Sergey Krasotin is the Design Director Co-Founder at Humbleteam. He leads UX workshops and mentors the fastest-growing teams at Y Combinator Techstars More aboutSergey

Renters Rewards A Case Study

As both an entrepreneur and designer I understand the ways startup founders think. Most of them start a project with visions of a perfect product in their head. However in reality a well-performing product will likely look way different than an initial concept. Instead of seeking perfection from the outset beginning with a Minimum Viable Product MVP is the smartest route to success. An MVP is a crucial part of the product design process and allows businesses to validate their idea at the minimum expense and time.

Best Web Development Company In Ludhiana

But while a lot of startups already know that an MVP is essential a majority of the startups that I have mentored over the years have categorically encountered the same problem across all sectors of their process an MVPs time to market. It simply takes too long for an idea to get into the hands of a consumer.

Because the truth is if an MVP testing process takes longer than two weeks youre probably doing something wrong. From my experience most startup product designers make these three common mistakes that lead to longer MVP testing times

Why are startups missing these important steps in the process I believe there are some tendencies among startups to pursue goals that fundamentally and often accidentally create a blind spot for these common mistakes.

Website Developers

When approaching a new idea a startup founder might feel compelled to build upon the complexities of the function as a way of seeing their vision come to life rather than compose enough of the fundamental core components to create a hypothesis that they can then test. Ries differentiates between these approaches in his book when he discusses the process of measuring and leaning.

Five Effective Strategies For Testing Your MVP

One of the major benefits of an MVP is lean production. It allows entrepreneurs and companies to produce a product that helps them prove their value proposition while also cutting costs. The clearer the theory the stronger the MVP and the more valuable information collected throughout the MVP process.

An MVP is not only designed to determine the viability of a products value proposition but also to test the products technical elements and target audiences. Even a simple MVP or acceptance testing that inquires whether the intended audience is interested in using the product in the first place could be more helpful to the progress of a startups journey to success than establishing the perfect product right away.

Web Development Ludhiana

The answers that an MVP can prove may be as simple as the MVP itself but highly valuable when continuing down a startup path that includes high-risk and particular investors. In the most general sense a product is viable when it successfully fulfills a need in the market. And as easy as it seems the most challenging part of this simple question is determining what exactly is necessary and what is not as the features that you deem important to your product are in fact important.

Discernment and clarity are not as easy as it seems and a large part of being concise when approaching your MVP is keeping the time to market low. This is why I find the importance of testing your MVP within two weeks or less to be a crucial factor in achieving successful results. The key to a highly effective MVP is defining the problem as clearly and specifically as possible.

Meet TypeScript in 50 Lessons our shiny new guide to TypeScript. With detailed code walkthroughs hands-on examples and common gotchas all broken down into short manageable lessons. For developers who know enough JavaScript to be dangerous.

How Best To Test Your MVP The Bottomline

Before we dive into some tips lets first take a look at a case study that features a mobile app startup. This app is designed to help people find a property to rent while also providing them with opportunities to earn cashback.

In this example a startup saw an opportunity to develop a platform that lets people search for a rental pay for the application sign a lease and continue to pay rent on the property indefinitely all from one place. To take this product to the next level we had an idea to offer people who pay on time a 1 cashback match if they pay before their rent due date.

We wanted to test this hypothesis so first we had to develop our problem in doing this we could determine the approach and figure out a plan of action to receive valuable results in a couple of weeks. We decided that using the overarching idea of trying to test whether users would pay the rent early if they were offered a 1 cashback was not only too risky but a tough sell to landlords who could find it too costly upfront.

Instead we thought of a way to apply a slightly incremental change to the users digital experience that could provide us with preliminary information as to whether or not the users would be interested in this opportunity. We sent out emails to 100 app users stating that if they paid their rent before the end of the month we would credit 20 to their accounts.

The test was simple concise and succinct enough to give us quick and valuable feedback on our hypothesis which then could set the app up for a border change to the platform and infrastructure. Over 80 of the app users who received the email opted for the 20 cashback and paid their rent early determining that if the app were to implement this in a more grand scope their success would likely be very high. In short the incentive worked and it was a quick and low-cost MVP that proved it.

Now that you understand the importance of a short MVP time to market we can explore some useful tips that will help you put forth the most successful product for your startup.

The first and most important tip for any startup looking to test an MVP is to determine the most effective value proposition for your product. In regards to the aforementioned case study we talked about how the value proposition began as a 1 rewards incentive for app users. After understanding how the value prop would be most effectively tested solidifying a quick and concise testing procedure we came up with an MVP that highlighted only the most necessary measurable metrics.

By determining that the same hypothesis could be discovered by providing 100 users with a 20 incentive as by giving 1 cashback to all users across the platform we were able to concur that the value proposition for this case study filled a market need.

You might be noticing a pattern that keeping your MVP simple clear and to the point is very important to not only getting the most viable results from testing your MVP but getting you that information quickly. How do you hone in on that particular specificity that will move your MVP to a truly professional level Start broad and then simplify. Dont stop until you find the nucleus of the hypothesis that will help you determine the vital features of your product.

Sure the end goal is to have a wide range of features all the bells and whistles that give your product the star power to rise above its competitors. But in the MVP those extra features are unnecessary and could hinder your goals if you left them in when establishing the MVP for your product.

For example landing pages can be a great MVP when looking for information about a potential product. If a user finds their way to your site because the product is relevant to them a landing page offers a simple breakdown of the product offers and goals as well as a sign-up field where the inquirer can add their email to learn more. This can help you determine your target audience without having to invest in a spectrum of functional features. It can also clue you what kinds of buyers are interested in your product and provide information about needs and interests that you didnt even consider.

Instead of throwing up a landing page that reads website coming soon or an overly detailed investigation of your potential product consider using it as a tool to link the vital features of your product with your target audience. Its a simple way to collect customer feedback and start a killer email list.

There are many typical startup risks and a lot of those flow down into the process of testing an MVP. Yet these risks are very important to take into consideration because if not they could negatively impact the outcome of your MVP and cost you time and money. Here are a few that we have highlighted as the most significant risks to consider when testing your MVP

Pick the one risk that is most likely to align with your MVP and take the time to work through it. Consider it alongside your value proposition and develop a product increment that will take you from hypothesis to MVP in a concise and effective way. Apply the lean approach to ensure you are not over-focusing on unnecessary features and push your MVP into the hands of customers quickly.

As in the renters rewards example it didnt make sense to take the time to update the app with a new interface or add extra features. Instead the test was as simple and quick as setting up an email system and the highest identified risk was easily mitigated by eliminating the need for extra costs or unavailable users. The results were simple but extremely viable and the MVP time to market was less than two weeks.

Testing is awesome and essential But testing features isnt the only way to effectively test your product and receive useful information. Branding is becoming increasingly important as most consumers like to be emotionally tied to a product. That emotional element can often be the determining factor of success against a products competitors. If your startup is interested in rebranding or gaining more perspective on how their audience connects with their brand storytelling using MVP testing is a great way to discover valuable data that can inform new and impactful brand strategies.

When it comes to branding we want to assess the user-feedback-related risk of a negative perception of the brand. You could easily drive new branding with limited updates to the logo landing page and app images while it is probably best to hold off on any hard investments like merch billboards and deck templates until the new strategy is proven.

User experience is becoming the number one factor in branding that determines a wide range of benefits for the product. Pay attention to colors tone of voice icons illustrations and landings these are 99 of the things your users will see all the time. These are easy to create and are a touchpoint during every client experience. It is safe to say that these key branding elements play a decisive part in your update.

There is any number of combinations of techniques and strategies that will work best for you and your startup based on the type of MVP you have and the best ways for you to test it. Deciding which ways are best for you my advice is to start small and grow. It is easier to manage the testing of a hypothesis on a simple email blast or landing page brief than with a whole app features update that affects thousands of users.

You can always grow and scale your MVP strategy as you gain more insight into your product. There will be many chances to apply MVP testing while you make your way through your startup roadmap.

The only thing that matters is that you should approach the MVP test as a way of providing you verifiable insights on whether your final product will have a fair if not successful share of the market after it finally launches.