In my previous article, I gave a bit of a background story about my experience with products in the early stage of my career as a developer and how being in a better place has made me realise what I did wrong.
It would help if you caught up with it here.
Still, on MVP (Minimum Viable Product), in my previous article, I used Amazon as an example and how they used the concept of MVP at the early stage of the company. It is essential to note that there are other kinds of MVPs.
MVPs can be categorized as follows:
1. Low-Fidelity MVP: Not all ideas require a costly and sophisticated approach for validation. Sometimes you want to understand the needs of your customers/users and see if the idea is worth developing. In this case, the use of Low Fidelity MVP makes more sense because it helps you identify the precise need of the customer and how valuable the solution would be for the customer.
Types of MVP under this category include:
- Explainer video: This is a short video that shows the benefits and features — the value proposition of your product. Video is one thing that has become very common and popular. It is a way to spark interest in the heart of your potential users and give them an idea of what your product is about.
One popular example is Dropbox. You can watch the explainer video here and here. I love their editing skills because watching the video, I almost thought the second video was a functional website.
- Paper prototype: This requires less time and effort. It enables you to test your idea before it goes into design and development. It represents the user Interfaces you hope to have in your product.
- The “Fake Door”: helps you evaluate the number of persons interested in your product or a particular feature. This can be a waitlist for people to join or a landing page with a button that potential users/customers can click on. You can track the number of visits/clicks to measure interest. This is useful if you already have a customer base.
- Landing Page: This is a one-page website that shows your product and how it works. It also provides an avenue for customers to drop their details for updates. Here you get to validate your value proposition. Usually, the customers get to the landing page via a marketing communication channel, e.g. Facebook Ad, Instagram post, Blog etc.
An Example: Spleet Cash is an excellent example because this is what they are currently doing. Spleet Cash is a mobile app that helps friends split payments for every service. Their marketing communication channel is Instagram and via their Instagram post, which serves as a funnel to lead users to their landing page.
- Split testing.
- Ad Campaigns.
And much more…
2. High-Fidelity MVP: You have identified the customer’s need and a solution. This kind of MVP helps you ascertain if the customer is willing to pay for such a solution. It also enables you to get feedback that will help you plan the trajectory of the product in the right direction. It requires more resources than the low-fidelity MVP but not as many resources as you would need when developing the actual product.
Types of MVP under this category include:
- Wizard of Oz: This kind of MVP leverages human resources while keeping the technical cost minimum. Here you present a product that looks complete on the outside, but behind the scenes, processes are done manually.
An example is Zappos. In the company’s early stage, the founder set up a simple website to test whether people were willing to pay and order shoes online without trying them on first. Nick Swinburn, the founder, took pictures of shoes in stores and uploaded them on the website. Whenever a customer places an order, he will go to the store to buy the shoe and ship it to the customer.
- One-single feature: Here, you work on the core functionality of your product by implementing it as a single feature that solves a specific problem of the customer to test its viability. This is the closest to the definition of the term MVP.
A great example is Foursquare, a location-based social platform. They began with the idea of letting users check in their locations to share with their friends and family. They also added gamification by giving users a badge every time they check-in. Today Foursquare is a comprehensive city guide.
- Piecemeal.
- Concierge.
- Pre-order.
How do I know the best MVP type for my product?
It is important to note that the use of the different kinds of MVP types is more of a process and is highly dependable on certain factors like:
- Current Stage / Timeline: You must identify the product’s current stage. How much time do you have to build your product?
- Budget: How much do you have at hand? How much are you willing to invest? What can you afford?
- Objectives: Investigate your priorities. What’s the focus? What do you what to achieve? What outcome are you driving towards?
- Available resources like third-party software, websites etc.: Are there resources you can leverage to help make the process/product more accessible instead of building the entire concept from scratch?
Have you seen/used any of these MVPs before? Also, what’s your thought on this whole MVP concept?
