Launching and developing a startup is a complex process that involves time, commitment and investment. Entrepreneurs are usually afraid to get started especially when stepping into an unfamiliar future.

Stats show that only four out of five startups were able to survive in their first business year. To reduce the probability of failure of a business in the first year, build an MVP first.

In this article, we will discuss how an MVP minimise financial costs, draw early adopters and analyse input from first-time customers when it comes to building momentum in an early phase of startups.

Before moving forward Let’s first get a quick overview of what MVP is?

What is an MVP?

MVP stands for Minimum viable product and it is a minimally featured software solution, it is the initial version of the product which developers develop with simple specifications to evaluate its worth in the target market. The idea of MVP provides perfect testing ground, showcasing what can be improved based on consumer feedback.

Eric Ries was the first to propose it, he brought this lean methodology concept and MVP was processed as the client-facing version of the product.

Some factors need to be considered by every startup before dealing with MVP.

1. Analyse Market First

Sometimes, just because the idea sounds great in concept, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be effective in the market. If you don’t want to end up broke do the market research before starting the project. Make sure you target the right market and your idea is your targeted market demand. 

Conduct surveys to have a more detailed analysis of the market so that the probability of success of the product is higher in the market. Analyse your competitors in the market as MVP is introduced into the market to directly compete in the economic environment. Take a look at what your competitors are proposing in the market and how your product can stand out.

2. Target  Right Audience

The smartest way to create a demand for the product is to attract early adopters. Develop an MVP that keeps engaging the targeted audience. Your audience will influence your product development process so do your research first and make sure your product addresses the challenge in a way that it appeals to the target audience.

3. Build Product Roadmap

Before you act, plan first, make a product roadmap that tells about the expected growth of the solution. You have to be able to develop a practical plan if you want to get the results you want before you start developing the product.

4. Work out on User Flow

When designing an MVP make sure from start to final process of the application that you ought to look at the application from your audience perspective. Work on user flow in detail, create many ideal scenarios, use cases for how your product should be used so that you don’t forget anything when considering the upcoming product.

5. Make Feature list

Remember that minimum is minimum as overdevelopment is a great issue for startups. You may want it all but a better approach is to stick to the main functionality of the MVP. Make a list of all features you want to add before you start creating MVP, upon completion process review the list of MVP functionality as the efficiency of any MVP depends on its feature and whether the targeted audience requires it.

6. Conduct User Testing

MVP is a real product, after launching it in the market engages early consumers to test MVP. When you start getting reactions and opinions, analyse it and make a conclusion based on their feedback. Improve your product feature and develop your application in compliance with the preferences of users.

7. Create A Product Landing Page

To create an effective MVP  invest some additional time to build up a strong landing page. Try pushing traffic to the landing page of your product as much as possible. Traffic is driven by blogs (SEOs), social media and articles related to the industry, the traffic outlined ideas effectively and softly promotes the product and inspires early users to sign up.

Conclusion

When it comes to testing a product idea as soon as possible, an MVP is the most commonly agreed possibility. MVP is a great start-up tool as you learn a lot about your users, without excessive use of precious time and funds by way of a workable product. 

The MVP must be simple and promising. If you are successful, the users will look forward to the project’s growth and will comfortably win the support of investors for future development. 

If you’re looking for professional guidance on MVP application development, or if you’ve never done MVP before, drop us a message, with dedicated product development services we help startup creators and other leaders to create high-quality MVPs for them.

The word ‘deadline’ scares off even the most organized and punctual people. Either you’re working on a software development project or any other, it always seems like there’s a chaotic hurry to finish with a deadline. 

Most of the time the major pressure is on the developer. Deadlines are the biggest nightmare for them. Well, a deadline is a common occurrence in a software development project that enables accomplish targets, pushes the projects forward and manages the entire business effectively. 

Only a couple of strategies and you would be easily meeting the deadlines without any hesitation.

Why Software Development Deadlines are Important

Deadlines are not the synonym for catastrophe, on the contrary, they are proved to be vital and effective. Firstly, time is a precious diamond. The software development process is rather expensive, and you have to follow the plan. 

Also, the earlier you unveil the product, the quicker you initiate profiting. Furthermore, the product’s launch can be tied to a fixed date, such as the date of committee approval or advertising strategy.

 Finally, software developers are generally concerned about maintaining quality and committed to their customers, which means successful completion of the project.

Software developers know the importance of the deadline very well because if a deadline is not meet then dreadful things might happen like premature termination of the project.

Risks of Timely Development

When developing a timely product, there can be various factors that can make the job harder than it usually is.

Let’s discuss a few risks that should be considered.

Due to multiple reasons, an inaccurate estimation may occur. Most of the time, a brand-new product entails less risk than the finalization of a current one. Enhancement and completion are far more difficult for creators than designing from zero. 

It is difficult to tell how long it would take to see the consistency of the application. Generally speaking, when we speculate, we neglect certain significant factors that could influence our assumptions.

Furthermore, another risk in timely software development is human is itself. We must not overlook the human element, infections, lack of experience, lack of clear goals and several other human factors. 

“A project plan will draw up a certain vision of priorities, strategy, and objectives along with simply accomplishing tasks to get you to the real destination stage”

A few other issues which affect deadlines could also arise from the perspective of the customer. If you increase the production span by changing requirements, it will require a longer effort for the developer. If a client fails to deliver constructive criticism or respond to questions on time, the deadline is likely to blow out as well.

How to Meet the Deadline

 

Let’s take a look at how software development projects can manage deadlines.

Estimate Risk with Matrix

Usually, a project manager is also responsible for managing risks. Once initiating a plan, they have to define and recognize threats and establish a strategy for every risk reduction. 

They may use a risk matrix for this function, which helps to predict both the likelihood and seriousness of future incidents. It is a quick and easy method to increase risk awareness and to facilitate management in their decision-making. 

In that way, there won’t be any panic whenever a crisis occurs, as it has already been expected, and a project manager also would understand the situation and know what to do.

Trust Your Team

Developers break down large projects into smaller ones before beginning to work on a project. And they determine the likely amount of time they’ll spend producing them. 

Before that, the supervisor or a team member reviews the predictions to reduce the chance of the assumptions being incorrect. This helps to minimize the chances of unreasonable deadlines that could be detrimental to the completion of the project.

Yet another strategy to meet your software deadline would be to get insight from the team members – right from the beginning – about the development phase and schedule.

It keeps the software on track to stop any mistakes along the process.

Communicate

Communication is vitally valuable once a deadline is set and during the implementation phase. Just the proprietor of the project understands all the ins and outs of how it will all operate. But you cannot read what’s going on in the minds of others, therefore, talking to each other is what left to do. This supports all the colleagues to work swiftly and resist pointless efforts.

As a project manager, you’ll track the condition of every phase of project development and be certain that it’s within the specified time limit. Also, not to overlook, the open atmosphere which interaction helps to create inside the team that makes problems and disputes easier to solve.

“Taking into consideration team needs is essential to the overall accomplishment of the plan”

Be Aware of Problems

Sometimes being too confident allows you to overlook the probability of any issues. Be conscious. Almost anything can likely be flawed. And that will make you spend a little more time repairing stuff. So, always be prepared for negative situations.

Strike the right balance between negativity and positivity. Be realistic about it. Add time to your timeline before actually setting it, considering that something will go wrong.

Use Task-Management System

You must have a way to store and monitor each of the tasks and deadlines when handling software development. Whether you’re using Agile, SCRUM, JIRA, or Trello, this has to be a software tool.

Backlog grooming is one of the vital components of the project.

Usually, this procedure requires both a project manager and the team to verify the tasks in the backlog. The main objective of a backlog grooming session is to guarantee transition preparation is done for the next several sprints worth of system requirements in the product backlog. 

Daily backlog cleaning sessions often assist to ensure that the correct issues are given preference, such that the backlog of the company will not turn into a black hole. Backlog grooming is a process that resumes helping prevent unnecessary objectives and achieve deadlines.

Conclusion

A timeline may look dangerous, but somehow it encourages you to manage the time, determine objectives, and retain focus. Producing a product in such a set period creates customer loyalty, establishes a company’s image, and certainly contributes to the success of the project.