Business owners are always looking for ways to enter markets with minimal risk and as quickly as possible, especially when it comes to developing a technical product. This is where the MVP comes in. This strategy allows business owners and entrepreneurs to launch a technical product with limited resources and test it in the real market. This is done to ensure its suitability to the target audience's needs, and then develop it in stages by gathering user feedback for that version of the product.

In this article, we'll learn what the term MVP means and how to launch a technical MVP with minimal costs.

What is the term MVP and why is it important?
Before learning how to launch an MVP with minimal costs, we must first clarify what an MVP is. An MVP is an initial version of any technical product, containing only the essential features. This is designed to solve any initial problem for the target audience. The goal of launching an MVP isn't to create a perfect product. Rather, building a product with key features helps gather valuable and real user feedback, develop the product based on that feedback, and ensure the product's market fit with minimal effort and cost.

The importance of launching an MVP stems from several factors:

Risk Reduction: Instead of investing a huge sum in creating and developing a full product without ensuring its compatibility with market needs, an MVP allows you to test the idea at a much lower cost.
Accelerated Learning: Launching an MVP allows you to obtain real and accurate user feedback through actual product use. This helps you understand user needs and expectations more effectively, which contributes to rapid but thoughtful product development.
Rapid Market Entry: Instead of waiting a long time to launch a full product, relying on an MVP allows you to enter the market faster and gives you a competitive advantage.
Attracting Investors: Launching an MVP helps attract investors, especially if the product idea is valuable and has an initial user base. This contributes to rapid product development. How to launch a technical product (MVP) at a minimal cost?
Launching an MVP requires an organized and effective strategy. This strategy relies on the following steps:

Clearly define the primary problem.
Defining the primary problem is the foundation for building any technical product. This can be determined by answering the following questions:

What is the primary problem facing the target audience?
How can this problem be solved in a simple and effective way?
Who are your target early adopters? Communicate with them either through face-to-face interviews or by creating surveys. These methods help gather accurate and authentic feedback that will help design and launch a prototype product that meets user needs.

What are your competing apps? What are their key features?
Avoid trying to solve all the problems in your initial steps. Start by focusing on just one main problem and providing an effective solution. This is the purpose of launching an MVP.

Identify the Key Benefits
After defining the problem, begin identifying the key benefits that will solve the identified problem by:

A list that includes all potential benefits: through brainstorming, research, and analysis. Start by making a list of all the potential features of your initial product.
Feature classification: After creating your list, begin by classifying them by determining the importance of each to determine which one to prioritize.
Comparing the features of competing apps: Create a feature table comparing your features with those of your competitors to ensure you understand their strengths and weaknesses and identify gaps in competing apps.
Start with priority features: Select only the features that are important and will solve the identified problem. Ensure these features align with your target audience's expectations.
Create a user journey map
Visualize the user steps within the product from start to finish, then analyze and simplify these steps as much as possible. This method helps you identify only the necessary features.

You can use tools like Figma to build a prototype to practically design the user journey within the app and visualize the interface and user experience.

Developing an MVP
After developing the final concept of the app, you can begin the development and creation phase. This can be done by hiring developers within your company or outsourcing this to third-party companies. This depends on the specific budget.

Product Testing
After developing the initial version of your technical product, the next stage is to launch your MVP. This can be achieved through several methods, depending on the type of product and its uses. These methods include:

Creating a Landing Page Test: Through the landing page, you can explain your idea in a simple manner and encourage the target audience to register to use the product.

Short Video: Design a video explaining the product to the audience and its purpose. Ask them questions to get their opinions and whether it is useful for solving their specific needs.
Uploading the MVP: You can upload your initial product on popular apps to make the product available for actual use by the public and collect their feedback through actual use.
Gathering User Feedback
After launching your MVP, start gathering user feedback to begin rapid product development steps based on that feedback. This can be achieved through:

Analytical Tools: You can use analytical tools to understand user behavior while using the app.
Questions and Interviews: You can talk directly with users and ask them about their user experience. Does the product meet their expectations, and what are their future expectations? You can also create surveys and post them on social media.