MVP Tests You Can Do To Validate Your Idea

You have an MVP but you don’t know what MVP tests to take to validate it?

We’re here to help.

The term MVP is the abbreviation of minimum viable product. It’s the idea or simplified example of a product that allows entrepreneurs to collect information.

They can learn about their potential customers with next to no effort. This allows project managers and their teams to collect valuable information.

Performing elaborate MVP testing is unnecessary because they have a constrained target. Just developing the minimum viable product is not sufficient enough.

This means that it’s important to also have a test plan.

MVP testing involves testing the product before it hits the market. This doesn’t mean that the business will launch an unfinished product.

It’s a way to get feedback for the final product. This will help entrepreneurs to understand if their product is sensible and achievable.

Knowing this is essential in such an unpredictable market. This allows product managers to build the best actual product.

Why Does Your Product Need an MVP?

The purpose of MVP is not to make improvements to the product. Instead, it is to find out if the product is a good idea in the first place.

This helps an entrepreneur figure if they should build the product or not. Below are the main benefits of building an MVP.

Minimum Development Cost

Building an app with the best and most features right away incurs huge development costs. However, an MVP requires fewer resources.

This means that while costs will be much lower, you still have a working product.

Make Big Mistakes with Minimal Impact

One idea can change the world. Think about the Internet or the iPhone, and other similar products.

Contrary to what most might think, these products weren’t market-ready right away. Before they were market-fit, they had to go through a series of revisions and improvements.

This is good news for startups.

Getting Paid Customers Becomes Easy

Attracting a large number of users for a start-up is difficult without spending a big sum of money on ads. Using the MVP model helps with successful user acquisition without spending big money.

If customers are satisfied with the product, they’ll inform others about it. This is how things go viral, providing countless users in a faster and cheaper way.

Gain Feedback Before Scaling Up

No business can understand all its customers’ needs. There are always unknown factors or desires.

If a product only targets their desires, the result may be quite disappointing. To be successful, it’s important to take both the customers’ needs and wants into account.

MVP tests can provide enlightenment into these issues. It can do this for both paper prototypes and digital prototypes.

Shorter Time Frame

The quicker the app is launched, the faster you’ll get feedback. This means it’s possible to work out the kinks and release an upgraded version much faster.

This will also decrease development costs. It saves spending time and money working on functionality that won’t be necessary.

Define Your Target Audience

CB Insights states that 42% of start-ups fail because there’s no market demand for their product. An MVP allows entrepreneurs to test the market and see if there is a need for their business idea.

Having a defined target audience will help the product to attract customers early on.

Leverage the Power of Batches

MVP involves making more than one prototype or version of the product. This allows the entrepreneur to be able to edit and improve the product in phases.

In some cases, the final app is different from the original design. In the end, an MVP will produce an operational product.

Find the Early Adopters

Before launching a product, find out who the early adopters in the product’s category are. Finding these so-called trendsetters or adopters will help in understanding the market.

One very important factor it helps with is the validation of the product assumptions. It will also help to establish and improve targeted marketing campaigns and learn what features are necessary.

Have a Clear Development Plan

Having determined the target audience and the market need, it is easier to set up a development plan. An MVP will show how to improve the product, if it will be valuable to customers, and how to fix any issues they may find.

Use your hypothesis for building the best features.

12 Types of MVP Tests

There are many ways of doing minimum viable product tests, and listed below are some of the best ones.

Number of New Signups

Signups are a way to measure potential interest in the product. A large number of signups means that there are users who want to use the product and would be willing to pay for it.

They may even be willing to pre-order, which is a game-changer.

Signups are an operable way of checking user interest. Based on the level of interest in the product, signups can become revenue.

The MVP is a product you’re offering on the market. A customer might buy the product but only if it is better than the already available competition.

Customers only buy startups if it’s within their budget and if they need the product.

Crowdfunding

This MVP test approach connects startups with backers. These may be people who find the product interesting or who see potential in it.

To use crowdsourcing, visit platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. This approach also provides continuous feedback from early adopters along the way.

This test strategy will give a good amount of validated learning about customers.

If using this method of product testing, track the backers and see what they say about the product. Backers can give great advice on how to better the app and make it more successful.

Blogs

A blog is a great way to promote the MVP and can help to develop a closer connection with the target audience. To intrigue potential users, try posting about what happens behind the scenes.

You can post stories about the developers and the MVP concept. This approach will help to raise interest in the product before it launches onto the market.

Running a blog doesn’t require much, but it is vital to have quality content. If necessary, hire an experienced copywriter to write the blog content.

To understand how many people have an interest in the MVP, ask readers to subscribe by email. This can also indicate who the customers are going to be.

Vlogs

Vlogs or explainer videos can demonstrate the functionality of the product and answer questions. This allows the developer to clarify what the product is, how it works, and why the customer needs it.

One of the most famous examples of a startup using this approach is Dropbox.

Dropbox used a video to demonstrate the product and how it works. The explainer video was successful.

The number of signups for Dropbox went from 5,000 to 75,000 overnight. All of this transpiring with the absence of an actual product.

The humorous and entertaining aspects of the video likely helped to pique interest. Especially that of the early-adopters watching.

Customer Interviews

This is the most obvious of these MVP tests, right?

Customer reviews are the most direct way to get specific validation for the MVP. It provides real reviews from people who will use the product.

Conduct interviews with the target customer. Listening to any problem that they raise will yield valuable insights.

Online there is the possibility of people either lying or sugar-coating their opinions. Sometimes they may give fake reviews.

With personal interviews, the probability of those things happening is much lower. It’s even possible to ask customers to complete a survey on the product.

This will supply direct validation for the startup project.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are web pages that a visitor or potential customer comes to after clicking an ad. It will be the first page they see on the way to the product.

This is where potential users learn information about the product and the business. A landing page will show how customers interact with the page and if they’re interested in the product.

Using a landing page, you can test out the product with the market. It offers a marketing opportunity to advertise the features of the product.

Another possibility is to enroll people in a subscription for validation. Or use these landing pages as ad campaigns.

With a landing page, startups can track a customer’s analytics via Google Analytics.

Social Media Accounts

Social networking sites are another great testing technique for a minimal viable product. What platform you choose will depend on the target customer and their preferences.

This method reveals users’ truthful opinions and reactions. It also involves a certain amount of PR management for the MVP.

When using social media platforms, make sure to add a link so that customers can test the product. You could use digital prototypes, for example, to do this.

Highlight the functionality and true value of the minimum viable product. Do this by posting photos or pictures of the MVP.

A/B Testing

A/B testing determines the effectiveness of changes made to the marketing scheme or the product. Analytics tools help to show how users react to the designs, removing the need for guesswork.

This MVP testing technique can reveal if one design is more effective than another. For example, use two prototypes of the same page and see which gets a better response.

In this MVP test, some of the visitors will see version A and others will see version B.

For instance, once you’ve run an A/B testing campaign on Instagram, you could leverage an Instagram analytics tool to find out which post generated better reach and engagement. This can help you create better content for your campaigns.

Hallway Testing

This style of testing helps to determine how usable the product is. In this approach, random people that don’t know anything about the product test out the MVP.

Their experience will disclose the intuitiveness and usability of the MVP. Ask these people to complete some tasks and see how well the minimal viable product does.

Take note of any issues encountered during the process. This will inform any improvements and edits made to the product.

Manual-First (Aka “Wizard of Oz”) MVP

With the “Wizard of Oz” MVP testing strategy, the idea is to fake it until you make it. Instead of coding and making a product, you present the product and its functionality manually.

The customer will believe the product is fully functional. However, all the actions are being done manually. This is an alternative option to building a video or coding framework.

It allows for interaction with customers in the initial stages of market validation. It makes it possible to observe a customer using the product first hand.

The “Wizard of Oz” MVP method is the quickest way to see if the product will be useful to consumers.

This is the quickest and most beneficial strategy to test any great idea out on potential users.

PPC Ad Campaigns

For those who know what they’re doing, ad campaigns can be a great market research tool. Much like landing pages, ad campaigns can give lots of useful information.

This can include such things as user analytics. The analytics derived from ad campaigns can be quite sophisticated.

Ad campaigns aid in positioning the MVP to reach specific parts of the audience. Startups can choose to market to people based on location, age group, gender, and even interests.

It is important to keep in mind that running an AdWords campaign does not result in a lot of publicity or exposure. This is because the market is so competitive and fierce.

Ad campaigns are a great way to experiment and test out your hypotheses.

Piecemeal MVPs

The last one of these MVP tests is the technique of building a working demo of the product using existing tools.

You don’t actually build the product yourself. Instead, it involves using other tools or services to make a functioning prototype.

One method of achieving this is by putting two unrelated apps or software together.

A business that built a startup this way was Groupon. In its early stages, it consisted of a combination of software products.

Before spending time and money building an infrastructure for the startup, try using existing software. Piece together features from other platforms to build a prototype of the MVP.

Ending thoughts on the MVP tests you can do to validate your idea

A minimal viable product or MVP is a prototype of the product. An MVP fulfills the needs of the business while providing feedback.

It’s almost like an experiment. The MVP allows startups to test the market and get the maximum amount of validated analytics.

It’s a way to validate and test the product direction instead of only relying on the idea of the startup.

Although building an MVP takes a lot of extra effort and time, the payoff is immeasurable. It will save you so much in the long run.

The market is uncertain and unpredictable. Users are going to be the same way.

Building an MVP will help an entrepreneur to get a better idea of the market and target users. The only way to win in such a market is to learn faster than everyone else and an MVP aids in doing so.

So, when verifying an MVP and testing out the market, be sure to consider the techniques listed above. Take time for careful thought about which of the testing strategies to choose.

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