When trying to solve a business problem or developing a new product, how do you make sure that you’re delivering the greatest amount of value/ROI in the fastest, most efficient way possible? One way to do that is to focus on doing the absolute minimum!
Wait…by doing less, we can deliver more?! Absolutely! Let me explain.
Minimum Viable Product, or MVP, is the concept of delivering the minimum amount of features that solve a problem with the least amount of effort. The reason this approach is effective is that when we focus on delivering the features and functionality that deliver the greatest value and/or provide the highest ROI as soon as possible, we can realize that value and return much sooner! Additionally, we can gain real-world feedback on the solution to help us to identify and prioritize more features that will add even more value!
Sounds great, right?! But how do we figure out what MVP looks like?
Here at Mindset, we utilize a Design Thinking approach to work with teams to develop a high-resolution prototype that we use to guide that conversation. With that prototype, we start with what a full-featured solution looks like and work with the Product Owner and/or end users to figure out what features add the greatest value. From there we can prioritize those features in the backlog by overall value delivered, and discuss which parts of those features are absolutely essential for the user to complete their tasks and de-prioritize those parts that aren’t essential.
The next step is to iterate through the development process and have regular touchpoints with the stakeholders during the process. By doing this, we are able to see if we missed any features during the prototype development, and add those to the backlog for prioritization. Also, if we’re on the right track, the users should start to see the value the solution will add to their day, and we can gain champions to help improve with overall adoption when the product is released.
After we get to the point of being ready for our first release, an ideal situation would be to release the product to a group of pilot users that are representative of the full user base. Utilizing the pilot as a trial release, we are able to validate that our MVP has accomplished the goal of providing the user with only what they need and also solved the issues that provide the most value to the user. By seeing what works and what doesn’t, we are able to add missing features to the backlog and continue prioritization of those items. In the best case scenario, we are able to validate that the MVP pilot solution is ready for release to the rest of the user group as a whole where the ROI can start to be gained right away!
At this point, we can start adding in the additional non-essential features identified throughout the MVP development process and continue adding even more value!
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to see how we can help leverage our experience in SAP UX design and development! We here at Mindset would love to work with you to do the absolute minimum to deliver the absolute maximum value and help you become the MVP at your organization!
View our LinkedIn, here.
