Launching a new product is an interesting and exciting process for every startup. So, you have already validated your product idea for market fit, raised some seed investments, and are ready to embark on this journey? Great! But you don’t want to spend half a year of your life without any guarantee of success? Read on to learn the pros and cons of MVP development and how to minimize the duration and development cost of this essential product development process!
Prolonged MVP development duration is one of the biggest risks your startup might face. Should you miss the window of opportunity, more agile competitors are sure to take your market share. However, rushing an MVP software development might lead to releasing a half-baked version of your product that fails on the market. What should a startup do? We will show you how to build an MVP in an optimal timeframe!
Ready to turn your business idea into a marketable product in under 4 months? Partner with our expert software development company for dedicated MVP development services. Contact us today!
Table of Contents
What is an MVP? Understanding the Concept of MVP Development
We are sure you know the basics, but let’s ensure we are on the same page regarding the concept of MVP development.
MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product — the smallest set of MVP features that you can use to solve some real-world pain of your customers and provide the user feedback needed to continue the app development. The goal of MVP development is validation, not perfection. It is the simplest version of a product that allows you to start the feedback loop.
Why the MVP Approach is Essential for Every Startup
MVP software development by a remote software development company or technology vendor is the most feasible way for a startup to get the product to the market quickly, with minimal risks and maximum cost-efficiency. Why?
An MVP helps you get real-world data early to validate users’ interest in your product or service and adjust the feature set based on user feedback. The MVP approach minimizes the losses in case the product gains little traction. Thus, MVP development is an essential stage for every startup seeking development success. An effective MVP is one that solves a real problem for your target users.
However, MVP development requires a skilled development team in order to succeed. Hiring a team while developing an MVP is very risky as it can break the whole project. Therefore, many startups go for outsourcing MVP development to a remote team of software engineers. While developing an MVP using a remote team, startups can hire in-house expertise quickly and lay the foundation for further growth, ensuring a smoother product development.
MVP Types: Finding the Right MVP for Your Business Idea
The minimum viable product doesn’t always have to be a complex, coded mobile app or web application. The MVP approach is flexible. Understanding the various MVP types helps you select the basic version of a product that requires the least effort and cost to validate your business idea.
| MVP Type | Description & Primary Goal | Functionality & Cost Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Landing Page MVP | A single webpage describing the new product and its value proposition. Collects emails to validate interest and estimate customer acquisition cost. | Zero coding; quick launch; high cost savings. |
| Piecemeal MVP | Using existing tools (like Airtable, Zapier, or WordPress) to string together a functional solution. Mimics the product’s core functionalities without building custom software. | Minimal software development; focuses on functionality delivery. |
| Concierge MVP | Delivering the service manually behind the scenes to target users. E.g., a startup founder personally managing customer bookings via email. Helps validate the entire service process. | High human effort and cost, low technical development cost. |
| No-Code MVP | Using no-code platforms (like Webflow or Bubble) to quickly assemble a functional web application with real logins. | Very fast development time; minimal technical debt. |
By choosing the appropriate MVP approach, you can launch your minimum viable product MVP faster than traditional coding allows. The core takeaway is that the MVP must be the simplest version of a product that still allows you to validate your core hypothesis.
Benefits of MVP Development over Full-Scale Development
Developing an MVP allows startups to minimize risk and maximize learning.
Strategic Advantages and Risk Mitigation
- Idea Validation. MVP allows you to validate how effectively your product’s core functionalities solve customers’ pain points and change the strategy quickly if hypotheses prove to be wrong. This prevents startups from failing due to misaligned market needs.
- Shorter Time-to-Market. MVP development is rapid, so you can promote a product and gain early adopters faster. MVP gets you ahead of the competition and into the hands of target users.
- Risk Mitigation. Software development involves lots of risks. By going for the development of an MVP you can mitigate most of the common risks associated with building the wrong version of a new product.
Financial and Operational Advantages
- Relatively Small Investments. Building an MVP requires less money, as compared to building a full-scale product development. Thus, you can spend this money on customer development to reach the breakeven point faster and increase cost savings. This allows you to measure the actual development cost against the market traction of an MVP app.
- Customer-Centric Iteration. The iterative nature of the MVP approach helps improve the product continuously based on user feedback. The MVP helps create a truly market-driven future product.
- Focus on Core Functionality. The MVP approach forces discipline, ensuring the development team only focuses on core functionalities and MVP features that deliver immediate value, avoiding unnecessary scope creep.
How to Build an MVP in Less Than 4 Months: The Agile Blueprint
The duration of the entire MVP development process depends on the scope of work, the technology stack, and the team’s maturity. Based on our experience, the shortest development time to build an MVP was 3 months. This was achieved by adhering strictly to the agile development methodology and maintaining discipline across these four sequential phases.
Phase 1: Discovery (2–4 Weeks) – MVP Starts with a Plan
The discovery phase must be conducted rigorously. The phase duration largely depends on how well the product idea is thought through. The more attention and effort and cost you dedicate here, the better the outcomes are overall.
- Key Activities. Gather and collaborate with a discovery team (CTO, Business Analyst, Architect, UX/UI Designer). Define target audience demographics and their precise pain points.
- Prioritization. Use techniques like MoSCoW (Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, Won’t-Have) to determine the absolute minimum set of MVP features and functionality. The MVP must include only the core functionalities that validate the central product idea.
- Deliverables. Customer personas, user stories, solution architecture, wireframes and MVP design mockups, a clear roadmap, and backlog for MVP software development. This detailed roadmap is the foundation for managing the development time.
Phase 2: Prototyping (2–4 Weeks) – Visualizing the MVP
Building a product prototype may take around 2-4 weeks and enables validating the deliverables from the discovery phase. This phase bridges the gap between the concept and the coded MVP.
- Key Activities. Create a clickable prototype or a high-fidelity mock-up. This is often an un-coded visual representation of the MVP app that simulates the user journey.
- Validation. Allows getting initial user feedback from the stakeholders and focus groups, who provide input on usability and possible improvements of the product. This feedback is crucial for refining the flow and ensuring the MVP effectively solves a real problem.
- Deliverable. The interactive product prototype (often using tools like Figma or Sketch). This feedback is continuously added to the backlog, so you can adjust any aspect of the future product should the need arise.
Phase 3: Implementation (6–12 Weeks) – Agile Development
Once the prototype feedback is gathered and processed, backlog and user stories are updated accordingly. This allows proceeding with implementing the MVP. This may take about 6-12 weeks, depending on the agreed MVP scope. This is the phase where your MVP development teams execute the agile sprints.
- Execution. The development team codes the agreed-upon MVP features for the chosen platform (mobile app or web application). The focus is exclusively on the core functionalities.
- Iterative Feedback. Maintain a tight feedback loop throughout the sprints. This means incorporating small adjustments based on user feedback immediately, embodying the iterative nature of product development.
- Deliverable. The MVP is built according to the scope, hosted in an internal staging environment, and ready for user acceptance testing (UAT).
Phase 4: Release and Post-Launch Support (Ongoing) – Gaining Early Adopters
At this stage, the stakeholders perform UAT. The team resolves the issues found, prepares the product release, rolls it out to the production environment, and can begin developing the rest of the features based on the roadmap and customer feedback.
- Launch Strategy. Prepare the necessary marketing materials, such as a focused landing page that clearly communicates the MVP’s value proposition.
- Analytics Integration. Ensure that user analytics is integrated into the product to track usage, retention, and funnel drop-offs. The MVP gives you quantifiable data to validate your market assumptions.
- Deliverables. CI/CD processes for updates and rollback, technical documentation, and a plan for gathering ongoing user feedback.
A Real-World Case from the SPsoft Experience
We are done with the theory now. Let’s see how to speed up MVP development in practice without compromising on quality. Here is how we did it for one of our clients — a platform for the music industry from the US.
- Ready designs. As the customer was a musician himself, he knew the needs of his target audience firsthand and prepared the designs prior to contacting us, which is a rare occasion. This helped shorten the discovery phase significantly, as the discovery includes lots of work from BA and PM in addition to designs. Otherwise, the estimate would have been several weeks longer.
- In-depth discovery and expertise. Due to performing in-depth discovery work and several of our core team members having relevant expertise, we were able to quickly define the best architecture for the project and implement it in full
- MoSCoW prioritization. We split the designs and specs by MoSCoW analysis techniques. This allowed to prioritize the most needed features and adjust the scope based on the end-user feedback
- Correct Product Owner. The customer filled in the Product Owner role due to being a niche expert and knowing all the challenges inside-out. He worked in close tandem with our Project Manager and team to solve all the tasks on the move
- Trust in the team. The customer trusted the team’s judgment to prioritize the features that give the most impact.
After the release, we provided ad-hoc support to the customer. Later the customer raised more investment and came back to us to continue the product development. Due to the factors listed above and leveraging our in-depth project management expertise, we were able to reduce the duration of MVP development to three months. We also avoided multiple pitfalls and hidden reefs that could have slowed or failed the project.
Things That Can Slow Down or Fail Your MVP Development
A proper discovery phase is mandatory to prepare for MVP development. Assuming market fit is chosen properly and the prototype phase was not skipped, the following are the most common reasons behind a failed MVP software development.
Lack of Relevant Expertise and Poor Vendor Selection
A team without relevant engineering experience, expertise, or strong Project Management (PM) skills is a recipe for failure. This might result in an incorrect technology stack, product architecture, or project roadmap, ultimately increasing the MVP development cost.
- Actionable Advice. Hire an in-house or contracted expert to validate the technical and SDLC expertise of the vendor. Check the tech background of each team member. Don’t rely too much on written testimonials — ask for direct references to relevant development success stories.
MVP Scope Creep (The Feature Trap)
The MVP scope is not managed properly. The MVP must include only the core functionalities and not adjust the scope mid-development by adding new features or functionality. Otherwise, exceeding the budget and planned development time becomes almost inevitable.
- Actionable Advice. Choose an MVP development company with demonstrable strong skills in project scope management. Secure the MVP scope on both sides of the partnership and make sure it does not grow due to “great ideas and wishes that might come up during the implementation.”
Founder/Startup Passivity and Lack of Resources
Startup founders should not be passive observers. They must actively steer the team to prioritize effort on the critical tasks. MVP development is a time-consuming and communication-intensive process.
- Actionable Advice. Allocate sufficient time for project management or compensate for it with a dedicated partner or team member. Developing an MVP requires significant resources and near-constant availability on the startup side to make executive decisions quickly, which helps deliver the MVP faster.
Not Enough Materials and Information Available
Hiring a team or vendor without defining user stories, UX/UI, and a well-tested user flow may kill the budget before your MVP is halfway done. The MVP development team requires a detailed backlog of well-defined tasks to run efficiently. This is why the development partner you choose must enforce the discovery and prototyping stages.
Final Thoughts: Keys to MVP Development Success
If you want to build an MVP in 3 months or less, the following conditions must be met:
- Working with a tech vendor skilled in delivering MVPs quickly, proven by cases and satisfied clients you can contact.
- Partnering with a CTO or tech advisor able to control the MVP development from a technological and process standpoint.
- Product idea validation and market fit check before MVP development starts.
- An in-depth discovery phase to define the MVP scope and roadmap.
- 2-sided management of MVP scope — you, as well as MVP implementation, must secure the MVP scope and make sure it does not grow.
- Adopting the agile methodology and maintaining a rapid, continuous feedback loop based on user feedback.
These principles allowed SPsoft to complete a high-impact MVP for a client in the music industry in just three months, leading to future investment and further product development. The MVP gives you the key to market entry and future development success.
Ready to stop guessing and start validating? Don’t let your innovative product idea miss its market window. Contact our expert MVP development company to schedule your discovery session and secure a fast, efficient, and risk-mitigated launch for your startup!
FAQ
How does the MVP development process affect the final development cost?
The MVP development cost is significantly lower than full product development because the MVP must include only the core functionalities. By launching the simplest version of a product, startups reduce initial investment and minimize the financial risk. The validation gathered from the MVP ensures that subsequent spending is based on user demand, preventing wasted effort and cost on new features the target audience doesn’t need.
What is the difference between an MVP and a Prototype?
An MVP differs from a prototype in its intent and functionality. A prototype is an un-coded visual or interactive model used to test design and user flow (usability). It is not a live product. The MVP is a coded, functional, and marketable product (a live version of a product) used to test the business idea and validate market viability (value). The prototype is a phase within the entire MVP development process.
Can a no-code MVP be considered a valid Minimum Viable Product?
Yes, a no-code MVP is absolutely valid. The minimum viable product MVP doesn’t require custom coding; it requires viability. A no-code MVP or a piecemeal MVP (using existing tools) can often be the right MVP because it launches MVP faster and provides a functional web application or basic mobile app to gather crucial user feedback with minimal development cost. This approach embodies the spirit of rapid application development.
Why is the Discovery Phase the most critical part of developing an MVP?
The discovery phase is critical because the MVP starts here by defining the scope. Without it, the development team lacks clear direction, leading to scope creep and inflated budgets. A proper discovery defines user stories, prioritizes pain points, clarifies core functionalities, and yields the initial MVP design, all of which are necessary to ensure the team can develop your MVP efficiently and prevent costly misunderstandings later in the development stage.
What is the best way for a startup to gather meaningful user feedback from an MVP?
The best way to gather user feedback is by building a clear feedback loop. This involves integrating analytics (to track what users do), in-app surveys (to ask why), and conducting interviews with early adopters and power users. Focusing on metrics like retention and customer acquisition cost (CAC) helps validate the business idea. The gathered data allows the development team to improve the product and decide on new features based on user feedback.
What role does Agile Development play in minimizing development time?
Agile development is crucial for minimizing development time because it is iterative and adaptive. It replaces rigid, long-term plans with short cycles (sprints) and continuous testing. This allows the MVP development teams to quickly pivot based on user input and market data, rather than building the wrong product for months. This methodology ensures the MVP is built MVP effectively and delivers maximum value quickly.
What is the difference between an MVP and a marketable product?
The MVP is the basic version of a product with only the minimum functionality required to validate the primary hypothesis. A fully marketable product, by contrast, is the refined and feature-rich future product that has undergone multiple iterations, includes extensive software features and polished UX/UI, and is ready for mass scale, having already proven its value through the MVP success.
What should a startup do if their MVP fails to gain traction?
If an MVP fails to gain traction, the startup should analyze the data. Because the MVP was a minimal investment, the startup avoids massive financial loss. They can choose to: pivot (change the product idea or target audience), iterate (fix a flawed functionality or MVP design), or perish (if the product idea truly has no market fit). The low development cost of the MVP gives the freedom to pivot quickly.
