Mistakes Entrepreneurs Usually Make while Developing an MVP

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) saves lots of time and money for a product owner. It will help how to get products delivered swiftly and effectively. With MVP, you can acknowledge the ideas that are worth your time and efforts.

When you launch products or services, you should work on MVP accurately. MVP is especially beneficial to startups.

Startups have no experience in MVP development and keep facing many issues each day. Do they keep thinking about what exactly an MVP is?

MVP Definition

“You can define MVP as the development of a new product, app, or website with key features that address early adopters’ needs.”

Benefits of building an MVP

It is highly recommended to use MVP because of these benefits.

  1. Clarity of a vision
  2. Early development of customer relations
  3. A clear understanding of customer requirements
  4. More focus on key features
  5. Clear UI
  6. Speeds up the product release
  7. Adaptability and constant updates
  8. Reduced risks with development

You can divide the MVP stage into three sub-stages.

  1. Initial stage
  2. Development stage
  3. Post-launch stage

We will understand all the mistakes stage-wise. So, let’s get started.

Initial Stage Mistakes

In this stage, you only have a thought, vision, and a basic concept of a product. You do not have the product itself.

Mistake #1. Overconfident about your idea

New founders think that their idea is unique and worth billions of dollars. So they are more likely to sign an NDA before sharing their thoughts.

In reality among all the people in the world, you will find someone with the same idea. Not only the same idea but, they have already failed while executing it. Do not be overconfident.

Also, note that without execution, you can’t measure the importance of your idea. You can not rate your plan without sharing it with the people. All you need to do is keep the faith and concentrate on execution. Remember that poor implementation also leads you to failure.

Mistake #2. Avoiding Market Analysis

After sharing your thoughts with people, research on failed startups with similar concepts. Your original conception might not seem sufficient for the target market. So, analyze whether your idea is viable or not.

As an entrepreneur, your job is to provide solutions for people’s issues. If you do not research their real-life problems, you come up with solutions for non-existent problems. Don’t you think it’s a total wastage of your resources, time, and money?

Mistake #3. Building a product impossible to sell

There are plenty of reasons you can not sell a product. Inaccessible target market, market entry hurdles, government rules, etc. stops you from selling.

To overcome this, you must have a verified strategy. It will aid how you are going to sell your product before even developing it.

Note that your product must contain some unique features. They appeal to customers to switch from their existing product.

Mistake #4. Not the right development team

Inexperienced and unprofessional teams can also cause a product failure. You can not develop a good MVP with an unskilled team. Even if you are clear and specific about your idea and do not contain many features, you need to hire a professional team.

Many founders choose their friends as the core team. You know them and trust them, but this kind of team has limited skills. They can not be experts in designing, developing, testing, and selling altogether.

A team must contain skilled developers, designers, QA engineers, and project managers. They can effectively manage changing market demands and help to deliver appropriate products.

While choosing a partner, keep in mind your vision, and assure that they deliver.

Product Development Stage Mistakes

It’s a stage where you actually perform the development process for your product.

Mistake #1. Skipping the Prototyping phase

Prototyping is significant while developing an MVP. It brings your idea to life by representing it visually. It solves many issues and makes the development smoother. Interactive prototypes help to make things clear to all team members.

  • Start with a basic interface architecture and some general information. Form technical specifications or other supporting documentation.
  • Next, make a rough wireframe with the architecture and key components of a product. You can draw it on paper.
  • Sometimes, clients need a graphical representation of key elements. So, make a professional wireframe. It will represent the idea in better ways.

Mistake #2. Not building an MVP

Some startups think that prototyping is enough to go ahead. They avoid building an MVP and go directly to the final product stage. They do not understand the difference between Prototype and MVP.

A prototype will not help you get actual feedback from the users. For that, it is significant to go for the MVP. It will help to decide the necessary feaures of your product. You can find ways to streamline complex interactions.

If you want to truly acknowledge what your user needs, you can’t overlook an MVP.

Mistake #3. Always go for an MVP

If you are developing an internal app for your organization, you must have an idea of what and how to do it. You do not have to build an MVP for that.

You can get opinions from your employees to make changes for the betterment. As a business person, you should understand that MVP is to perform a specific job. There is no need to build an MVP for each product that wastes your time and money.

Mistake #4. Inappropriate development method

There are two methods you can follow to build an MVP: Agile and Waterfall. Agile is efficient compared to a waterfall as it provides high-quality outcomes each week. The agile approach aids in avoiding bugs and provides adaptability to change conditions.

In waterfall, you will get a solution as per specification rather than actual need. It can affect the development process largely.

Mistake #5. Selection of unsuitable tech stack

You have to rely on your team or partner to choose an appropriate tech stack when you have a non-technical background.

There are many technologies available, no matter what your need is. But you have to notice that some of them can be excessive in many circumstances.

You have to consider some factors before finalizing a tech stack.

  • Functionality
  • Complexity
  • Security
  • Deadline of a project
  • Budget
  • Community and documentation
  • Scalability

Consider all these points and choose accordingly.

After-launch Stage Mistakes

In this stage, your product is in the market. Your decisions depend on actual user feedback.

Mistake #1. Avoiding Feedback and Analytics

Give full attention to the feedback coming from users or testers. After all, you are creating a product for people. If they give you a sign that everything is good with the MVP, you can bring your product to perfection.

Additionally, implement analytics to your MVP. Do not forget to measure below mentioned metrics.

  • DAU (Daily Active Users) on your platform
  • Customer retention rate
  • Average time spent on your platform by the customers

If you avoid analytics or user feedback, you are inviting trouble.

Mistake #2. Too Many Opinions

Obviously, a lot of product feedback makes you happy when you are starting a business. But, you need to be picky about what you choose and implement in the MVP.

You can prioritize the features according to your business goals. Do not waste resources on excessive features.

The more feedback you will receive, the more it will confuse you. So, analyze all the collected feedback. Think and choose what you want to learn and what to ignore.

Mistake #3. Promised something but not delivering

If you have promised a specific feature on a product, you have to provide it anyhow. Try to address all the expectations of your targeted market.

Never lie. If you disappoint your customer, apologize publicly. It will save your reputation and mainly product from being diminished.

Remember to keep your business fair always.

Mistake #4. Lack of needed marketing

Any product will fail if people are not aware of its existence.

You should have a marketing strategy that will help you to reach your targeted audience. You must know which channels you will use. You should also test it before with pre-launch marketing campaigns.

Definitely, you will not get results on the go. It will take time. You also have to plan your marketing budget accordingly.

Summing Up

Making the right MVP is a balancing game. It’s about building something simple yet desirable. After reading this blog, you have got an idea about what mistakes you need to avoid.

Grow more smartly and quickly. Build MVP efficiently.








Source: https://www.techsite.io/p/2560322/t/mistakes-entrepreneurs-usually-make-while-developing-an-mvp