Your business’s MVP is more than just your minimum viable product. Sport teams aren’t the only ones with a most valuable player.  As an entrepreneur in the product development stage, your minimum viable product is without a doubt your most valuable player.  A team’s most valuable player teaches, remains focused, sets reasonable goals, is a representation of security, and gets the job done. All of these are also embodiment of a quality minimum viable product. Saying that your minimum product is also your most valuable may sound like a contradiction. Here are a few reasons why they are not mutually exclusive and what your MVP should accomplish.

1. Fix the basic problem you are trying to solve:

This is your testing stage. It is the first step you must take in order to validate consumer need. What do your customers want? How will your product satisfy consumer needs before you decide to invest a significant amount of capital into your product development? Here is where you must balance your product efficiency and usability. At this stage you must aim to identify the core problem your product is going to solve. Products can have a varied set of interesting features, however, if you are unable to prioritize and rank your features based on importance you should probably take a few steps back and re-evaluate your strategy. Your MVP is supposed to be the most basic version of your final product. This will allow you to make the necessary modifications, if need be, based on the responses you will get. An MVP is about learning from your potential customers, not about impressing them. The goal here is to learn about your product and your customers’ expectations in order to prevent spending on unnecessary costs in following stages.

2. Identify your Early Adopters

Your early adopters are your trend setters. Identifying the wants and needs of your early adopters during this testing stage is key. First of all, this will help you define your marketing strategy and sales process in the upcoming stages. Because early adopters are very knowledgeable on the industry you intend on entering, they are known to be credible sources of information to members of their network. By identifying who your early adopters are and how you will be able to satisfy their needs, you are bettering your chances at word-of-mouth advertising. Secondly, from the perspective of feedback, they are your most honest critic. They know of most products out there and are not interested in the popularity of your brand or impressing those in their surroundings by purchasing your brand. Early adopters want quality. Early adopters live for new and cutting-edge products. Learning about their expectations will allow to create a quality product and a compatible marketing plan.

3. Figure the amount people are willing to pay for your product

Finding out the price customers are willing to pay for your product during the MVP stage will give you further indication on the positioning of your product in the market versus other competitors. This will also give you a better idea for your pricing strategy moving forward. If you are met with feedback that indicates a higher willingness to pay for your MVP, you can explore the possibilities of a more expensive pricing strategy for example. Of course, such a decision also depends on how much it costs to make your MVP.

4. Inform yourself on the positioning of your product

Simply put, positioning symbolizes the place your product holds in the mind of the consumer. If you intend to enter a market where you will be competing against numerous other similar products, it is crucial you occupy a unique and easily identifiable place in the consumer’s mind. Because your MVP is such a basic version of your final product, there is much flexibility with the route you can choose for branding. The goal here is to start developing your brand persona and identity based on the feedback you get from your testers. Of course, this in addition to marketing research will lay the foundation for your marketing strategy moving forward. For instance, based on the feedback you will be getting on your MVP, you will be able to identify your main product differentiators, your strengths, weaknesses, and base some of your market research on these components.

5. Map out your following stages toward market

Learning from your MVP, means setting up metrics and different forms of measurement prior to testing. Your MVP findings will be your foundation in mapping out the following stages of your business activity. What you need to do is find tangible ways to record and monitor your feedback and research findings. There are some Pre-MVP considerations you should establish prior to testing. You can create a grading scale for answering each of the questions listed below. For instance, a low response would mean 0 points, medium; 5 points, and high level; 10 points. Lower points for questions would require further investigation justifying the unfavorable responses.

• Whether the problem you are trying to solve is really important to users
• Whether users are actively trying to solve this issue now with other services or self-made solutions
• Are they active during the interview
• Do they agree to come and discuss the solution with you when it’s ready
• Do they agree to refer other people to you
• Are they ready to pay for the solution right away

There are also many available online programs and application that will not only help you with the planning process of creating an MVP, but also provide you with useful KPI tools.

Your MVP is your most valuable player. Think about it. A general manager of a sport`s team first secures his star player, his MVP. The team’s MVP is the reliable player that can be counted on to lead the team, deliver the needed results, and perform. At this point the general manager starts to form the team around his MVP. Hence, your added product features. Without your MVP your product loses almost all of its value to its customers. Would you have bought tickets to a Chicago Bulls game if you knew Michael Jordan wasn`t playing? Probably not. At this stage, the goal is to learn. Sometimes this can mean going back to the drawing board. But, what this always means is that you are saving yourself time and money moving forward.