online but when it comes to face to face feedback, it’s as honest as it can get. Interviewing the customers is usually done in a casual manner but is rather descriptive. The interviewee states assumed problems to get feedback on the same.

4. Videos

It is quite obvious that if an image can speak a thousand words then a video can speak millions. Explainer videos can be used by developers to demonstrate the functionality of the product and answer questions like what, how and why. At the end of the video, the viewer must be clear about what the product is, how it works and why does he need it. Dropbox is an example in such a case. They used a video to gather subscriptions for a product that didn’t even exist.

5. Pre-order Pages

Pre-orders are quite popular with books, gadgets and other interesting products. When it comes to pre-ordering, the idea is to convince the users with your product enough to make them pay for it beforehand. However, there is a chance that users may not be willing to put their money at risk way before the product is even born. For this, the presentation of the product must look as appealing as possible.

6. Social-media surveys

Social-media surveys are quick, easy and most of the time gives honest feedback. Of course, this works when the focus is on the right questions. For instance, Facebook surveys have a feature that allows users to add their own options as an answer which gives interesting insights. Another good reason to use social-media surveys is that users don’t need to go out of their way to fill in the surveys.

7. Paper prototypes

Unlike digital prototypes, these are tangible. A paper prototype is build to understand a product’s user experience. Anyone in the team can use these prototypes can understand how the product works. This will be very useful in the case of physical products like mobile phones, tables, chairs, etc.

8. Emailing

Sending emails to see how many users click on the links or follow up with the email is another way of testing MVP. However, this works even better when you already have a list of emails. While the emails have been sent to the users, make sure to track the actions with the help of tools such as Yesware or use the built-in plugins.

9. Landing pages

Landing pages are the pages the prospective customers go to find out about your business. A landing page can show the interest of the customers with the way they behave and interact on the page. Building a landing page should always be followed by tracking analytics with the help of tools like Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, etc.

10. Competitive products in the market

There is a high chance that the product you are thinking about launching is already present in the market. This can make your new product suffer. To avoid that try analyzing the competitor’s product and see what they have that your product doesn’t. Also, your product’s unique feature can become the strongest feature.

11. A/B Testing

A/B testing is a way to test whether one version of a page is more effective than the other. This test can be done on a webpage where two different versions of the same page are shown randomly to the visitors. Then with the help of tools like Google Analytics, Unbounce, etc. information can be gathered about the interaction.

12. Piecemeal MVPs

Piecemeal MVPs means building a demo of your product using existing tools. For instance, Groupon is the best example of a piecemeal MVP. what Groupon did was built a WordPress website with Apple mail and a script that generated PDFs for the orders. This way the effort and cost of building an MVP become much less than anticipated.

13. PPC campaigns

You will be using PPC campaigns at least once for your actual product so testing out your MVP will be great. For starters, you can pitch in $100 and see the results. If your MVP does not get any leads, then either your ad is flawed or your idea is not good enough.

14. Micro-Surveys

The disadvantage of general surveys is that they are too long and at times becomes quite annoying for online users. Users either skip the survey or fill it in a hurry and that is why these fail to give the accurate results. In micro-surveys, you can ask a couple of MVP survey questions to which you will get honest answers. Micro-surveys have two to three questions which online users find easy to answer.

15. Ad campaigns

Platforms like Google and Facebook are the go-to when it comes to running ad campaigns. Before the product is even launched, you can put up ads and see how many users engage with it. There are even tools to analyze the clicks, engagement and other important behaviors.

16. Services and Platforms

Using SaaS and PaaS to build an MVP can help you in testing your MVP quite well. There are multiple choices to choose from and the building becomes easier and faster. These software and platforms also help in increasing reach of the product. Usually, developers face problems like compatibility of the app, mobile-friendly design and other code-based issues which can be eliminated as these tools already have taken care of those issues.

17. Manual-first MVP

A manual-first MVP (Wizard of Oz) is a way of interacting with actual customers rather than running an online survey. This MVP testing technique shows a picture of a fully completed product and when a user orders it, you deliver it manually. In this MVP testing, the users are getting what they see. Even though it takes much effort but it is worth it.

18. Concierge MVPs

The concierge MVP test is similar to the manual-first MVP test but instead of faking the products, the products are real. This MVP tests and answers whether the users are willing to use and pay for your products or not. An online dress rental business, Rent the Runway, tested their business model with this MVP testing technique. They were able to find the right answer to their questions.

19. Digital prototypes

Digital prototypes can be used to display the actual product in a digital way. Wireframes can showcase products such as apps, games, etc. These prototypes can be anything from screenshots to digital sketches to mockup apps which will validate the user experience.

20. Single feature MVP

Sometimes testing the one and an only strong feature of your product results in the best conversion. Getting feedback on that one feature can help the product immensely rather than focusing on multiple features all at once. It will also help in narrowing down the customer base and will allow better focus. This testing is considered one of the most advised MVP testing strategies.

21. Software testing

If nothing works then there are multiple softwares for MVP test. Software such as QuickMVP, OpenHallway, Five-second test, Justinmind, InVision, etc. are some great ones to get your MVP tested.

The post Proven Methods to Test Your Minimum Viable Product appeared first on anteelo.

Getting funded for an app idea that you strongly believe in is every entrepreneur’s dream. And, sadly the recurrent news of tech startups getting funds just on the basis of their app idea, doesn’t really help the case. In fact, it’s more scary than motivating.

To start with, forget about those tech startups and their ideas and concentrate on yours.

And now that your app idea has your undivided attention, let’s slide off another thing – the reason your startup haven’t set its feet off the ground it is because you are being unrealistic. Either you have not started working on your idea or you are a headless chicken running in all directions with no one point destination.

Either way, there’s a long way to go from here.

Let’s begin.

We will take you through the similar layout which we follow when entrepreneurs seek our Mobile App Consultancy service that revolves around ‘How to Get Funds’ issues.

We will begin with why you need funding and then we will move on to the element that investors look for when they put in their funds in an app idea, even though the world is now officially sitting on 5 million + apps (we will spend some time on this point) and lastly we will look into avenues where you can find investors for your mobile app.

Why Do you Need Funds in the First Place

So you have an app idea that would work perfectly in changing the economic scenario of a village in the African subcontinent – as conveyed to you by your family and neighbors.

What you do is make rough estimates of the involved costs and time and approach an investor to get their money. Will this work? No.

You need funds to validate your idea in a real market with real users and find if they even need the solution (or it was a problem that only existed in your short sighted head).

Now, suppose you made an app to solve the real African issues and the users there accepted and saw a life change because of it, what next? Would you be able to scale your app outside of the one village with the X amount of money on you?

I guess we both know the answer to that.

You need funds to first convert your app idea into a full fledged app and then to keep growing it to reach the masses. Now, don’t be naive and think that your app will generate the money for you, it never happens at least not enough to make an empire out of your app idea.

But, if you are one of those businesses who are only creating an app for a local community and that too for social causes and have no intention to make money at the back of it, this article is not for you. So long.

If, however, you belong to the category of budding entrepreneurs who wish to make a name in the industry and earn millions and millions worth of revenue and billions of eyeballs, it is time I let out the secret of what Investors actually look for.

What Do Investors Look for in Companies/Ideas They Fund

The honest but soul crushing answer to this is that they invest in brands and entrepreneurs who have developed a relationship of that sort with them over the years. But, we know the percent is well under 5% and you along with the 95% of the new entrepreneurs are born to fight, so let’s roll up our sleeves and get that app dream of your some money.

Since you have been with us this long, it is time to let you on the secret to getting your desired amount of funds (if your idea is actually as amazing as you think it to be).

The Secret to Getting Funds on Your Mobile App Idea

*Cutting straight to the chase* What investors look for when deciding to credit their money into your – the amazing app idea innovator – bank account is validation.

Validation, both in terms of app usage ability and its acceptance level.

Will touch bases on both the validation points now.

To start with, the route to validating your app’s usage ability, you will have to launch it in the market of real users and that is where your weapon of mass funding comes in – Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

What is MVP?

To test an idea that you strongly believe in, which the world needs and would love, you develop a working, functioning model that you then pass along in the market to test the waters. This working, functioning model aka your guinea pig is the MVP.

You contact team of skilled mobile app developers and create an MVP with the basic features without putting too much of your time, money, and efforts into it and you gauge its engagement and feasibility that then defines if at all you should continue with the idea or tweak it around or the worst case scenario, drop it.

The secret is out: MVP is the tool that investors base their funding decisions on.

Now, the definition of MVP as – A product that is launched with minimal features that best describe the issues and the future of the application and your whole startup – comes with a string attached with many other questions such as – What features to use? How to know if the solution the app is offering even needed? All the features are unique, how can I remove even one?

Don’t worry, we will give you an answer to all your questions

Steps to Developing an MVP That Gets Funded

1. Know What You Are Validating

The first question when you start with your MVP development process doesn’t even start with its features. Sounds crazy, right? Bear with me here.

The first point of validation comes with knowing if at all there is a mass problem that would get solved with a mobile app. Suppose your app idea is to keep exam results and feedback on student’s performance on mobile.

The first question you will have to ask is if at all teachers have the time to first correct the papers and then upload them on the app and then add comments and if the students would be willing to see their results like this instead of in person.

Once you the answer to that, find out if the educational system would be open to a solution as this or if there will be any conflicts.

2. Talk to Your Real Users

Instead of restricting your talk to your aunt who teaches Math in a private school, expand your bases. Talk to teachers all over the city – of schools that are maintained by some private company and of those who are operating within the meagre means offered to them by the local government.

Find out the pain points in the process that starts with a teacher correcting the papers and ends at students getting feedback on their performance. Make a list of points that can be solved through mobility.

3. Know What Features to Add

Follow a Deconstructed Pareto Method to Decide on the Features that your MVP Should Consist of.

Once you have identified the exact needs your user group, and have a list of features – both primary and supportive – that would solve the need perfectly, ready on you, use the 80/20 Pareto Analysis rule to refine the list of features further. Keep the 80% features that would solve all the problems as your MVP features and keep the 20% features as a part of future updates.

This way you will be able to hit two birds with one stone. A. You will be giving your users exactly what they need and B. You will be adding the additional features, which they also needed, later; which would create your image as a brand that really listens to what its users asks of it.

Now that you know what goes into the blood and bone of a tool that would help generate funds, don’t wait. Get out of your chair and hit your app market and then don’t wait further when the app is launched.

As long as the buttons work, the app is functioning, and the user is able to move within as you want them to, launch the MVP.

With this, we have now come to a point where we answer the one question that is on every Entrepreneur or Start-up’s minds – Where to Find Investors to Fund My Mobile App?

Unless you are not waiting to hearing back from the Shark Tank producers to invite you on the show, here are the four more attainable and easy to reach platforms to attract investors and raise funds for your app

• Kickstarter
• Indiegogo
• AppBackr
• AppStori

Here we go. Now you have all the insights that you need to get started with to raise money for your app idea.

Go on now, go get big.

The post Creating an MVP For Your Mobile App That Raises Funds appeared first on anteelo.