MVP Development | Launch Plan, Skills, Investments
Minimum Viable Product Development: The Essence
Minimum viable product (MVP) development is a way to verify business assumptions
for custom software or test the demand for a new product with minimum investments.
The delivery of an MVP generally takes from 2 weeks to 7 months, where the development stage
specifically lasts from 2-5 days (for no-code/low-code development) to 6 months (for code-based
development).
The investments for a launch of a software-based MVP may take from 1/10 to 1/2 - 1/3 of the final
software cost.
Minimum Viable Product Implementation Plan
The number of MVP development steps and their duration will vary depending on the complexity and novelty of a solution, as well as a minimum viable product type. Below are described the typical steps we at ScienceSoft take to complete MVP development projects.
Step 1. Discovery and MVP planning
(2 weeks – 1 month)
Business analysis FOR PRODUCTS
- Product idea generation.
- Target market, customer, and competitor research.
- Creating a product concept.
- Identifying the selling price.
- Planning a KPI dashboard for MVP.
Business analysis FOR CUSTOM ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE
- Identification of business needs and business process improvement options.
- Project stakeholder interviewing and analysis.
- Project stakeholder interviewing and analysis.
Project stakeholder interviewing and analysis.
- Feature outline for the full software version.
- Feature prioritization for the full software version based on user stories, user scenarios, prioritization techniques (e.g., Kano and MoSCoW), cost-benefit analysis, etc.
- Deciding on MVP functionality.
MVP architecture design
- High-level design of the final solution (if the MVP won’t be re-built in the future, but further improved in iterations).
- Performance requirements.
- Information security requirements.
- HIPAA, FDA, PCI DSS compliance (if needed).
Planning MVP integrations
- with third-party systems (if needed).
Choosing a technology stack
- for the optimum MVP development time, costs and efforts, software reliability (if the MVP is to stay and be further improved in iterations, the full software version should be kept in mind in the course of all considerations).
Step 2. Proof-Of-Concept (optional) and Rapid Prototyping (optional)
(~2 months)
To demonstrate the software concept in a sales context, give an understanding of how the software will work to stakeholders, or check technical feasibility of software based on a highly innovative idea.
Step 3. MVP Development Project Planning
The main focus areas are:
- MVP development project scope.
- MVP development project deliverables.
- MVP development budget planning.
- The PM methodology (most often, one of the Agile options – Scrum, extreme programming (XP), etc.).
- MVP development project timeline.
- MVP development project schedule and breakdown into iterations and deliverables.
- MVP development project risks charter.
Step 4. MVP Development
No-code MVP development
(~1-2 days)
The demand for a new product or an application’s ability to meet business needs can be first tested without actual coding and with minimum possible investments. Your MVP can be:
A ‘landing page’ MVP (for products) – text or video presentation that introduces your idea to a target audience to evaluate the demand via requests or sign-up forms, and also analyze the interest in the features and prioritize the development accordingly.
A ‘flintstone’ MVP – advertising new software and faking the automation of processes you want it to perform, handling them manually behind-the-scenes.
Best practice: If a no-code MVP turns successful, we at Valens immediately plan a code-based MVP not to get overwhelmed with the processes executed manually (a ‘flintstone’ MVP case) and ensure that our customers are ahead of competitors.
Code-based MVP development
(2-6 months)
The types we recommend considering are:
Single-feature MVP – implementing one key feature of future software that creates the core value.
'Piecemeal' MVP – creating a product/a custom application version comprising its basic features out of ready-made elements (created by you in the previous projects or available open source). Later, you are likely to update or replace the reused parts.
The development of a software-based MVP has the following stages:
1. MVP UX design
Key deliverables of this stage are user personas and user journeys helping future customers fulfil their tasks quickly and easily, and drive conversions (for products).
2. MVP UI design
At this stage, custom design of user-facing parts (buttons, menus, tabs) is created.
Best practice: At Valens, we include this stage only if the design is a competitive MVP advantage. Otherwise, we use default themes and focus on the MVP functionality.
3. MVP coding
- Back-end development to build the MVP server side and APIs.
- Front-end development to transform static interface images provided by UI designers into a fully functional MVP client side, and ensure its communication with the server.
- Testing runs in parallel with development.
The result of this phase is a working MVP and supporting documentation. Best practice: At ScienceSoft, we actively use many ready-to-use cloud components and services, mostly from AWS and Azure, to minimize MVP development effort and cost and streamline the delivery.
Step 5. MVP Launch and Further Iterations
Software gets deployed to the production environment ready for use. Complex MVPs can be first moved through testing and staging environments so that the team could safely introduce changes or catch remaining mistakes before releasing software.
Monitoring how users communicate with the MVP, the project team:
- Adjusts feature/features.
- Validates or redefines user stories.
- Identifies arising risks and updates a risk management plan.
The result of this phase is a working MVP and supporting documentation. Best practice: At ScienceSoft, we actively use many ready-to-use cloud components and services, mostly from AWS and Azure, to minimize MVP development effort and cost and streamline the delivery.
If the MVP gets market validation or shows positive changes in business processes, it can be completely rebuilt or further improved to cater for the needs and expectations of a growing number of users.
