How to Build an MVP App in 2022 (Easy 5-Step Guide)

Last Updated on June 10, 2022

Introduction

Consumer satisfaction has been redefined with the introduction of the on-demand delivery system. The trend which began in Uber now has extended to nearby vertical industries, all across the world and we can say that it is changing the world for the better.

Well, even in the on-demand economy, You wouldn’t want to spend hundreds & thousands of dollars on building a business only to find out there is no market appeal to your idea or concept later on. This is why so much importance is given to MVP because an MVP can help you avoid all of that.

Well, the thing about technology is that technology is highly dynamic. It changes with the way we approach and interact with the world around us every day. While innovative entrepreneurs continually discovering innovative methods of enriching the planet, start-ups, on the other hand, are all about disrupting every business field, for the better 

That’s the reason that one of the major challenges for many start-ups is to raise the money to feed their ideas and to turn them into a reality. Today, venture and investment capital funds are the primary funding drivers for most of the startups.  The companies in which they choose to operate with on the other hand are, however, very limited whereas the number of candidates is relatively high.  That’s why such companies invest in businesses that are full of innovative ideas and have the momentum that could propel them further in their journey.

The case in the food and grocery delivery application industry is no different. 

So, if you are planning to get an application developed – how would you pull your latest business concept off without wasting thousands of dollars and locking the company in the garage for several months?

The answer to this is to get an MVP developed before you aim for a fully-functional application.

What is MVP App development?

An MVP is the minimum developed form of the product (your delivery application in this case) on the market. This holistic development & marketing approach helps the project development team to check (or invalidate) product hypotheses and understand how the key functionality of the product for the target clients could be perceived and experienced by them. The approach offers insight into how the budget is invested effectively to meet the overall company objectives. The development of an MVP is a process to define consumer suffering points and decide the correct product characteristics to fulfill these needs in due course.

When developing mobile apps, an MVP is a way to ensure that only key features are built to address a particular problem and, please early adopters. Basically, an MVP is the fundamental model of your product to meet your primary goal.

But there is still confusion between an MVP and a Prototype for many people. just to clarify, an MVP is a prototype at the center and further in the development process. Once some ideas have been prototyped and concept-proofed, you will be completely ready to develop an MVP or get it developed from someone else.  Ideally, you should build the minimal (which you can improve) version of your product and share it with more and more people to get people used to it.

When you will get your MVP developed for your Food & grocery delivery application, the prototype will be the basis for what in the future would become the least viable product.

MVP’s development follows a method of evaluation that helps you to produce a product that can continuously be improved by validating (or invalidating) assumptions, understanding what consumers want and creating new software versions that better support your customers.

The Importance Of “Viability” In An MVP

Let’s look at what “viable” means before plunging too far. Viability is all about providing users with enough value that they feel satisfied with the product or service they’re paying for.

The assurance of product viability is one of the main features of the development of the MVP. It is much more important what a company does than how it does it. 60% of the average product’s functionality is not at all used in most of the cases. Those functions are unnecessary and a waste of resources for growth. By performing one key feature, a viable product responds to consumer demands. [/vc_column_text]

Does Your App Need An MVP?

Let’s have a quick look at recent Go-Globe statistics on startups before discussing its requirements:

• 74% of Internet start-ups with high growth fail because of premature scaling;
• At the same time, start-ups grow about 20 times faster when scaled properly.  
• About 29% of start-ups run out of their money before they have fully established themselves.

Every company begins with an idea but there is no guarantee that every idea will attract users ‘ attention. Before you trace your idea in an app, ask yourself, “Is this idea just good for you or many? ”

You may be losing your sleep on this query, but don’t worry, many entrepreneurs who are planning to launch their products on the market go through this kind of situation.

But you can sleep without stress during the night with the aid of the MVP without being stubborn about the issue. Building an MVP has many advantages for a business and can be highly cost-efficient.

Whether small or large, the achievements of any new product are focused entirely on the efficient and unique concept and its effect. One of the main factors that can help the company thrive is input from potential buyers at an early stage, which gives you an idea of customer needs and so entrepreneurs get acute about the minimum sustainable company’s signature approach.

Thus, the need for an MVP can be defined into 3 major categories:

• Well, building an MVP is not the only way to reduce the start-up costs of any company. And it’s not the only incomprehension with MVP, you may have.  MVP is a way of quickly starting a project and realizing what to do next.
• MVP is an acronym for a Minimal Viable Product.  This definition encourages the development of a barebone protocol to test the viability of key product idea flows. This ensures that the MVP is close to the actual thing you want to do so that all customers’ input can easily yield validated and applicable useful product ideas or main principles.
• Since MVP has a different objective, the concept or experiment doesn’t simply prove it – it validates a new idea and user input.

Business Benefits Of An MVP App

• Fast Development

The more features you want to integrate into your application, of course, the longer it takes the developers to build the product. In view of the fact that MVP should have the minimum number of features, the development of an MVP takes only one to two months. It helps you to ensure that another business or start-up can not steal your idea or release an application that incorporates the same concept earlier than you.

• Reduction In The Overall Development Cost

This is easy to understand and pretty obvious as well. You spend a little less time designing MVP and therefore have a lower cost of developing because you do not have to integrate all functionality into the MVP in your final product.

• Reduced Risks For Investments

The lower the investment risk does not pay off, the more likely your ideas are to be supported by investors. Basically, MVP is a prototype for your final product, and without huge investments, you can evaluate its feasibility among the target audience. In addition, if the target audience receives the MVP well and you decide to construct the final product, the potential investors are able to present the MVP proving that your concept remains viable.

• In-field Concept Testing

One of the main objectives of launching an MVP, as stated earlier, is to see if the entire concept is viable and appreciated by users. Furthermore, if you plan to fulfill your target group’s needs and requirements for your final product, there is no other option but to launch and follow feedback from an MVP. In addition, you can adjust the original concept, by understanding why the users love or like to use your product. This means that you can determine the value for the users of your product. For example, Instagram did just that – the startup was based on another idea rather than photo sharing.

• Making A Consumer Base Of Loyal Customers

This is also a matter of making changes. Sometimes your product may not be found to be interesting by the original target group you were aiming at. In order to find the one to value the product, you may try to promote your MVP among various target groups.

• Adding New Features Gets Way More Easier

Upon the release of the MVP, developers may add one by one new functionality. Therefore, there is no great chance that the app will have to be reworked. The fewer characteristics that you have in your product, the features that may need to be changed or eliminated. In addition, there is far less chance of bugs being present in the final product when the developers implement a new MVP feature.

Does Your Delivery Business Really Need An MVP?

Do not expect production time to be saved here as it’s a little risky but a quicker development method. Yes, only during the marketing & handling feedback sessions are you likely to minimize your time expenses.

Thus MVP is not always your ally as you plan and set your objective to rise. The results actually show that the product can be monetized when an investor approaches a prepackaged product rather than selling hope for the product. The risk is higher than the expectations of investors. If your MVP is weak, you’ll actually do it. There can be no other thing.

The MVP system offers a range of advantages for company owners, which include brand recognition, resource management, early customer selection and value proposition. In short, the question answers: ‘Is my idea adding value and benefiting the people?’ The theory can not be confirmed by a feasibility study together with concept proof and prototyping. MVP is almost a trustworthy way to get an opinion from a potential consumer early on. It eliminates the risk of spending a lot of money on something that no one would want or can teach you if a much better product already exists.

How to Build an MVP

Step 1: Approaches To Build An MVP

The interpretation of the minimum viable product is quite broad and includes different types and approaches. If you are a founder of a company, you don’t have to be a developer to do your MVP. Nevertheless, you must be mindful that there are two key methods of creating an MVP when defined broadly:

1. The Right Approach
2. The Wrong Approach

Yes, you read it right. What exactly is happening is that people who build their MVP still are misguided about the MVP definition. The completed blingy product is not intended to be an MVP, but the MVP is something that needs no more modifications or changes of any kind. The truth is that MVP is a product that will achieve its objective by subtraction in any case.

For example: If we are developing an on-demand food delivery application, in that case, the MVP should be an app that enables the customers to order food online. And not something which lets you edit your profile and let you connect it with your social media application but you can’t order from it. Because in the latter case, you won’t be satisfying the customer’s basic requirement of ordering food.

Additional features are secondary – an MVP should be able to fulfill the main need of the customers in the first place, to be able to be called an MVP!

Steps 2: Types Of Right MVP Building Approaches

• No Product MVP

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries describes a no product code or no MVP code as a means to validate the idea and receive feedback.

• Idea Visualization

This method is a strategy to test a theory of opportunity using marketing campaigns. The concept plot does not contain any of the building blocks of the potential product. It simply describes or reflects what it will look like and what it will do. The method can be used through pages, advertising campaigns, surveys, videos, blogs, etc. The key benefit of visualizing the process of comparison to other modes of MVP development is its time and economy.

• Sell Your Product First, Build It Afterwards

This method is intended to initiate a presale before it is actually constructed. The realistic option is to start a crowdfunding campaign on a specific website, for example, Kickstarter. If you thrive, you will not only be given proof of the demanding concept but also may recieve some seed investment. The goal is to launch a new campaign to commercialize a product that does not exist. The advantage of this method is that people engage, not only by word but also by money, in visualizing the concept. It could therefore fully reflect the real revenue generation opportunities.

• Product Mock-up MVP

A mockup will allow you to provide your potential product with some features. In the meantime, some complex automated features can be replaced with solutions that are easier to build or manually managed. You have many options to build MVP using the product mockup approach.

• Wizard Of Oz

Like the MVP concierge, this strategy also requires handling to replicate core functionality. The suggestion of Oz MVP’s Wizard is to conceal this from a client, however. You may only have to draw paper cards for somebody, but the user assumes that they are powered by AI (or magic:). The minimum viable product thus provides a close to real experience with a slight delay in time.

• Concierge

Let us only take the key feature to understand this approach to a product that has a recommendation system. For the design of the MVP app, complex machine-learning algorithms do not have to be developed. The aim is to show how this feature functions and the recommendation engine can be performed manually at this stage of development.

• Single Feature MVP

The concept is explained by the name of the approach. Since your clients need to understand what it means, the main characteristics should be focused on. You need to create the MVP to achieve a minimum of 80 percent of the work of the user.

• MLP

The new stream focuses on a high level of customer satisfaction with the minimum viable product in the lean start-up approach. This combination leads to a new approach known as MLP or an endearing minimum product. Within this context, viable means something that can not be used to get initial feedback while a fun first unforgettable experience can be imagined. The idea of MLP is to improve the basic set of product features through design and streamlined flow, through improved user experience.

Step 3: Process Of Building an App MVP

The very first thing which you need to do while developing your MVP is to decide, whether you actually need it or not. If you already have an audience and the product you’re working on is just a way to expand your business – in that case, you might not really need to work on it, because you aren’t gonna need it.

In all the other cases, you can follow the following steps:

• Doing Your Market Research

Often proposals do not meet the requirements of the market. Make sure it meets the needs of the target users before you start an idea and start an MVP creation phase. Conduct surveys because the more you know, the more chances you have of succeeding. Also, don’t forget to see what your rivals sell and how you can differentiate your product concept.

Related Reads:

1. Top Grocery Delivery Business Models
2. Top Home Services Business Models
3. Best Food Delivery Business Models

• Expressing Your Business Idea

What is the value to the users of your product? Why does it help them? How should your product be purchased? There are crucial things to consider, to help you express your opinions more effectively.

The critical estimates of your product should also be clear to you. As MVP means, first define and build the MVP on the importance of the citizens.

• Considering The Design & User Flow

The project is a big stage of MVP.

Plan the app to be as user-friendly as possible. From the viewpoint of the user, you need to view the device from the start to the final step, like shopping or delivering. Therefore, user experience is an important factor, as it means that you will not forget anything when taking into account the potential product and customer satisfaction. If you are a non-tech person, it is important you hire an experienced MVP development company that understands your vision perfectly and guides you at this stage.

In order to decide your user flow, the process stages need to be identified and the required steps need to be taken to achieve your main purpose that needs to be clarified. Instead of locating and buying the product, and handling and receiving orders, your attention should be on the basic tasks. It is now time to describe the characteristics of every stage when all these procedural stages are clearly described.

• Listing Your MVP Features

List all the features you wish to include in your product at this point before starting to build the MVP. Before completion of the building process, your search should be for the MVP features list.

You need to prioritize them when you have a list of features for every MVP point. Asking yourself questions like, What do my users want, to prioritize MVP features? Do I deliver something useful to them? and so on.

First, prioritize all other MVP features: high priority, low priority, and medium priority. Once all features have been arranged, you can assess the scope for the product’s first edition and switch to an MVP. You can even build a prototype of MVP if you want to see how your potential product will look.

• Building Your MVP At Last.

You will build your MVP when you have selected the main features and are familiar with the business needs. Note that an MVP is not lower than a final product and still needs to satisfy the requirements of your customers. It must, therefore, be easy to use, communicate, and suitable for your users.

• Build, Measure, Learn & Improve

It should be remembered that the end-users are primarily those who can say what is missing and what is redundant. Once the users have received feedback, start improving your product, then test, study, and measure your quality, and then test it again.

Step 4: How To Determine Whether You’ll Benefit From Building An MVP?

Be mindful that the design of an MVP is not the solution that will fit in perfectly. You will ask yourself 5 main questions to identify your company’s needs and to decide whether an MVP is the correct option.

• Is Your App Delivery Idea Unique?

This is the first thing you should be mindful of. If the product is not special, the MVP will easily be lost among its rivals. The creation of an MVP revolves around an idea to present to future customers. This concept is revolutionary. When it is special, you should either opt for the implementation or investigate whether a full-scale application should actually be developed.

• Is Your Product Flexible?

Launching an MVP means you must be prepared to adapt in real market conditions to the results of testing your idea. Instead, following the tests, the target group, or even the core features of MVP have to be changed to react appropriately to user feedback. You will benefit from the MVP growth if you are versatile enough to make these adjustments and take the time to find your niche.

• What Are Your Budget Boundaries?

When you count every penny you produce, it helps you reduce the cost of creating an MVP. The budget can be decided by listing the important and must-have features. The overall cost will be economical if you are going with a simple and easy-to-implement features set. For complex functionalities, the budget will be on the slightly higher side. In addition, you can easily make your first profit and invest in the development of the company after starting an MVP which has a subscription option.

• Is Your Project Huge?

If it is a large organization and one or two of the key features can not be separated, it isn’t the best way to build an MVP. For example, projects like the automation of production on a plant or the development of an internal automation system are very large, and in this case, an MVP is not a choice. So find full-scale production if you intend to operate on a broad scale right from the outset.

• Is Your Time Crucial?

The project scope is not very broad and MVP is rapidly expanding. If the timeline is important to you, you should create an MVP to ensure that the product is not obsolete when it is launched. Some technology and development trends quickly become “old history,” so the sooner you launch the product the better if your product is based on one. Time constraints can also be necessary if you think about the risk of your idea being stolen or whether another company will launch the product based on the same concept.

Step 5: How much does building MVP costs?

Various major factors help in determining the cost of building an on-demand application’s MVP.

Many founders presume that development costs depend on the technology types used, but that is not true. Only one side of the coin is your product development budget. It is also critical to deliver the project on time and to have a clear idea behind the project.

To create a good product, the owner must choose the developer intelligently. Let’s look at some of your choices.

• Hiring A Freelance Software Developer

It’s a quick, inexpensive, and simple way to start a project.

You can also find various freelance sites that suit your needs. Freelancer.com, upwork.com, and fiverr.com are strong starting sites. The main problem with the recruitment of freelancers is their failure to meet their project obligations.

They can easily leave if something goes wrong. This also means that you will be a project manager, and your own duty lies in all planning and communication. This problem is very difficult to deal with. If you do want to recruit independent developers, my suggestion is to include local developers.

You need to hire a full-time team for a typical project. Take the rate of freelance software developers into consideration.

• A  full-stack developer costs approximately $6,000 each month. This expert is needed throughout the development of the project.
• A designer costs approximately $ 5,000 a month. At the start of the project, this specialist is needed. 
• During the entire creation cycle, you will need a tester. You will be charged about $2,500 a month from this professional.

The total cost is thus up to 13,000 dollars per month. Below is a diagram showing freelancers’ current wages worldwide.

• Going For In-house Development

Most founders go for in house software development since it guarantees direct contact and open relationships.

The team can be fully involved in the project in-house development but the quality will still be your responsibility. The success of the company is, however, more driven by your developers.

An internal team can also be coordinated much easily. This option’s main disadvantage is substantially higher costs. If you start with a small budget, it may be a challenge. You have to pay travel costs and training costs as well as many other expenses while you work with full-time developers. Make sure you have this amount of MVP investment on your project.

What is it going to cost? Let’s just find out! 

• An average of $9,200 per month costs will be borne by you for a full-stack developer.
• A designer will be charging you about $3,600 a month.
• A tester is worth $4,100 a month, and $7,500 a month for a project manager.

This will, therefore, cost you approximately $25,000 a month in house growth. Below is a graph showing the developers’ current salaries worldwide.

• Hiring A Local Web Development Company

Well, going for a local web development company is also a costly choice. But we feel it is kinda worth it as well because the price includes advanced business processes and technology.

A dedicated engineering team, a project manager, and a research firm with a legitimate record of participation will be available.

Clutch.co is a good option when you are looking for a famous local agency or GoodFirms.com is another great choice as well. These sites show reviews and input on past customers to help you pick a professional and effective team.

The prices for a single professional range from $100 to $250 an hour. But you will have to pay at least $400 an hour for the same department.

But you must question yourself  – if your company is able to pay you up to $64,000 a month solely for the business hypotheses. This is a good option if the answer is yes.

• Outsourcing App Development

Well, the practice of outsourcing is very common in a number of startups these days. Why? Because for a cheaper price you can recruit a local agency.

When outsourcing your app development, there are two main challenges. They are – building trust & involving the team. These two issues are, however, easily addressed. Before hiring potential agencies, make sure you researched them thoroughly. It can be done by reviewing comments, websites of corporations, and analyzing recent case studies.

Now, how much does it costs to outsource the app development of an On-Demand model-based app’s MVP?

Let’s take an example to Eurpean, or Asian, or American outsourcers here. On average – they charge around $30 per hour. On this rate, a team of 4 people will cost you about $120 per hour, making a total of $19,000 per month – just for the MVP.

Summary Of The Development Costs:

It’s up to you if you want to go with a freelancer or hire an MVP app development company, the price of the cost of development for your MVP generally depends on the type of resources you hire.

• Thus, if you hire a bunch of freelancers, it will cost you about $13,000 – $15,000
• Developing your MVP in-house with a decent team of developers will cost you about $25,000 – $30,000
• Any local agency will charge you about $65,000 – $70,000 to develop your MVP
• Meanwhile, outsourcing a development company to an MVP will cost up to $35,000 – $40,000.

If you want to go through a detailed analysis of the pricing, here is our guide on how much MVP app development costs.

Conclusion

Developing MVP for an app has several advantages: it saves you costs and development times, lets you check your product idea with the actual customers under actual market conditions, and guarantees that your final product meets the needs of your customers. When you do not have a large-scale project and you have a limited time, it’s your only way of creating an MVP. Everyone will benefit from the growth of these situations: the creators, the investors, the business, and obviously, the consumers.

Looking for an MVP app development company? Get in touch with Oyelabs today, we will help you validate your concept.

 

Frequently Asked Questions for building an MVP app (FAQs)