The core idea of this concept is to not overspend resources on the creation of a product without really knowing what the outcome will be. But, too often this approach pushes companies and startups to craft a really ugly and low quality product.

In reality, Minimum Valuable Products work and can sometimes do marvels. So, rather than assuming it doesn’t work, it’s better to ask yourself “Why Is It Not Working?”.

MVP has been a great way for companies to and startups to test a new product before officially launching it to the market. Although popularity has decreased and there’s a lot of noise around the subject, many of its core ideas are still valid.

The idea is to build something small, inexpensive and predictable that can still serve its purpose, hence, the name “Minimum Viable Product”.

By doing this, you can launch a product and test how real people use it and adopt it, while keeping the budget relatively low. It’s an excellent way of knowing your market and product’s potential without spending your resources.

What are the problems with Minimum Viable Product?

The concept itself is more beneficial than problematic. If it works, the company can move forward and use the collected data to improve it, if it doesn’t work, the company can stop investing any more time or effort on it.

More often than not, the problem is in the approach.

Even if your budget is low, launching an app with a complex user interface and incomplete functionality is a bad idea. People are interested in finding an easy solution for their problems and needs.

Even if your customers are aware that the app is still in development they expect you to at least provide them with an enjoyable experience and potentially address the issues they’re facing. It doesn’t matter if the product is still far from having complete functionality, it needs to have some (and you have to limit your claims to that functionality).

Most times functionality can be placed second to “customer satisfaction”. Your first launch could be only providing 5% of its full functionality but if people are satisfied, there are greater chances that the app will be a success.

In fact, some good examples of successful MVPs are Whatsapp, Twitter, and Google Docs. Originally they didn’t offer half of the functionality and features that they have today, however, they did a great job at correctly doing what they were supposed to do since the beginning.

The Real MVP Meaning

Simple and Incomplete are not the same. 

The key for success is to keep it simple, lovable and complete. Focus your efforts on the single problem that your product is supposed to solve and don’t waste time or effort adding unnecessary features if that means that it will be incomplete.

Another important factor to keep in mind is that you’ll get the best results when you focus on the outcome rather than the features. 

This is something that a lot of startups tend to forget when launching an app, but it is extremely important because It doesn’t matter how well the app looks and feels, if it doesn’t really make a positive impact on people’s lives it’s probably not worth the time. 

Or better seen from the customer’s perspective “Why would I use this app if instead of the one I already use?”.

Two fundamental requirements To Take It MVP

The MVP needs to fully address a need

No matter what’s your minimum, if your app solves a problem for its users and feels “complete” you will see much better results. Whatever functionality you include it must fully address that need, and even if you plan on adding more features in the future you should not make such claims to avoid conflicts.

It’s not about choosing two or three of the hundred features you want to include in your product and ship that. You just have to make sure that it’s main area does deliver the promised functionality.

Using an instant messaging app, for example. What you would want your MVP to be is a fully functional messaging app that looks and feels as good as if it was the final version (even if you are not able to add the video chat feature yet).

So instead of giving them just a half functioning app, they will have a fully functional app that will eventually grow and get more features.

Users Must Be Delighted With The MVP

Minimum Viable Product does not mean that you’re giving your customers trash. In fact, that thinking is what has driven so many companies to fail time after time. If you fail to delight your customer with a good product that offers value to their lives then you will fail at succeeding with that product. 

The pressure of releasing  a new product before someone else does or with the lowest possible budget can lead companies to make huge mistakes. Whether releasing a product with substandard quality that doesn’t come close to meeting people’s expectations or a functional product that is not intuitive and has a hard-to-use interface.

A bad experience for the customer means poor performance of your product’s release.

How To Make It Work?

This concept of making a fully functional MVP that is easy to use and has a great UI is sometimes referred to as EVP (Exceptional Viable Product). EVP might be seen as just impossible for some companies, and sometimes that is true. 

However, using the right tools and making the right choices make it more achievable than you might think. With the myriad of available tools and services you can actually make a beautifully designed and fully functional app with less time, effort and money.

Hybrid Mobile Apps (React Native or Ionic Framework) make it possible to do this with less resources and still get much better results. Instead of developing everything from scratch you can also use plugins and third party services to work on different features.

At the end, the resulting product is a mirror of one’s ability to manage the project.

Today, businesses have a lot of resources to develop and expand their outreach. But before choosing one lane and committing to it, one must always do the required research to weigh out their options and the drawbacks that might come along with them.

When we talk about mobile apps, many business owners encounter a common dilemma: choosing between a native mobile app or a progressive web application.

The ultimate purpose behind choosing either is to increase outreach and make a more convenient online stop for your customers. To gain a more competitive advantage, you should invest in something that requires relatively less maintenance and is easily accessible to your clients.

The mobile app and the Progressive Web Apps (PWA) both seem very similar, but they do have their own sets of features and benefits. Progressive Web Applications have better performance features, while native apps are more convenient and accessible.

In this article, we will talk about the features and benefits of both these structures and will shed some light on whether you really need a mobile app.

What are Progressive Website Applications?

Progressive Web Apps are a recent advancement from the default mobile app. It is a better optimized website for mobiles. PWAs can use some of the features of your device, like the camera, just like any other mobile application.

Unlike the mobile app, a PWA can be easily accessed through any browser on your mobile phone, like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. This application lets the user download and access information just like with any other mobile application, but in a much more sophisticated form than the vintage mobile websites.

PWA Benefits

1. Mobile apps have to be developed for different operating systems and have to be updated every time a new OS update comes out. But PWAs only have to be developed once. This saves a lot of money and time.

2. One of the most well known features of PWA is that once your web based application is developed, you do not have to go through the painstaking process of submitting your application to any of the stores.

3. PWAs are solely built for search engines. With combined algorithms for the search engine and the mobile, PWAs always show up first in the search results. For instance, if you have a real estate PWA, and someone searches for keywords that match your business, your PWA will be the first or second option on the list. Google has been doing that for a long time now and other search engines are quickly adapting to this trend.
   
   
4. Certain businesses do not really require a mobile application, considering their type of service. Here, a PWA benefits the business owner.

PWA Drawbacks

1. PWAs are not supported by many web browsers yet.
2. If your business has a specific service that you would like to charge for, you would not be allowed to do that with a PWA.
3. At the moment, PWAs have access to only a few of the device features. These are mainly bluetooth, mic, and camera.
4. The user interface and graphics of PWAs are still not that advanced. However, one can use 3D designs to display certain themes.

What are Native Mobile Apps?

Native mobile applications are the good old applications that we download from the app stores. These have been around for more than a decade now. Today, native apps have to be developed at least twice; one for the Apple iOS and one for android. So, these kinds of applications are very popular amongst these two types of phones.

Native Apps Benefits

1. Native apps are known to be more secure than PWAs, even though PWAs have distinct URLs.
   
   
2. The user interface, navigation, and accessibility to other device features like the camera, mic, and GPS is faster. These are also easier to use.
   
   
3. Native apps bring a lot to the table. One can easily monetize their services on the app and are allowed to have communication and links with other apps on the phone. This includes directly linking or connecting to Facebook. These apps are also allowed to have streaming services like YouTube, etc.
   
   
4. Receiving push notifications on native mobile apps is more convenient than on PWA. For instance, if you are using maps and you are approaching the destination, the native app uses geofencing and gives you a notification that you have arrived.
   
   
5. These are easy to update and can be reinvented from scratch without having to be submitted to the app store again and again.

Native Apps DrawBacks

1. Native mobile apps have a very high cost of development.
2. What’s more is that you would always need a separate department or team for maintaining the app and constantly catering to high traffic and new updates on the iOS and android platforms. This costs a lot in the long run.
3. Because downloading an application from a particular store is a boring task, many customers prefer using the website instead.
4. Native apps have taken a lot of time to finally come to the market. This is because companies have to submit their apps to specific stores that have stringent rules.

Conclusion

Though both types of applications might have their own advantages and disadvantages, only relying on one is not a good idea. A new and unique way to tackle each of these drawbacks and cruise through competition is hybrid applications.

Hybrid applications are a combination of the PWAs and native mobile apps. In short, the business would have the best of both worlds. The owner would have a better online community and access to all the necessary device features from the native app, and will not have to submit their application to any appstore.

Hybrids do cost a lot in the beginning, but their overall maintenance and long term cost reduces drastically. These applications also increase business outreach and like the native apps, give users an easily accessible medium online as well.

Though it may sound a little stressful and would surely be costly when you start out, at the end of the day, a hybrid application is a worthy investment.