Outsourcing is an increasingly common business practice that allows businesses to become more efficient by letting third parties take care of services or some job functions. Simply put, it allows businesses to obtain better goods and services or better prices from an external supplier.
There’s a long list of benefits that outsourcing can offer your business. More often than not is a good practice and allows you or your company to be more efficient. Now, when it comes to domestic sourcing vs international sourcing there are some things to keep in mind.
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
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.
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.
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.
Certain businesses do not really require a mobile application, considering their type of service. Here, a PWA benefits the business owner.
PWA Drawbacks
PWAs are not supported by many web browsers yet.
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.
At the moment, PWAs have access to only a few of the device features. These are mainly bluetooth, mic, and camera.
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
Native apps are known to be more secure than PWAs, even though PWAs have distinct URLs.
The user interface, navigation, and accessibility to other device features like the camera, mic, and GPS is faster. These are also easier to use.
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.
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.
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
Native mobile apps have a very high cost of development.
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.
Because downloading an application from a particular store is a boring task, many customers prefer using the website instead.
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.
Start-up culture does not seem to get old. In fact, experts say after the dot-com bubble’s rise and fall, we might be looking at the beginning of a new age of start-ups in this decade.
Start-ups are no walk in the park. There are tons of obstacles for any company trying to make it in the market. Initially, every start-up would have to go at least 1000 days without a paycheck while still gambling on initial investments and further funding.
Releasing a new product is always a gamble. Many companies dedicate themselves to releasing products without really getting an idea of the market. This notion aligns with the 1000 days no pay agenda. Businesses assume that the product they release might not be really exciting the market at the moment, but are convinced without much market research that over time they would eventually make it big.
This is where the product market fit comes into the picture. This is a well known modern management and market analysis concept in the start-up world. It is popularly used by many major companies but somehow hasn’t caught enough attention in the business world yet.
This model shows start-ups the relevance of their product through the reaction of consumers. It helps business owners achieve a shift in their perspective about their product, while giving them new ideas for business growth.
What really is Product Market fit?
The stage at which the start-up successfully identifies its market or target customer base, and releases a product that caters to their exact need. In other words, you would know when the start-up has been successful at achieving the product market fit when :
● You hear talk about the product, through word of mouth.
● When the reviews on the product are positive and indicate its popularity
● You release the product and it gets sold out in no time.
When the product is positively accepted and popular amongst the target audience, the next move would be to scale up and grasp the attention of a larger market.
How can you measure product market fit?
Measuring product market fit is a little convoluted. There is no single metric that tells you the magnitude of how well your business has committed to the model and achieved it. But there are a handful of signs that can give you a brief idea of whether you are moving in the right direction or not.
To figure out your position in the product market, you need to conduct plenty of surveys. When you survey potential customers by giving them a chance to use your product, does their reaction seem like they will be willing to switch to your product? This may sound a little strange, but customer reaction says a lot.
Have the customers rejected similar products from other brands or companies similar to yours? If they have, are they willing to try your product at all?
Do users understand what makes your product unique in comparison to others? Are they genuinely interested in knowing how you stand out and what more your products have to offer?
Have a look at the retention rates to gauge whether the users will be willing to stick around.
When you showcase your products to the users, do they compare it to similar ranking products of other brands or lower grade products.
The above signs are both quantitative and qualitative metrics. There are still many ways you can figure out the success of your start-up in accordance with the product market fit model:
Churn rate
Market share
Growth rate
NPS score
Word of mouth (popularity and influence of the product)
Calls and positive inquiries from media companies and industry analysts
The overall popularity and coverage of your product in the media and on other social media sources.
Common misconceptions about product market fit
Many business owners are heavily misinformed about the model and at times do not really know what is product market fit. They are under the impression that they perform well despite low sales and bad reviews? Here are a few common misconceptions people have about product market fit.
1. First to market does not matter
First to market is a very important factor in the long run. It always leads to better and large scaled product sales. Though some might discredit this fact, arguing that Facebook, for instance, was not the first social media platform but it still found the product market fit.
However, Facebook took the most compelling features of tech and was sold in a manner that took the world by storm. So, in a way, it was first of its kind. Once you achieve the product market fit, it is very hard to break out of it. Almost all of the products will satisfy the model thereafter.
2. Once you are successful in the product market fit, you will not have to beat competition
Competition is what makes companies great. Although reaching a product market fit can set your company on a new and better path, there will still be a lot of competition. You will have to keep bringing out products that outperform your competitors.
3. Discrete product release is better
Product market fit is all about the outreach and acceptance of customers. You have to bring out products in an extravagant manner. This sends out the message that you are in it to win it. Discretion is not always the best choice, but if funding is a problem, one should consider cheaper alternatives that still are a little loud.
Conclusion
In the early stages of a start-up, earning money in a short period of time is very tempting. However, to create a successful and lasting business, you also have to realize that short term revenue is not the way to go.
Investing in outreach and understanding your products’ place in the customers’ lives is necessary. There is always room for better resources and methods to produce a lasting and widely accepted product. So, shift your focus there.
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