How to build a fast and cheap MVP?

After helping two startups (farmNXT and Go-For) build their Minimum Viable Product and take them to the market, we have come to realize that the startups have immense sense of urgency and the results were always expected yesterday. Thought to share how we built successful MVPs in both the cases.

Three things are critical for success:
– Product owner should be fully involved through out the MVP phase
– Plan for 4 weeks of MVP schedule
– Break the MVP project into smaller manageable chunks

The product owner brings lot of clarity to the dev team, ensure that the dev team gives complete undivided attention to the product owner. Product owners may be new to the software development, make sure they are put at ease and do not impose your programming / development experience on them. Developers must implement product owners idea.
The MVP itself can be built in following steps:

– Define tight scope:
Ensure that the dev team captures the product owners vision well. The developers understand every aspect of the project. Identify the core features that can be built in next three weeks. By the end of this activity the User Stories must be fully defined and the Stakeholders feedback must be sought.

– Define UX and UI Wireframes
With sufficient clarity in the scope time to build UI Wireframes and detail the User Experience. Seek feedback from the product owners and other stakeholders. Revise the Wireframes and UX as many times as you need, spending time here will reduce costly mistakes later on.

– Develop
By this stage all the project glossary should be fully understood by the developers. Product owners and developers should be able to communicate easily with each others. The game of coding starts here, ensure that the code is maintained in a repository and deployment environment such as setting up a server or opening an account with Google Play and/or App Store are done right at the beginning of this phase. Once the code is ready, publish the app.

– Testing
Your MVP / App will be ready but not ready when you start with this phase. This is where you will need lots of help from your friendly users. Ask them to give your creation a spin and ask them to comment honestly. Not all comments need to be addressed here. Identify the ones that you feel are most critical for the success of MVP and fix those right away. Your MVP will be ready to go.

TechVibrant can help you build your MVP fast, we are startup friendly and want to be associated with the growing companies at the early stage. Reach us on info@techvibrant.com

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