Creating a minimum viable product (MVP) is a vital concept of lean product development in startups and big companies. The concept of MVP is to develop a product with only the necessary features to get the user feedback, test the market, and demonstrate the product’s potential with the least amount of time, money, and effort.
However, the problem that most companies encounter is how to determine which features to include in the MVP and which one should be excluded from the initial version. This process of MVP software features prioritization is crucial because when you have many features it makes the software complex and when you have few features it may not meet the user’s needs or may make the product less attractive to the users.
In this article, we will provide you with a detailed roadmap of how to properly rank features for your MVP and satisfy both the customers and business needs. We will also discuss how to create a MVP product roadmap, how to involve users in the process of decision making, and how to meet the users’ needs while keeping in mind the future of the business.
The Role of MVP in Product Development
MVP is not just a product that is needed to be launched and put into the market but it is a tool to validate certain hypothesis regarding the product, its utility in the market and the business proposition. This is because in a normal product development process, firms may take a long time (maybe months or even years) to develop a product with all the features that it is supposed to have and later on realize that most of the features are not of any value to the users. This is a rather risky strategy especially in the context of startups that have to establish their product’s market value with a small budget.
The above risks are mitigated by the MVP development process which only identifies the vital features that will help in solving the main problem that the product is trying to address. This is because when a company introduces a simple product in the market, it is able to validate the idea, get feedback and determine the right direction to take in the development of the product. This is because feature prioritization is important in the early stages of the product development since it defines the focus and direction of the product.
Launching an MVP allows for:
- Market Validation: Check out whether the consumers are willing to pay for the particular product or not.
- User Feedback: Knowing the behavior of the users towards the product and what they expect to be changed.
- Risk Mitigation: Minimising the risk of allocating resources to features that may not be valuable to the users or necessary to implement.
- Faster Time-to-Market: Launching the product with fewer features and features that are most important to the users.
But the problem with MVP is that its success is largely based on how you approach features. Add too many features and the product can become overladen and too complex and may even get delayed. Include too few, and the product may not be able to capture the attention of the users or even offer enough utility.
Understanding the MVP Feature Selection Process
When it comes to feature selection for MVP development there is a set of stages that should be followed starting with identifying the value proposition of your product. Each product is developed to meet a specific need of its consumers and your MVP should be centered on solving this need in the most straightforward manner. When it comes to the features which should be included in the MVP, all of them should be closely related to solving the core problem.
1. This is what you should know about your product
In order to set the priorities of MVP software features, the first thing to do is to identify the essential benefit that your product delivers to its consumers. You should always be able to explain what main problem your product is going to help the consumers with. This will help you to define your MVP and this is where your clarity will be useful. Every feature that will be incorporated into the MVP should in one way or another help in achieving this core value.
For instance, let’s consider that you are building an e-commerce site. The core benefit that your product is likely to give to the consumers may be the ability to easily search and buy products. Therefore, the key functionality of your MVP would probably consist of the following – the opportunity to showcase the products, the ability to manage the cart, and the checkout process. These core functionalities are required in order to offer the core value. Banners like product recommendations, customer reviews, or wish lists could be considered as secondary and can be added in the future version of the product after the MVP has been launched in the market.
MVP is not the end product and this is why it is called the minimum viable product. It is not a prototype, but a model that is intended to solve a particular issue and bring some value to the users to make them keep on using the product.
2. Consider Business Objectives
While the primary purpose of MVP is to meet the users’ needs, it is crucial to make sure that the product meets the business needs as well. The features you choose to implement should not only bring value to the users but also help to fulfil your strategic business objectives. In other words, you have to meet the users’ expectations while at the same time considering the company’s objectives and goals.
To decide on which features to focus on, the following factors should be considered from the business view point. First of all, consider the acquisition of new customers and answer the question of which functions are likely to interest the users and make them prefer your product or service over the competitors’. Secondly, it is possible to determine how some features can be helpful in generating revenues. Are there features that can in one way or another contribute to making money?Lastly, consider retention – what factors of the product will be appealing to users and encourage them to keep on using the product in the future?
For instance, if your business is based on the subscription model, you may wish to emphasize on the aspects that will make the user subscribe and use your service for a more extended period. On the other hand, if your company is monetizing through ads, then you will want to focus on the features that keep the user engaged and in the app for a longer period of time.
Linking the MVP with business goals makes the product not only valuable to the users but also valuable for the company’s future.
3. Conduct Market Research
Therefore, it is crucial to do market analysis before deciding on the features to include in your MVP. This research will help you understand the current competition, the trends that are prevalent in the market as well as what your target users expect. It also enables you to know how you can make your MVP unique and meet the new opportunities that may exist in the market.
Market research can be defined in more than one way as detailed below. First, let’s consider the competitors and find out what products have already been developed and what functions they possess. Learning from your competitors’ approach to the same problem may give you a clue on how to stand out. Next, explore industry trends. What are the trends in your industry that your MVP can leverage on? This will help you to be in line with the trends to make your product remain relevant in the market.
Last but not least, it is also important to consider the users’ expectations. What do the target audience expect from a product that is similar to yours?Can your MVP address one pain point that couldn’t be solved by existing similar solutions on the market?Market research helps you to identify which features are most important to the users and which features are in demand on the market. It also assists you to determine the features that may not be vital or may be excluded at the MVP level.
Through market research, you will be able to determine which features should be included in your MVP so you are able to build a product that will meet the needs of the users as well as yield good results in the market.
4. Engage with Users
Even though market research is useful, it is always more effective to interact with the users. You can involve your users in the development process and this will help you know which features should be included in your MVP. The following are ways of getting user insights: conducting interviews, surveys or focus group discussions. It will also give you an early clue of what features are seen as most important by the users and what their expectations from your product are.
User engagement gives you an understanding of what is most important to the people that you are targeting. Thus, by interviewing users, you can find out what they consider as essential and what they would like to have in addition. It also assists you in identifying any particular problems that your MVP should address.
For instance, the customers might state that they value clarity and convenience in your product most of all. If that is the situation, the basic navigation and the features that would make the user interface simple and easy to use may be more important than the sophisticated or the complex ones.
Finally, user engagement helps you to create an MVP that will be relevant to the users. It helps you to be mindful of what aspects to work on first and thus produce a product that aligns with the user’s needs and expectations.
5. Apply Feature Prioritization Frameworks
In order to make the right choices concerning which features should be included in the MVP, product teams utilize a variety of techniques to rank the features according to their importance and efficiency. Two effective methods of feature prioritization include the MoSCoW method and the Kano model.
The MoSCoW method categorizes features into four categories: There are four modal verbs which are used in making recommendations: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have. This approach assists you to distinguish between the features that are vital to the MVP and those that can be incorporated in the subsequent versions. The “Must have” features are critical to the MVP and its value proposition, whereas the “Could have” or “Won’t have” features are less critical and may be put on the back burner.
The Kano model, however, categorizes the features according to the effect they have on the user satisfaction. It classifies features into five categories: There is Basic (those the users expect), Performance (those that improve the satisfaction of the user), Excitement (those that go beyond the expectations of the user), Indifferent (those that have no impact on satisfaction), and Reverse (those that have negative impact on satisfaction). This model enables you to concentrate on the factors that will have the most positive effect on the user experience.
These two frameworks or even the use of one of the frameworks can help in ranking features in a logical way. This way you will be able to ensure that you are making right decisions for your users as well as for your business.
Building a MVP Product Roadmap
After the identification of the features to focus on it is time to create a MVP product roadmap. This roadmap defines the stages and checkpoints of your product’s evolution so that your team knows where to head.
A well-structured roadmap should:
- Focus on core features: The first phase of your roadmap should contain the minimum viable product, which is the set of features that will allow you to solve the primary problem and give the main value to the product. These features should be basic but useful so that they can be able to offer some value to the users for them to use the product.
- Include plans for iteration: The second phase of the roadmap should consist of the plan to continuously improve the MVP based on the feedback of the users. When you engage with users, you can improve on what is already available and come up with new features to meet the users’ needs.
- Provide flexibility: It is therefore important that a good product roadmap should be able to be changed easily. When feedback is received then there may be the need to change the priorities or the timeframes that have been set. It should not be a strict plan that one has to follow but a guide to follow.
MVP roadmap helps to stay on track and deliver value to the consumers and also allow for future enhancements.
The Importance of Feedback in Feature Prioritization
After MVP is released, the process of getting feedback from the initial users becomes an essential stage of the product development. MVP helps in identifying the problems that early adopters face and whether the MVP is helpful in solving them and what new features they would prefer.
Feedback from users can help you:
- Identify missing features: Someone may indicate the feature that was not taken into consideration during the initial development of the application.
- Optimize the user experience: It is useful for users to share their experience and how convenient or inconvenient it is to use your product and where you can make changes.
- Validate assumptions: Feedback makes it possible to check out some assumptions made when developing the product and make changes if required.
It is crucial to get the feedback from the users in order to refine the MVP and enhance the product in the future. This makes it easier to avoid that in the future new features are developed that do not meet the needs of users and the product gradually loses its relevance.
Balancing User Feedback with Business Goals
However, user feedback is as valuable to the future of your product as it is necessary to consider business goals and user demands in equal measure. This is where it is easy to fall into the trap of addressing every request that comes from the users and this leads to feature creep.
When deciding which features to prioritize, ask yourself:
- Do we want to have this feature in the future product?
- Is this feature useful for the accomplishment of our business objectives?
- Can this feature be implemented in a large scale as the product increases in size?
Therefore, it is possible to make sure that the product is improving in the way that will be beneficial for both the users and the company.
Conclusion
In MVP software development, feature prioritization is the process of identifying and ranking the most important features that should be included in the initial product release in order to create a product that will satisfy the user’s needs and at the same time meet your business objectives. When you have a fundamental idea of what needs to be done, you can easily create a minimum viable product, get the feedback from users and make changes based on it.
A well thought out feature selection plan and a well defined MVP product roadmap will allow the product to be valuable at each stage of the development process but allow for future enhancement. It is therefore possible to design a product that meets the user’s needs while at the same time meeting the business needs of the company.
As you have noticed, MVP is not just about launching fast, it is about launching smart. The success of your MVP will be determined by the manner in which you order your features, collect feedback and make changes to meet the users’ and the market’s dynamic needs.
Feature prioritization is beneficial as it allows you to include only vital features in the MVP, thus reducing costs and development time and focusing on features that will meet users’ needs and business goals.
First of all, it is necessary to determine the main issue that your product is going to address. If you want to have a strong focus on the problem you are trying to solve and the value you are delivering to your audience, then it’s better to concentrate on those features that are the most important for achieving these goals.
Certainly, the MVP is meant to be a work in progress. After getting the users’ feedback, you can make changes and add new functionalities that are valuable to the user and that they require.
The business objectives such as customer conversion, customer loyalty, and sales should, therefore, be the drivers of feature prioritization. Features that support the organization’s long-term strategic goals should be considered while at the same time offering value to users.
It cannot be overemphasized that getting feedback from the users is paramount in the development of your MVP. This allows you to know which aspects of the app the users like, which aspects need enhancement, and which aspects should be incorporated in the subsequent versions of the app.