Minimum Viable Product (MVP): the perfect imperfection
In today’s fast-paced business world, startups and most other companies often face a significant challenge in launching their products. Every entrepreneur wants their product to be impeccable, but perfect product development takes a lot of time and money, and many startups cannot afford to invest much of either. But here’s the thing, perfect is overrated. In the world of hardware startups, the minimum viable product (MVP) reigns supreme. In this blog, we’re going to delve into MVP development, and why it’s important for hardware development.
What is MVP development?
Essentially, it’s the core version of a product that’s good enough to launch and gather feedback from consumers and subsequently start earning revenue as well. It’s the most basic version of the product that you can put out into the market to test the waters. The ultimate goal of launching an MVP is to validate if there is a market for your solution, learn from customer feedback and iterate from there. Hence MVP development helps you validate your product concept, user preferences, and potential revenue streams.
MVP advantages
One of the biggest advantages of launching an MVP is that it helps hardware startups avoid sinking too many resources and time into an idea that might not take off. If you launch a full-blown product without any feedback from the market, there’s the risk of running out of resources before you’re able to iterate and make necessary changes. MVP development allows for testing products in a cost-effective way and make necessary changes before going all-in. Another important advantage of launching an MVP is that it helps startups generate revenue, which is essential for their survival. Even if the MVP is not the polished, perfect product that the startup envisioned, it can still generate revenue, which can be used to fund further development.
The art of omission
It is often one or more complex technical features that are not required for the first product launch on which startups get stuck, bleeding their resources dry. Due to our extensive experience at ManGo Product Design we can spot such complex features in advance and avoid such pitfalls. In our development process, we seek to challenge the status quo and will develop and present concepts that fall under the category of high risk and high rewards. In addition, there will always be more conservative concepts that are less complicated to realize and that will allow you to launch an MVP.
Taking it step by step
The concept of perfect being the enemy of good enough is one that all hardware startups should embrace. The pursuit of perfection is often the biggest hindrance to progress. When startups focus too much on creating the perfect product, they end up tweaking and testing endlessly, which is not sustainable. The process of product development is not a one-time thing, there’s always room for improvements later on. Startups that are willing to embrace that will be successful in the long run. Rather than trying to get everything right the first time around. However, it is wise from the start to keep track of future features so that they can be added later. A perfect example are Tesla cars which were outfitted with sensors and cameras to enable self-driving whilst the software and regulations still required a lot of development.
MVP-development in hardware vs software
Hardware startups, unlike software startups, require greater resources, time, and money to develop and launch their products. It involves extensive research, prototyping, testing, certification and design iterations, which can take months or years to complete. And unlike software development, iterations are slow to materialize because it often takes several weeks to develop new components, have them manufactured, assembled and tested.
Conclusion
The quest for perfection can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it can motivate to create innovative and outstanding products, while on the other hand, it can lead to delays, increased costs, and missed opportunities. So, you need to be mindful of where to allocate resources and avoid pursuing perfection at the expense of other critical aspects of your business. Launching an MVP helps to focus on the essential aspects of your product, such as market validation, customer feedback, and revenue generation. It helps conserve resources and ensure that you are not running out of runway too early.
More information
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