Technology 22 Apr, 2024.
A new project comes with a lot of challenges and risks, especially if a new technology is launched. The response of customers is unexpected and chances are that users may entirely reject your product or disapprove of a major chunk. Also, market trends rapidly change in today’s dynamic and ever-evolving times. Whilst the company is working on the product, competitors may go ahead and launch the product.
In such competitive times, a company must stay in touch with its customers and keep them engaged, meanwhile developing a breakthrough product. Having something to show, if not a finished product, is integral to engage customers and potential investors.
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the answer to such challenges. This article explores the features and potential of an MVP in helping companies enjoy the competitive edge. It also discovers the scope of React Native for developing a Minimum Viable Product.
Understanding Minimum Viable Product
A Minimum Viable Product is a relatively new concept, but a highly successful one in changing tech times. An MVP is a problem-centric approach, presenting a simple version of a product with just enough features, attracting early adopters to try the product. It’s an excellent approach to test a business idea and validate it from the customer’s perspective. However, traditional market research is not enough to analyze and interpret customer trends.
Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company, once said
‘If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘a faster horse!’’
More than often customers don’t know what they really want. It’s a company’s job to make customers experience the innovation they’ve never witnessed before. The benefits of using the product will allow customers to understand what they were missing out on.
‘People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page’ – Steve Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple Inc.
A Minimum Viable Product helps you analyze the user’s preferences and behavior relevant to the product. Most startups fail within two years of starting their business because they analyzed the target audience inaccurately. Running a Minimum Viable Product ensures that user preferences are evidently recorded and interpreted by the first-hand user experience.
Introducing an MVP to early adopters gives the company an endless opportunity to observe users’ behaviour. The pains and gains of users are easily identifiable, so the loopholes can be filled before the finished products are launched to the masses. It is important to fix all the errors before the product is out in the market. Not only does it save heavy investments from going down the drain, but also saves time and efforts otherwise spent on improving the product. Nevertheless, it enables a positive brand reputation by releasing a product with features that users would love and were looking for.
Read More: An Exclusive Step-by-Step Guide to Plan Your Minimum Viable Product
Successful MVP Projects that Resulted in Tech Giants
All great tech solutions went through a trial period before they became industry-leading solutions. No product becomes a great hit in the first go and tech giants have proved it with their thrilling Minimum Viable Products. Let’s explore some popular companies that started their journeys with an MVP.
Facebook’s story is worthy of inspiration. Mark Zuckerberg, Co-Founder of Facebook, launched a website called Facemash with his friends, during their Harvard times. The students would choose the hotter of the two pictures displayed to them.
Unfortunately, the concept failed as the pictures were stolen from Harvard’s directory.
In 2004, Zuckerberg launched Thefacebook for students of Harvard. As the popularity grew, students of Yale, Columbia, and Stanford were included too.
Within two years, Facebook was launched for everyone aged 13 or above and with a valid email address. What started as an angel investment of $500,000 in 2004 grew to a rise of $16 billion in 2012.
Facebook launched the basic model with the required functionalities for a group of early adopters. The results are evident as today, as Facebook stands as the largest social media platform.
Dropbox
Steve Jobs realized the potential of Dropbox and was looking forward to an acquisition, but Drew Houston, Co-Founder and CEO of Dropbox, decided to take the leap of faith. He realized that while a lot of cloud-storage services were available, but each had a few problems. Houston wanted to create safe and secure storage space.
Dropbox’s MVP launched in 2007 with fundamental features that instantly captured users’ interests and people were directed towards exploiting the platform. A simple landing page led to more than 700,000 email addresses of potential customers.
The feedback of users encouraged Dropbox to speed up the development process. Now, Dropbox has over 50 million users and one new user joins the platform every second. What started as an initial investment of $15,000 in 2007 increased to $350 million in 2014.
Twitter was introduced as twttr with a limit of 140 characters that led to the popularity of hashtags. The platform was introduced by Evan Williams, Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey, and Biz Stone. The concept was to develop an SMS service allowing users to connect with a group of people.
Launched as an MVP for internal users at Odeo, the platform was used as a way to send messages within the organization as groups. The social media platform was launched as Twitter in 2006. Initially, a small investment of $5 million was made in 2007 which multiplied to $100 million in 2009.
Today, Twitter hosts over 284 million active users and a share of $39.00 per share. The success of Twitter is grounded on its successful Minimum Viable Product tested on a limited audience.
How Do We Develop an MVP at Cubix?
At Cubix, we go above and beyond to develop an intriguing Minimum Viable Product that explores user preferences and feedback, to eventually launch an industry-leading tech solution.
Cubix utilizes React Native for building MPVs. React Native is an efficient mobile tool for developing a Minimum Viable Product, bringing together Android and iOS platforms with a single code. The hybrid mobile application gives users a native feel to the app.
React Native is the right platform for building cost-efficient MVPs, using the same database for different platforms. The user interface comes through native views, giving a pleasant user experience. The MVP is developed quicker with React Native, giving a user-centric product.
Cubix has developed several successful MVPs over the period. Our ambitious developers from Android and iOS team join heads to release MVPs for alpha and beta users. Recently, we have been working on OOMCO’s customer-centric mobile application and have provided the first version to the company. Similarly, we developed an MVP for AutoConnect, connecting dealers and buyers via a platform.
Minimum Viable Product is an excellent opportunity for saving costs and efforts and minimizing risks associated with innovating.
Salman Lakhani
Salman Lakhani is the Founder & CEO of Cubix, Inc. He has over 18 years of experience in software development, creative and strategic operations.
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