MVP Development Stages Explained: How to Launch a Startup?

Today’s startups are launched via MVP development stages. MVP development stages became widely adopted for quite a few reasons. 

For one, earlier CB Insights research reported 42% startup failure due to failing product-market fit. Meaning there is no market need for the developed product. The same research agency has posted newer results. They already indicate a 35% failure rate for that particular reason: no market need. So, firstly following MVP development stages helps to minimize the risk of failure. 

Secondly, the launch times following lean MVP development stages are faster. While usual software development might take well over a year, MVP product is launched within a few months. 

Thirdly, MVP development stages help to manage startup cash flow. In the picture below, you can see that issues with running out of cash or investment have been exacerbated over the years for startups. This is because even though development agencies have nailed adding idea validation MVP development stage, they still have trouble transitioning from traditional software development to lean MVP development stages. It means mastering cheaper validation techniques, different MVP forms, and/or functionality prioritization techniques.

In this blog post, we’ll cover lean MVP development stages done right so you can launch your startup on time and within budget. Or even ahead of time and under the budget.

MVP Development

In business terms, MVP is an experiment that gets your business idea tested against the market. In business terms, an MVP can be a simple paper sketch that you bounce off potential customers. Or it can be a pre-sales landing page to get an idea of how many people are going to pay the asking price for the product you are thinking of making. In reality, there are over a dozen MVP forms (e.g., a  concierge MVP, a Wizard of Oz MVP, and so on). Some of these can take a few weeks to put together. 

Why then are startups running out of cash?

Not every software development agency is an MVP development agency. At best, they might attempt to build a bare-bones version of your app. The web is teeming with images of having a ‘whole’ product and breaking it down into small parts. Sort of when making a bike – break it down into wheels, frame, handles,  crankset, and pedals. Each of these cannot be used individually until the whole is done. So you won’t be able to get feedback on each individual part to gauge the market response to the finished product. This way you cannot go through proper MVP development stages.

MVP development is to make a “basic bike” that will attract early adopters. Then you would improve its aesthetics (UI), how it feels to use it (UX) or expand its features (functionality) so it will target wider audiences. But each of the MVP development stages produces market-testable results. And in some cases, you’ll pivot to a different product.  

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In reality, you might not even need to develop the basic version of your app for early adopters. What if you can test your product with just a landing page, or even cheaper and faster? For example, you can do a personalized nutrition or fitness app. Your landing page (MVP) will have only a questionnaire to fill out and pay for the service, while the rest can be done manually. You save on development and test how many people will buy it. And if it grows (numbers of customers and revenues), you invest in developing the backend side of thighs. Safe and sustainable. 

So let’s discuss proper lean MVP development stages. 

Idea Validation: Define A Valid User Problem

Case: Burbn => Instagram

Let’s consider Instagram. They started by building a fully-fledged app called Burbn. It had functionality to allow users to tag locations, make plans, and share photos. The company received generous funding and spent a few months building the product – from March 2010 to October 2010. Once they launched, they realized that users only used their photo-sharing functionality with their filters. 

That was definitely an expensive and time-consuming way to validate the idea. Not many startups can freely spend that amount of money on simply ‘testing the waters’. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen the statistics – the trend has gotten worse. It was largely due to COVID-19: a lot of customers and, consequently, businesses rushed into the internet space. So, time considerations trumped the money. It created a sort of another mini ‘dot-com’ bubble. But now, companies that launch startups see that funding can be tight, so lean methodology is utilized throughout the development process. Its aim is to launch a startup with the least upfront investment that is going to be monetizable and scalable. The first step is crucial because it answers the question: Is there a need for your product?

Validation Methods as the first one of the MVP development stages

Overall, there is an abundance of low-cost methods to validate the idea. To check to see if target users do really have a need for the product you want to develop. However, they do depend on the idea itself, the market, and the level of novelty and expertise:

• If you create a productivity tool for freelancers, you can use rapid-fire testing via ads. When there is a digitally targetable market, you just launch a series of ads with target action (opt-in / sign-up, and maybe extra A/B testing). Via ads, the users go to a landing page and you measure the response.  
• If the idea is quite novel or targets domain professionals, you might opt for one-to-one interviews. First of all, you can discover more potential user problems and get a sense of what kind of solution they want. Secondly, it gives your business a deeper insider look into the market and a potential lead for usability testing in the later stages.

There are many more options.

Outcomes

The key here is that you validate that your business idea has a market demand, and potentially refine the problem your product will solve for the target users. It is a possibility that already at this stage you will need to pivot. But also, it is a possibility that while researching one potential user problem you can end up adding a few more to the list that deserve exploring. To get ahead of ourselves, this is why there is a new concept – MVA – Minimum Viable Architecture. Sort of an advanced solution to pursue a series of user problems to create synergy and ‘cross’-sales. 

But going back to why validation is an important MVP development stage, you get to test your basic assumptions and make sure your solution addresses genuine user needs. 

Depending on your startup needs, you might end up getting a one-pager business canvas, or go further and develop user personas, and whatnot. 

Moodboarding & Prototyping: second of the MVP development stages

Now that you’ve validated the idea and clarified the user problem and assumptions that underpin your solution, you can move to shaping the solution starting with visuals. Here you concentrate on the emotional tone and feel of your solution. The team should come up with a few options for you to decide on. You might also do some sort of user testing. For instance, again assign a small marketing budget and launch a few ad variations based on moodboards. See which one gets more clicks, and then it is the mood that resonates better. 

Once the moodboard is selected, the designer will proceed to create UI (aesthetics, color palette, typography, etc) and UX elements. 

Here you can get the basic wireframes or proceed to create detailed clickable prototypes. It depends on the needs of your startup. For instance, if you have quite a few stakeholders such as investors or you are a business unit reporting to a higher managerial chain, they would likely appreciate a clickable prototype. If you are a solopreneur or a startup owner with a small team, you can do with just UI/UX wireframes on Figma. 

Pre-Development: Market Research and Tech Stack

While the idea validation stage focused on user research, here it is time to look at the market in a broader sense. Here, you’ll focus on:

• quantifying the potential market;
• Identifying market trends including growth rate, emerging technology, and so on;
• Doing competitors’ analysis (their traffic, sources of traffic, pricing strategies, etc.);
• Selecting the tech stack and determining the right architecture;
• Prioritizing functionality.

So, basically you see how with each step your startup moves from idea to problem-solution view to a mockup to technical details all the while validating that ‘yes, you are on the right track, there are customers that need your product, it resonates with the audience, and it is competitive’.

App Development – the implementing one of the MVP development stages

This stage is mostly implementational on the one hand. On the other hand, you receive a deliverable each week. It means there is more and more functionality is working and you with your team get the chance to see your product in action. It is time to reflect or test and give feedback. Even though there is a plan in place, the app development process is still flexible and can accommodate changes at any time. 

Just a reminder, no matter how complex or what type of an MVP you develop, this stage must be as fast as possible. 

There are general guidelines for about 3 to 6 months. The point is that quality well-refined MVPs can take a shorter time without sacrificing the quality. After all, this is the implementation stage, while the main MVP development stage is when you get feedback, process it, and iterate. Which is what comes next. 

Here are some business reviews about the app development stage and pay attention to highlighted parts about the timelines.

Feedback Gathering and Processing

A big part of the development process is setting up analytics. When developing an MVP, you generally want to know where users come from, what buttons users click on your app, how long they engage with the content, and such. You get to see what grabs most of the users’ time when interacting with your solution. This way you can align a problem-solution fit.

Then, you can move on to A/B testing. For instance, half of the users get a call-to-action button in bright red, the other half in deep blue. And the question is which one they respond to more. You also test different copies, the amount of information available, professional/real-life product pictures, and what if you add a video about the product. You can try introducing extra services or scope how many customers will sign up for the upcoming new release or feature. 

The mode of cooperation with the development agency can be varied at this stage. Some businesses would want to gather the analytics over a month or two period and then implement changes/improvements. Others may want to go more actively about the process. Or, the business may mainly work on improving the offer internally without the need for change in the app functionality.   

Iteration: a crucial stage of the MVP development stages

The further you go, the harder it is to define the lines of the stage. It is all because each startup will end up taking a unique path under the lean methodology. Make sure to find Startup Services that fit your startup needs flexibly.

• For instance, if your MVP is a concierge MVP or Wizard of Oz MVP. It means a fully-developed client-facing side but the backend is manual. The difference is just whether the client knows that the back-end is manual. So, during the feedback gathering and processing, you confirm the demand and that it is growing. So naturally, iteration would mean that manual processes will have to be automized. 
• Another case is when you built out your MVP which is a fully automated e-commerce platform or SaaS services with functionality targeted at early adopters. Then, once you confirm your success with the early adopters, you can increase the functionality range to target wider audiences. 
• And completely different case would be if you did MVP in the form of a landing page with a promise of a service. The demand was confirmed and your iteration is to develop and deliver this service.

There are quite a few more scenarios. The idea is that at this MVP development stage, your MVP turns out to be its own unique fully-developed product. 

The important thing is that you need to have an MVP development agency that can work with all kinds of MVPs. 

Scaling

Usually, the scaling stage means building an app for other platforms (Android, iOS, etc). Once your MVP is successful on one platform, and it generates solid revenues, you might want to scale into other platforms. Or it might be going international and needing localization. Or simply scaling to increase the capacity and optimize the performance. 

You can read more on the scaling stage in our article “When to Scale a Startup or What Comes After MVP?”

FAQ: MVP Development Stages Explained