#2 – MVN – The role of an MVP before building a Digital Product

Last week, we discussed about what is an MVP and how it will help you build a successful digital product.

It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and look at the HOW to do it. Today, we'll cover exactly how to build a killer MVP that saves you time and money.

Today we'll discuss about 2 out of the 5 key elements of defining and building a killer MVP: Motivation & Audience.

Please do yourself a favor and read this carefully to ensure you don’t overspend resources for an MVP without not taking the best out of it.

If you’re set on building some sort of digital product, start with strategizing it. What do I mean by that?

The only person who should approve your startup is your customer. Fans don’t count.

Read that again.

The matter is simple: if they’re willing to pay to use your app, you’ve got the jackpot.

Alright, here comes the MVP in the game. Let’s look at the role of building an MVP before directly committing to product development.

Imagine your end-goal app will work once you’ve already spent time and resources to improve the version you have built for the public you’re targeting.

When it comes to building your MVP, you have a few different things to consider. And the first and most important one is: What is and what is NOT an MVP.

To understand what an MVP should be made of, here's an illustration that helps vizualize the core elements:

As you see, MVPs should never be ugly, poorly made or lack usability & reliability. On the contrary, they should give users whatever they need to solve their problem as easy as possible.

Building your MVP is convenient and straightforward. But nothing simple runs without a structure and a proven framework.

MOTIVATION. Start with Why and map out the objectives

Before you start building your MVP, there are three basic questions you need to be able to answer about your audience:

1. WHAT’S MY LONG-TERM GOAL?
2. WHAT’S MY SHORT-TERM GOAL?
3. WHAT’S MY MOTIVATION?

Without the answers to those three questions, you’re shooting in the dark. With those answers? You have a roadmap to start creating a personalized version of your digital product that will connect you with your audience on the deepest level.

By defining the long-term goal you’ll be able to:

• Look ahead of you
• Create clarity about the direction of the project
• Understand where you should put your main focus

To define your long-term goal, you’ll need to answer the following:

1. Why are you doing this project? Where do you want to be in a year or even five years from when you launch the product?
2. Why the users want this project? How will they use it in a year or even five years from now?

Write down the answers so you can go back to them every time you need to reflect on your product direction.

AUDIENCE. Size the market opportunity and define who’s your customer

Going a step further you should use the answers from the Module above to create a customer avatar. An ideal customer avatar is a composite character that acts as a representation of your core demographic.

When you’re creating your ideal customer avatar, go nuts: give them a name, an age, a location, and a back story: the more specific you get with your ideal customer avatar, the easier it will be to build the first iteration of your digital product, prioritize core features, create content highly customizable and also build your offer in a way that speaks to them.

Here comes the EMPATHY MAP. This is a particular element that every MVP should comprise – no matter what niche, industry, or business you’re in.

An empathy map will help you get inside the head of your potential or existing customer. It assists in gaining insight into customer behavior, what works and what doesn't.

Here's an example of how an MVP empathy map looks like when it's filled in with details:

Ok, you’ve done it here. Enough with the market, it's time to talk product. In the next issue of MVN we'll talk about: VIABLE CORE REQUIREMENTS and The Efficient (Tech) Stack.

See you next week

Whenever you feel ready, there are three ways I can help you:

1. Transform Your Idea Into a Digital Product with Me in a Maven Workshop (27+ Workshops conducted so far)
2. Work With Me 1:1 and get over 15+ years of Product Development Experience & Strategy in 90 minutes.
3. Hire My Team at CODESILK to build your digital product