Jof Walters
Monday, 22 February 2021
Secrets in Building a Successful MVP
Posted in:
Startups
No matter your budget, no matter the time you invest or the talent you onboard, there is one harsh truth about becoming a startup founder: your chances of failure are significantly higher than your chances of success.Here’s an insight: many of the mistakes that lead to failure happen when building an MVP for startups. So, what if you could avoid these mistakes? We’ll let you in on a little secret: you can.Here are 7 mistakes to avoid while building an MVP for your startup.1. Ignoring Market Research Prior to Building Your Startup's MVPMarket research is a key step in validating your business idea prior to building an MVP for your startup. Without the market research, you won’t truly know how valuable your idea is to the market you’ll be launching it into.If your product has no value, it likely means no chance of success.This doesn’t mean that you can simply conduct market research, check it off your list, and carry on. You must take the time to analyse it and embrace it. If the signs point to your Big Idea not being as unique as you once thought it was, all is not lost. You’ve likely gathered enough research to find an untapped niche that you can pivot your idea to fill instead. 2. Choosing a Full-Stack Developer to Build an MVP for Your StartupFull-stack developers are great - once your business is launched, has proven successful, and you have the finances to support hiring one. But at the early stage of building your startup's MVP, there’s no need to hire someone who can accomplish all of your wildest dreams.It is important to note that your MVP app shouldn’t be anything fancy. It should simply be enough to convey the main functions of your Big Idea in a format that can be tested among a user group. You genuinely don’t have a need for a high-tech developer at this stage; if you do hire one, you run the risk of losing a substantial amount of time and money prior to even knowing if your Big Idea will succeed at market.The perfect alternative to a full-stack developer is no-code. No-code platforms have an incredible amount of functions and will enable you to build an MVP for your startup with ease and proficiency. Better yet, you can learn no-code and build your startup's MVP independently, no developer or technical co-founder needed. 3. Investing Too Much TimeBuilding your startup's MVP is not something that should take you months upon months. As mentioned previously, your MVP app is just a rough idea, not a neat and polished final product. The current market is moving faster than it ever has. Taking too much time on your MVP app development for your startup could cause you to miss out on your prime opportunity within the market. No-code will help you build your startup's MVP quickly and efficiently, ensuring you fill your identified market gap before a competitor steps in. In fact, with our No-Code Bootcamp, we’ll teach you how to use no-code, build your startup's MVP, and get your MVP to market in a matter of weeks.4. Investing Too Much MoneyIf you’re like most founders, you’re bootstrapping your startup. This means that every bit of financial resources you have is incredibly valuable, especially prior to launching and gauging how successful your startup will be at market.With traditional development, the average MVP costs about $75,000 to build. That’s a lot of money for a new founder to invest into app development for their startup right off the bat. However, with no-code, the average MVP is less than $10,000. According to our calculations, this means you can create a brilliant MVP app without completely emptying your pockets from the get-go.5. Feature OverloadIt can be tempting to equip your MVP app with every bell and whistle imaginable. You likely have a thousand ideas, but stop right there - keep them as ideas instead of reality for now. You want this MVP to be good, but not perfect.Not only is feature overload a poor use of your financial resources and time, but it will impact your testing. When you present your MVP to a target audience for testing, you want to ensure you are strictly testing your main idea and most critical features, not the extras that will come with full app development for your startup. That’s where the term “minimum” fits in “Minimum Viable Product.”6. Ignoring Feedback Prior to Your Full LaunchThe main intention behind building an MVP for your startup is to collect feedback to ensure your Big Idea is viable among your target market. Contrarily, many founders make the mistake of ignoring the feedback that is gathered. These founders inevitably fail.We wish we could tell you with confidence that your Big Idea is perfect from the very beginning, but it really is vital that you collect this feedback and adjust or pivot accordingly. It’s for your own benefit, truly. With this feedback, you can continue to make iterations and test your product until it is absolutely perfect. Only then should you fully launch.7. Neglecting MarketingJust because you build it does not mean your users will come. The market is extraordinarily saturated. Even if your product is the most innovative and groundbreaking thing to enter this market all year, it will fail unless your target users know about it.This marketing must go beyond a few organic posts on your own social media channels. You should have a comprehensive picture of your target audience by now, so you should know how to reach them. Conduct a bit of pre-launch marketing to test the channels they are active on. Capitalize on the channels that receive the most engagement and spend some time developing a formal marketing campaign.Your startup could be life-changing - for both yourself and your target customers. Don’t waste a brilliant idea simply by making mistakes while building your startup's MVP that are easy to avoid. Validate your business idea, make proper use of your financial resources and time, and apply the feedback you gather to creating the best product possible.If you feel like you’re spinning in circles while building an MVP for your startup or would simply like a knowledgeable support system of experts and other non-technical founders, sign up for one of our No-Code Bootcamps. We’ll work with you and ensure you avoid these common mistakes, giving you the best shot at success.
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