mvp presentation example

MVP PowerPoint Template

The MVP PowerPoint Template is a presentation design containing a collection of useful diagrams to create presentations on Minimum Viable Products. It includes several diagram layouts featuring the concept of a minimum viable product (MVP). The layouts include 4 steps pyramid, Venn diagram, continuous process cycle, and matrix. Users can choose MVP diagram design to discuss ideas about product development techniques.

MVP or Minimum Viable Product is a method of introducing a new product into the market. Using MVP development technique, the beta product is released in the market with basic features that get the attention of consumers. After taking feedback from initial customers, the final product is launched. The purpose of MVP is to gather the viability of the product at an early stage. It helps developers to avoid lengthy and unnecessary work and revisit the components based on customers’ feedback.

The Minimum Viable Product template consists of vector-based illustrations to cover the topic in a comprehensive manner. The 4 steps pyramid diagram demonstrates product features i.e. functional, reliable, usable, and great design. The 4 steps process cycle diagram for MVP provides a brief knowledge of the product improvement cycle. There are several diagram template layouts available in the MVP PowerPoint template to discuss different aspects of the concept.

The templates of the Minimum Viable Product diagram help teams to discuss product development techniques. Especially in the case of startups and IT firms, the PowerPoint MVP template helps identify the requirements of the target audience. The PowerPoint MVP diagram assists in visualizing various factors to attain optimized results.

The MVP PowerPoint Template is a resourceful presentation tool for professionals in all industries. The PPT diagram can be a part of initial development meetings to discuss basic features and functions. On the other hand, once user feedback is received, the diagram aid in presenting solutions or advanced functions. The editable PowerPoint of Minimum Viable Product are in educational presentations provide productive knowledge of product strategy.

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Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

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How do you get your product team to be more agile, innovate faster and reduce the cost of failure? Download the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) presentation template to dedicate the right resources and develop the most important benefits that users actually want. MVPs prioritize your workflow to identify the most important features to build for customers and lower the cost of failed projects.

Questions and answers

What are the practical applications of the MVP framework in a specific industry?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) framework is widely used across various industries, especially in the tech and startup sectors. It allows companies to test the viability of a product or feature with minimal resources before fully launching it. This approach helps in reducing the risk of failure and waste of resources. It enables companies to gather user feedback early in the development process and iterate based on that feedback. For example, in the software industry, a company might develop a basic version of a new app, release it to a small group of users, and then use their feedback to refine the product before a full-scale launch.

How does the MVP framework align with digital transformation initiatives?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) framework aligns with digital transformation initiatives by enabling organizations to innovate faster, reduce the cost of failure, and be more agile. It allows them to focus on developing the most important features that users actually want, thereby reducing waste and increasing efficiency. This approach also facilitates feedback collection from users, which can be used to make continuous improvements. Thus, the MVP framework is a key enabler of digital transformation.

Can you compare the MVP framework with other business frameworks?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) framework is a business strategy used in product development to minimize the cost of failure by focusing on creating a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development. It's different from other business frameworks in several ways. For instance, compared to the Waterfall model, MVP is more flexible and allows for changes based on customer feedback. Unlike the Lean Startup methodology, which focuses on learning about customer demand before building a product, MVP focuses on building a basic product to learn from customer reactions. Compared to Agile, MVP is not a project management methodology but a product development strategy.

This template includes slides on MVP Canvas, MVP Score, Concept testing reports, validation metrics, weighted-shortest job-first feature prioritization, product adoption curve, jobs-to-be-done, MVP tree, A/B test results, product mockups, and many more. Plus, read to the end to learn how Uber developed a killer MVP that launched them to 93 million customers.

How does the MVP strategy align with the continuous iteration and feedback process?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) strategy aligns with the continuous iteration and feedback process by allowing businesses to develop a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers. These customers provide valuable feedback that can be used to improve and refine the product in subsequent iterations. This process of continuous improvement helps to minimize the cost of failure and maximize the chances of creating a product that meets the needs of the market.

How does the MVP approach help in reducing the cost of failure?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach helps in reducing the cost of failure by allowing businesses to test a basic version of their product in the market. This allows them to gather valuable feedback from users and understand what works and what doesn't before investing heavily in full-scale production. This way, if the product fails, the financial loss is minimized as the business has not spent a lot of resources in developing features that the market does not want. It also allows for quick iterations based on user feedback, further reducing the risk of failure.

What can we learn from Uber's successful development of a killer MVP?

Uber's successful development of a killer MVP teaches us several key lessons. First, it's crucial to focus on the core value proposition of your product. Uber's MVP was simple: connect drivers with riders. They didn't initially include features like fare splitting or scheduled rides. Second, it's important to validate your MVP with real users in a real-world context. Uber started in San Francisco and gradually expanded to other cities, learning and iterating along the way. Lastly, be prepared to pivot based on feedback and data. Uber started as a luxury service, but they quickly realized the demand for a more affordable option, leading to the creation of UberX.

Tool highlights

An MVP Canvas introduces the core components of an MVP from start to finish for PMs or designers. This slide can be shared across the entire product team as a blueprint for whatever product or features you aim to build. First, define the product's target customers and what they want. Next, define how you will build and test your MVP, then how learnings will influence the next step (which is the next iteration). Execs can then assess what the test results and feedback tell them. Should they continue with the full version along the original path, make slight adjustments and pivot in a new direction, or if the feedback is really bad, implement a full stop to the development and pursue something else. (Slide 3)

How can the concept of Minimum Viable Product enhance a company's product development strategy?

The concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) can significantly enhance a company's product development strategy by allowing it to test a product idea with minimal resources. It helps in identifying the most important features that users actually want, thus reducing the risk of failure. By developing an MVP, companies can gather usability feedback early in the development process, which can guide future iterations of the product. This approach allows for continuous learning and improvement, and can help companies decide whether to continue with the original product plan, make adjustments, or pivot in a new direction based on user feedback.

What are the possible outcomes after assessing the test results and feedback of an MVP?

After assessing the test results and feedback of an MVP, there are three possible outcomes. First, if the feedback is positive and the product meets the needs of the target customers, the team can continue with the full version along the original path. Second, if the feedback suggests that some adjustments are needed, the team can make slight adjustments and pivot in a new direction. Lastly, if the feedback is really bad, the team can implement a full stop to the development and pursue something else.

How can executives use feedback from MVP tests to decide the future course of product development?

Executives can use feedback from MVP tests to decide the future course of product development in several ways. Firstly, they can assess whether the product meets the needs and expectations of the target customers. If the feedback is positive, they may decide to continue with the full version along the original path. If the feedback suggests that some features need to be adjusted, they may decide to make slight adjustments and pivot in a new direction. In case the feedback is really bad, they may decide to implement a full stop to the development and pursue something else. The key is to learn from the feedback and use it to guide the next steps in product development.

An MVP is the skeleton of a product. For a product that might have 20 different features, this slide lets you triage which features go into the MVP. Each column from left to right dictates a user's flow. In the template example, the flow goes: customize, manage order, pay and receive order. For each part of the user journey, there are different features. List the features in order of highest priority to lowest priority. A dark blue color means this feature is needed in the walking skeleton, which is like a wireframe. The lighter color features are needed for the full MVP and can be incorporated later. The gray features are unnecessary at this stage. This prioritization helps maximize success with reduced human and financial resources spent on any feature that isn't required to validate the product as worthy of pursuit. (Slide 6)

How does the MVP approach align with the concept of lean startup?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach aligns with the concept of a lean startup by focusing on creating a product with the most essential features that users actually want. This approach allows startups to gather usability feedback and validate the product's worthiness before investing heavily in full-scale development. It helps in reducing the cost of failure by minimizing the resources spent on unnecessary features. This aligns with the lean startup methodology, which emphasizes learning from customer feedback, iterative product design, and validated learning.

What are the potential challenges in implementing an MVP and how can they be addressed?

Implementing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) can present several challenges. Firstly, defining what is 'minimum' can be difficult as it requires a deep understanding of the customer's needs and expectations. Secondly, there can be a risk of oversimplification, where the MVP lacks the necessary features to satisfy the customer. Thirdly, there can be resistance from stakeholders who may not fully understand the concept of an MVP and expect a fully finished product. To address these challenges, it's important to have a clear understanding of the customer's needs and to prioritize features accordingly. Regular feedback and communication with stakeholders can help manage expectations and ensure everyone understands the purpose and benefits of an MVP. Lastly, it's crucial to have a well-defined plan for post-MVP development to ensure that the product continues to evolve and improve based on user feedback.

What are some examples of companies that have successfully used the MVP approach?

Some examples of companies that have successfully used the MVP approach include Dropbox, Airbnb, and Uber. Dropbox started with a simple video demonstrating their product concept before building the actual product. This allowed them to gauge user interest and gather feedback. Airbnb started with a basic website that allowed the founders to rent out their own homes. This helped them validate the demand for a peer-to-peer lodging platform. Uber began in San Francisco as a luxury car service, which allowed them to test the market before expanding to other cities and introducing more affordable options.

Concept testing report

After execs develop and present their MVP to a group of users, it's time to collect and summarize user reactions and feedback. For a quantitative representation, the top graph of this slide represents the users' initial reactions across multiple concepts. Below that, reactions on likelihood to purchase are graded on a scale from definitely to definitely not. These editable graphs can assess the most important questions PMs need to discover for their specific product. On the right, key findings are listed out for PMs to share their conclusions in a qualitative written list summary. (Slide 11)

How can companies implement the MVP framework in their product development process?

Companies can implement the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) framework in their product development process by first identifying the core features that their product needs to solve its intended purpose. These features should be developed and tested in the initial version of the product. The MVP is then presented to a select group of users for feedback. This feedback is used to make necessary adjustments and improvements to the product. The process is iterative, with each cycle involving feedback and improvements, until the product is ready for a full-scale launch.

How does the MVP framework align with lean startup methodologies?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) framework aligns with lean startup methodologies in several ways. Firstly, both emphasize the importance of learning and adapting quickly in a business environment. The MVP framework allows businesses to test, measure, and learn from their product's performance in the market, while lean startup methodologies encourage continuous iteration and improvement based on customer feedback. Secondly, both frameworks advocate for efficient use of resources. By focusing on developing only the most essential features of a product, businesses can minimize waste and maximize value for their customers. Lastly, both methodologies promote a customer-centric approach, emphasizing the need to understand and meet customer needs effectively.

What are the main components of the MVP framework?

The main components of the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) framework typically include the following: 1. Core Idea: This is the basic concept or problem that the product is designed to address. 2. Key Features: These are the essential functionalities that directly address the core idea or problem. They are the minimum features required for the product to provide value to the user. 3. User Feedback: An MVP is designed to gather user feedback early in the product development process. This feedback is crucial for validating the product's value proposition and for informing future development. 4. Iteration: Based on the user feedback, the product is refined and improved in subsequent iterations.

Validation metrics

To gauge an MVP's success after launch, PMs can analyze a pool of data. This slide can be used as a status update or periodic check-in for weekly or quarterly reports with the rest of the product team. It covers key financial validation metrics like monthly recurring revenue, annual recurring revenue, average revenue per user, and the lifetime value per user.

Can you provide a case study demonstrating the effectiveness of the MVP approach in a specific industry?

While I don't have a specific case study at hand, I can tell you that the MVP approach has been successfully used in various industries. For instance, in the tech industry, Dropbox started as an MVP. They initially launched a simple video explaining their concept and gathered user interest before building the full product. This allowed them to validate the market demand and adjust their product based on user feedback, saving resources and reducing the risk of failure.

How does the MVP approach align with the strategy of creating the best product with the least cost of failure?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach aligns with the strategy of creating the best product with the least cost of failure by focusing on developing and releasing a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers. This allows companies to validate their product concept with minimal resources, gather usability feedback, and make necessary adjustments before investing heavily in full-scale development. This approach reduces the risk of failure as it allows for testing and validating ideas in the market before committing significant resources.

What is the significance of metrics like monthly recurring revenue, annual recurring revenue, average revenue per user, and the lifetime value per user in the MVP process?

Metrics like Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), and Lifetime Value Per User (LTV) are crucial in the MVP process as they provide financial validation of the product. MRR and ARR give an understanding of the predictable and recurring revenue that the business can expect on a monthly and yearly basis. ARPU helps in understanding the revenue generated per user, providing insights into pricing strategy. LTV gives an estimate of the total revenue a business can reasonably expect from a single customer account. These metrics help in making informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and customer retention.

At the bottom, execs can qualify user-based validation metrics across the number of accounts that have newly joined, canceled, upgraded or downgraded services. These metrics are more common for a subscription-based service, so execs with products that follow a different business model can edit these to reflect their most important metrics. (Slide 13)

How can the concept of Minimum Viable Product be applied to a subscription-based service?

The concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) can be applied to a subscription-based service by focusing on the most essential features that would attract and retain subscribers. This involves identifying the core value proposition of the service, and then building and delivering a version of the service that provides that value with the least amount of resources. User feedback can then be gathered and used to refine and improve the service, adding more features based on user needs and preferences. This approach minimizes the risk of failure and waste of resources.

How can user-based validation metrics help in the development of a Minimum Viable Product?

User-based validation metrics can significantly aid in the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by providing valuable insights into user behavior and preferences. These metrics can track the number of accounts that have newly joined, canceled, upgraded, or downgraded services. This data can help identify the most important features that users actually want, thereby allowing resources to be dedicated appropriately. Furthermore, these metrics can provide usability feedback, which can be used to continuously improve the product based on actual user experiences and needs.

What are some effective ways to gather usability feedback for a Minimum Viable Product?

There are several effective ways to gather usability feedback for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). One of the most common methods is user testing, where you observe users as they interact with your product and note any difficulties or issues they encounter. Surveys and questionnaires can also be used to gather feedback, as they allow users to provide their thoughts and opinions on the product. Additionally, analytics tools can provide valuable insights into how users are interacting with the product, such as which features are most used or where users tend to drop off. Finally, direct feedback from users, either through interviews or open-ended feedback forms, can provide detailed and specific information about what users like and dislike about the product.

Case study: Uber

When the founders of Uber started the project, they wanted to build a way for anyone to buy a black car service straight from their phone called Ubercab. They created a simple prototype with three features: First, the ability to request a car to your location via a text with your address; second, a licensed professional driver in a black car that shows up at the curb, and three, an automatic charge to the credit card on file.

Can you provide a case study demonstrating the effectiveness of the MVP strategy?

Yes, a great case study demonstrating the effectiveness of the MVP strategy is Uber. When the founders of Uber started the project, they wanted to build a way for anyone to buy a black car service straight from their phone called Ubercab. They created a simple prototype with three features: First, the ability to request a car to your location via a text with your address; second, a licensed professional driver in a black car that shows up at the curb, and three, an automatic charge to the credit card on file. This MVP allowed them to test the market and gather usability feedback before investing in more complex features.

What are the challenges in implementing an MVP strategy and how can they be overcome?

Implementing an MVP strategy comes with several challenges. First, there's the challenge of defining what 'minimum' means. It's crucial to include enough features to solve the user's problem but not so many that it becomes too costly or time-consuming. Second, there's the risk of receiving negative feedback from early users due to the product's simplicity. This can be mitigated by clearly communicating the purpose of the MVP and that it's a work in progress. Third, there's the challenge of interpreting feedback and deciding which features to add or modify. This requires a deep understanding of the user's needs and the problem being solved. Lastly, there's the challenge of maintaining a lean approach as the product evolves. It's important to continually validate assumptions and make data-driven decisions.

Can you compare the MVP strategy with other product development strategies?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) strategy is a product development approach where a new product is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters. The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product's initial users. This strategy helps in avoiding the development of products that customers do not want. It is cost-effective and less time-consuming as it focuses on building only necessary features at the start. On the other hand, other product development strategies like Waterfall and Agile involve a more comprehensive and detailed initial plan and often require more resources. Waterfall strategy is a linear approach where you complete one phase and then move to the next. Agile strategy is an iterative approach where the product is built incrementally from the start, instead of all at once towards the end. In comparison, MVP is a more lean and flexible approach, allowing for adjustments based on user feedback and market response.

Once it was ready, they tested it in New York and San Francisco. They didn't even put the app online but made prospective users have to email them to get access. Over time, they used the feedback in these cities to add new features to provide estimated ride fees, split fares, and or track the ride in real-time. This way, they were able to test one core feature to validate the service, then iterate based on what users wanted — not what they thought users wanted. And it helped them grow the business to over 93 million active customers as of 2021.

Are there any case studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of the MVP approach in real-world scenarios?

Yes, there are numerous case studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of the MVP approach in real-world scenarios. One of the most notable examples is Uber. Initially, Uber launched a basic app that simply connected drivers with riders in San Francisco. They didn't put the app online but made prospective users have to email them to get access. Over time, they used the feedback in these cities to add new features like estimated ride fees, split fares, and real-time ride tracking. This iterative approach allowed them to validate their service and grow their business based on actual user feedback, eventually reaching over 93 million active customers as of 2021.

What are the main components of the MVP approach in product development?

The main components of the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach in product development are: 1) Identifying the core problem that the product will solve. 2) Defining the key features that will address this problem. 3) Developing the product with these key features. 4) Testing the product in the target market. 5) Using feedback from the market to refine the product and add new features. This approach allows businesses to validate their product concept and improve it based on actual user feedback, reducing the risk of failure.

What are some challenges that companies might face when implementing the MVP approach and how can they be addressed?

Some challenges that companies might face when implementing the MVP approach include: 1. Determining the core features: It can be difficult to decide what the most important features are that should be included in the MVP. 2. Gathering user feedback: It can be challenging to gather user feedback and interpret it correctly to improve the product. 3. Balancing quality and speed: Companies might struggle to maintain quality while trying to develop and launch the product quickly. These challenges can be addressed by: 1. Conducting thorough market research to understand what features are most important to the target audience. 2. Implementing effective feedback mechanisms and taking the time to properly analyze and understand the feedback received. 3. Prioritizing tasks effectively and ensuring there is a balance between speed and quality.

If your product design team takes too long before a product launch or wastes time and money on features your customers don't want, you need this presentation. To download the complete Minimum Viable Product (MVP) presentation template, become a Plus member. You'll gain more slides on Weighted-shortest job-first feature prioritization, Product adoption curve, Jobs-to-be-done, MVP tree, A/B test results, product mockups, and many more to save time and hours of work.

How can the MVP approach save time and resources in product development?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach can save time and resources in product development by focusing on creating a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development. This approach helps in avoiding the development of features that customers don't want, thus saving time and resources. It also allows for quick market testing and immediate user feedback, which can guide the development process more effectively.

What are the benefits of using product mockups in the MVP strategy?

Product mockups in the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) strategy have several benefits. Firstly, they provide a visual representation of the product, which can help stakeholders understand the product's functionality and design before it's fully developed. This can facilitate feedback and adjustments early in the development process, saving time and resources. Secondly, mockups can be used in user testing to gather valuable user feedback and insights. This can help ensure that the final product meets user needs and expectations. Lastly, product mockups can help in marketing and sales efforts by providing a tangible representation of the product to potential customers or investors.

How can A/B test results contribute to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach?

A/B test results can significantly contribute to the MVP approach by providing valuable insights into user preferences and behavior. These tests involve comparing two versions of a product feature to see which one performs better with a specific audience. The results can help in identifying the most effective features or elements that should be included in the MVP. This way, the MVP is built based on data-driven decisions, reducing the risk of failure and ensuring that the product meets user needs and expectations.

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Must-have Minimum Viable Product Templates with Samples and Examples

Hanisha Kapoor

Do you know when Uber rolled out its services in the market, you could not download it from the app store. Rather, customers had to email the founders and get the unique code to get the app. In addition, Uber’s CEO used to connect with the drivers and managed their orders himself.

Once, Uber hit upon the solution to the  pain point of the target customers and was widely accepted, it added a slew of features and grew into a brand that they are today.

This is an example of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in action, which means testing an idea during an early stage of development. At its core, the MVP is the stripped-down, leanest version of your product that’s still functional and valuable enough to captivate your target audience.

Within the context of the lean startup methodology, the MVP is characterized as the iteration of a novel product that garners the highest possible validation of customer insights at minimal or no expense.

Learn to create an effective product strategy with SlideTeam’s actionable PPT Templates

Could this be feasible?

MVP Templates for Laying the Foundation of Success

Crafting a full-fledged product demands time, money, and effort. The MVP approach lets you avoid pouring your resources into something that might not resonate with your audience. Instead, you invest in small increments, steering your ship based on real-time user data rather than assumptions. Therefore, SlideTeam brings its content-ready and custom-made PowerPoint Templates to help you launch a simplified version of your products. Deploy these PPT Slides to transform your idea into a reality.

Unleash your ideas using product development strategy templates

Each of these templates is 100% customizable and editable. You get both structure in the form of content ready slides, and the edit capability means the presentation can be easily tailored to specific audience profiles.

Browse the collection below and embrace the MVP mindset.

Let’s begin!

Template 1: Build a Minimum Viable Product Template

Wish to test your product before its big launch? Use this content-ready Product Roadmap PowerPoint Template to build a MVP to tests its likeability in the market. This is a top-notch PPT Presentation that you can use to streamline the process of introducing your product to the customers. It provides a structured roadmap to create a simplified version of your concept, focusing on core functionalities. This approach minimizes resource wastage, allowing businesses to test the waters and gather user feedback. This ready to use slide fosters agility, helping businesses adapt and improve based on real-world insights. It also empowers you to iteratively refine your offerings, ensuring they resonate with customers, while optimizing time and investment. Download now!

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Template 2: Minimum Viable Product Timeline PowerPoint Template

Here is another pre-designed PowerPoint Template to help you navigate the product development journey. Grab this actionable PPT Slide to outline key milestones and phases from concept inception to MVP launch. It aids in allocating resources and setting realistic deadlines. By adhering to the timeline, you can accelerate your product’s market entry, gaining a competitive edge. This preset also helps you facilitate effective communication among teams, ensuring everyone is aligned with project progression. Use this PPT Template to balance speed and quality, delivering a functional MVP that serves as the foundation for iterative enhancements and customer-focused innovations. Download now!

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Template 3: MVP Plan PowerPoint Template

This is a content-ready PowerPoint Template that provides you with a comprehensive framework to outline crucial steps and objectives for creating a streamlined MVP. This includes product launch timeline, weekly roadmap for MVP, marketing checklist, process to build an MVP, and more. Grab this professional PowerPoint Slide to define core features, target audience, and metrics for success with ready-made dashboard. This PowerPoint Slide also helps you in resource allocation, reducing unnecessary expenditure, while focusing on high-impact elements. Download now!

Template 4: Minimum Viable Product Template

Whether you are from an automobile industry or own a software development company, this PPT Template is your best bet for navigating the innovation landscape. Deploy this content-ready PowerPoint Slide to create a simplified, yet functional version of a new product or service. By focusing on features and core value, you can validate your concept with real-world users while conserving resources. This approach accelerates time-to-market, mitigates risks, and guides businesses towards informed decision-making. Leverage this presentation template to enhance your offerings that align with customer needs. Download now!

MVP for Embracing Efficiency

The MVP emerges as a guiding light for businesses. The process prioritizes features, accelerating market entry and user feedback. Through SlideTeam’s premium PPT Templates, you can ensure that your product resonates with your audience. These content-ready and custom-made templates not only lead to efficient resource allocation but also foster an adaptive mindset that paves the way for enduring success in an ever-evolving landscape.

Download now!

PS: Read this comprehensive blog replete with ready to use PPT template to unveil innovation and elevate your products.

FAQs on Minimum Viable Product

What are the three elements of mvp.

The 3 elements of MVP:

Core Features : An MVP focuses on including only fundamental features that address the primary problem or need of the users. These features are essential for the product to function and provide value, but these are deliberately kept simple and stripped-down of any frills or extras.

Quick Development : The MVP is developed rapidly and efficiently, avoiding unnecessary complexities and features that might delay the launch. The emphasis is on getting a functional version out into the market as soon as possible.

User Feedback : The MVP is released to a select group of early users, often referred to as beta testers or early adopters. Their feedback and usage patterns provide insights into how well the product is meeting user needs and whether any adjustments or enhancements are required.

What is the purpose of MVP?

The primary purpose of an MVP is to validate assumptions and hypotheses about a product's value proposition, user needs, and market demand. By launching a simplified version and observing user interactions, businesses can gather real-world data on user behavior, preferences, and pain points. This information guides further development, helping refine and enhance the product iteratively based on concrete feedback rather than assumptions.

Who tests an MVP?

An MVP is typically tested by a selected group of early users, which could include beta testers, pilot customers, or early adopters. These individuals are willing to engage with the product, despite its basic features and provide feedback based on their experience. Their insights help the development team understand how well the MVP resonates with the target audience and what improvements are necessary for subsequent iterations.

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11 Proven Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Examples to Validate Your Product Idea

• December 01, 2023

Read time 8 min

• by Ishan Vyas

Table of Contents

What is an mvp and what it's not, minimum viable products vs minimum marketable product vs proof of concept, why build minimum viable product, 11 minimum viable product examples based on types, selecting the best mvp development company – points to consider.

Quick Summary You have a great idea for a digital product or service, but you’re not sure if it will work or have a little to no idea how to build it. In such a scenario, you don’t want to waste time, money, and resources on something that people don’t want or need. Instead, you want to test your idea, get feedback from real users, and learn from the market demand. But, the question is – how do you do that? The answer is simple: launch a minimum viable product (MVP). But, is it a lucrative approach? Well, the answer lies in success stories of brands that created (minimum viable product) MVPs and achieved remarkable outcomes.

In this article, we will go through the 11 successful minimum viable product examples based on types.

But before we dive deep into minimum viable product examples, first let's see what exactly a minimum viable product is and what it isn't.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a basic version of a product with essential features, developed quickly to validate ideas and gather user feedback. It aims to address a specific problem for early adopters and reduce development risks, while allowing for a more refined and successful final product.

Unlike prototypes, MVPs are ready-to-launch versions designed to validate ideas and user needs. It serves as a learning tool, guiding iterative improvements based on user insights.

MVP development doesn't guarantee success but enhances the chances by minimizing resources invested in potentially unpopular products. It also allows you to test core functionalities and gather valuable user feedback early on. This feedback can then be incorporated into a more refined process of digital Product Development , ultimately leading to a successful final product. 

An MVP is similar to 

• Minimum marketable product
• Proof of concept
• Rough draft

But there are a few differentiations that set all three apart.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Minimum Marketable Product (MMP), and Proof of Concept (PoC) differ in their purposes and stages in product development. 

• An MVP is the initial basic version aimed at gathering early adopter feedback. 
• The MMP comes after the MVP, incorporating more features for market readiness. 
• A PoC is a small-scale test to verify the feasibility of an idea before full-scale development. Each serves a distinct role in the product development process .

Building a minimum viable product facilitates quicker market entry, user feedback, and iterative improvement while reducing costs and attracting potential investors. 

Other reasons to build an MVP include:

• Faster time-to-market
• Gathering valuable user feedback
• Focusing on core features
• Attracting early adopters
• Testing the product concept
• Embracing validated learning
• Reducing development costs
• Achieving faster revenue generation, and more.

Get it validated by the popular MVP examples in the next section.

1. Landing Page as MVP

The landing page (minimum viable product) MVP, or "sell before you build," is a simple approach to creating a landing page for a product yet to be developed. It requires fewer resources and time, validating the product idea and generating interest from potential customers before full investment. The landing page serves as a preliminary sales pitch to gauge market demand, collect user data, and make informed decisions based on feedback and interest.  Utilizing tools like the WP Quiz Plugin can enhance user engagement and interaction on the landing page, providing valuable insights for further product development.

Best suited for: Early-stage product validation, market testing, and when limited resources or time constraints are present.

Buffer : One of the Successful Minimum Viable Product Examples

Buffer validated its social media scheduling app idea using landing page (minimum viable product)MVPs. It created and tested three landing pages with different information and functionality:

• The first landing page had a headline, a subheading, a sign-up form, and a blog post link.
• The second one added a button for pricing plans and a page for choosing a plan and signing up.
• The third one added a button for connecting with Twitter and a page for authorizing Buffer and accessing the dashboard.

Using landing pages, it tested its product idea and collected data and feedback. It improved its product until it fit the market. And grew its customers and revenue with its email list before launching.

2. Demo Videos as MVP/ Explainer Videos as MVP Examples

If you want to show how your product or service would work, what problem it would solve, and why it would be valuable to your customers, build a demo or explainer video MVP. It.  lets you demonstrate your concept visually and test the market demand and feedback, and you can even create an AI video to enhance the presentation.

Best suited for: Products or services that are complex, novel, or not yet fully developed, and need a clear explanation of how it works and what benefits it offers.

Crazy Egg : A Minimum Viable Product Examples of Explainer Videos

Crazy Egg, a brand offering a web analytics tool, created a demo video that explained the problem it was solving, the solution it was offering, and the benefits of using its tool. It also showed how the tool works, using features like heatmaps, scroll maps, overlay reports, and confetti. It used humor and animation to make its video more appealing and memorable.

According to its creator Demo Duck, “it helped Crazy Egg increase conversion rates by 64% and generate an additional $21,000 in monthly revenue”

3. Software Prototype as MVP

A software prototype is a (minimum viable product)MVP where you use existing tools and services to create a working model of your product or service. This technique lets you test the functionality and usability of your product or service, and get feedback from users, without building anything from scratch. 

Best suited for: Testing the appeal of the application to its target audience before investing resources, efforts, and time.

Uber : One of the Popular Software Prototype MVP Examples 

Back when Uber was founded, it used tools and services like Google Maps, Twilio, and Braintree to build its platform. It then launched it in San Francisco in 2010 with three cars. 

Uber measured and learned from its customers’ demand, usage, and feedback. It also attracted investors, customers, and media. Based on data and insights, it improved its product and added features like live tracking, surge pricing, ratings, etc. Lastly, it expanded and diversified its service to more cities and countries, offering UberX, UberPool, UberEats, etc.

4. Single Feature MVP

A single feature (Minimum viable product)MVP is a product that solves a problem for customers. The idea behind it is that customers need a painkiller feature that can relieve their problem. The single feature MVP also helps the product stand out from the competition and attract the attention of the potential customers.

Best suited for: evaluating the viability and popularity of the app among the potential users.

Pinterest : A Single Feature MVP Product Development

Well, do you know that Pinterest started as a simple app called Tote? The core functionality of the app lets users save images from websites to its boards. This was its single feature MVP, which tested its hypothesis that people would enjoy creating and browsing visual collections of its interests. 

It learned from its early adopters that users also wanted to see what others were pinning, and they preferred a web-based platform over a mobile app. It pivoted from Tote to Pinterest, and added more features and categories to improve the user experience and engagement. 

By focusing on just one core feature that delivered the core value proposition of the product, Pinterest was able to iterate and improve its product over time based on data and insights.

5. Product Design MVP

A product design (Minimum viable product)MVP tests and improves the design and user experience of a product. It uses sketches, mockups, and wireframes to show the concept, appearance, and structure of a product. UX designers create and iterate these elements based on feedback and data. 

Best suited for: businesses who want to test and improve the design and user experience of their product or those whose end goals are mobile platforms like Android MVP.

Memento: An Example of Product Design MVP

Memento is an app that allows people to capture their life stories. The app originated as a basic sketch, with a vague idea of what the designers planned to add. After the initial launch, they received feedback from the users and modified the app accordingly to make it function well.

6. Single-market MVP

A single market MVP is a product that focuses on providing products to one specific market group, such as a city. It tests the business model, demand, and feedback for that market segment. It also makes the product unique and attractive to the customers.

Best suited for: Businesses or entrepreneurs who have a product idea that can solve a problem or meet a need for a specific and well-defined market segment, such as a specific target audience, geographic location, etc.

Airbnb : A Single-Market MVP Example

Airbnb started by launching a simple website that featured three listings for one core market group, i.e., San Francisco users.

This was its single market (Minimum Viable Product)MVP, which tested its hypothesis that people would be interested in renting out their spare rooms or homes to travelers. It learned from its early adopters that they also wanted to see reviews, ratings, and messaging features. Airbnb also learned that it needed to improve its trust and safety measures.

By focusing on one specific market group that had a common problem or need, Airbnb was able to iterate and improve its product over time based on data and insights.

Today, it’s a global platform that offers unique accommodations around the world. 

7. Piecemeal MVP

A piecemeal MVP is a way of creating a new product by using existing tools and functionalities that are already available in the market. Instead of building everything from scratch, you can use different components that already work and combine them in a creative way to deliver your value proposition to your customers.

Best suited for: Organizations that do not have enough resources or infrastructure to build products from scratch.

Groupon : A Classic Piecemeal MVP Example

Groupon is a place where you can find amazing deals on things to do, see, eat, and buy in your area. It started as a simple idea: use what’s already available to create and send coupons to customers. It didn’t need to make its own software or platform. It just wanted to test its idea and see what customers thought.

By developing a piecemeal (Minimum Viable Product)MVP, it learned who its customers were, what they wanted, and how to make money from them. It kept improving its product based on customer feedback. Groupon became a huge success with millions of happy customers and merchants. 

8. Concierge MVP

A concierge MVP is a type of minimum viable product that involves manually solving the customer’s problems. Instead of building a complex product or service, you can use existing tools and human resources to deliver your value proposition to your customers. This way, you can test your idea and get feedback from your customers quickly and easily. 

A concierge MVP is a great way to validate your assumptions and learn about your customer’s needs and preferences.

Best suited for: Businesses that seek to acquire and analyze customers before launching their product.

Food on The Table: One Of The Concierge Minimum Viable Product Examples

Food on the Table is one of the concierge MVP examples that it manually creates personalized meal plans and shopping lists for customers. 

The founder, Manuel Rosso, interviewed customers about their food needs and offered them a subscription service. Then, he used Excel and email to send them customized plans and lists based on their preferences. He also followed up with them regularly to get feedback and make adjustments. 

By doing this, he was able to validate his value proposition and learn about his customers without building a complex product. Moreover, he earned trust and loyalty by providing quality service. 

9. Internal First Minimum Viable Product

An Internal-First (Minimum Viable Product)

MVP is a type of MVP product launched to an internal group of users, such as employees, stakeholders, or beta testers. This approach tests the product’s functionality, usability, and value proposition with a smaller and more controlled target audience before releasing it to the public. The product team can collect feedback, identify bugs, and make improvements without risking external customers’ reputation or satisfaction. An internal-first MVP can also generate internal buy-in and support for the product vision and roadmap.

Best suited for: Products that are complex, novel, large, or uncertain, and need extensive testing and validation with a smaller and more controlled target audience before launching to the public.

Slack : One of the popular internal first MVP examples

Slack - the popular collaboration tool was originally an internal communication tool for a gaming company called Tiny Speck. The company, Tiny Speck, was making an online game called Glitch in 2011. They needed a way to communicate and collaborate with their remote team. They built a chat app that integrated with other services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and GitHub. However, they found out that their chat app was more valuable than their game, which had few users.

By launching it with their team, they tested Slack’s functionality, usability, and value proposition internally, improved it based on feedback and bugs, and also generated internal buy-in and support. As a result, Slack became a popular chat and productivity tool.

10. Pre-order Minimum Viable Product

This is a type of minimum viable product that allows customers to pre-order a product or service before it is fully developed or released. This way, the creators can validate customer demand and generate revenue before investing in full-scale development. 

Best suited for: Building customer loyalty and anticipation for the product or service.

Oculus Rift : A pre-order minimum viable product example

Oculus Rift is a VR headset that launched as a pre-order (minimum viable product)MVP on Kickstarter in 2012. It raised over $2.4 million from 9,522 backers who received a developer kit, a device to create VR content. 

The creator, Luckey, validated customer demand and generated revenue by launching Oculus Rift before developing a full product. He also received feedback, improved the product, and built customer loyalty and anticipation. 

Oculus Rift became one of the most popular VR products in the world, acquired by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014. 

11. Wizard of OZ MVP

A wizard of Oz MVP is a fake system that looks like a real one. You test your idea without building a complex system. You have a human doing the work secretly. The user thinks they are using a real system. You can see if your idea is good and what your customers think. You can also save time and money.

Best suited for: Testing the product’s benefit by using minimal resources and limited features.

Zappos : An example of wizard of OZ minimum viable product examples

Zappos was a website that sold shoes from local stores. The founder would buy and ship the shoes to the customer, who did not know that the website had no inventory or distribution system.

This way, Zappos tested the customer demand and feedback for online shoe retailing without building a complex system. Zappos later became one of the most successful online shoe retailers, acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2009. 

So far, we have seen 11 best minimum viable product examples in 2023 that show how different services, companies, apps, and business ideas started off as MVPs and established themselves well among their audience. 

However, to build an MVP, you need the right partner. 

To choose the right MVP development company: 

• Look for a company with experience and expertise in delivering successful (minimum viable product)MVPs
• Ensure they have skilled MVP development team
• Check their portfolio, testimonials, and case studies
• Choose a company with clear communication and collaboration with you and your team
• They should use agile methods for fast and flexible delivery
• Compare cost and quality of different companies and find the best value for your money
• They should offer high-quality standards and post-launch support
• Select a company that shares your vision, culture, and goals
• They should provide strategic guidance and innovation

As you embark on shaping your product, remember we are here to help. If you need any assistance, you may contact our MVP development team. See it for yourself if we are the right partner for you. Your MVP is not just a stepping stone, it symbolizes both innovation and dedication. Let's craft it into a success story together.

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Designing a Minimum Viable Product Presentation

Importance of minimum viable product in business.

In a rapidly evolving market defined by continuous changes in consumer preferences, your product needs to be tested in real-world conditions with actual consumers. This is where the concept of a Minimum Viable Product comes in. Designing a minimum viable product presentation helps to test the product before it enters the phase of reaching the entire market. 

How to Build a Minimum Viable Product?

• Identify the core features
• Create a prototype
• Test the prototype
• Refine the product
• Launch the MVP
• Gather feedback
• Iterate and improve

1. Identify the core features

Determine the essential features that your product needs to have to solve the problem it aims to address. Focus on the features that will provide the most value to your target audience.

2. Create a prototype

Develop a basic prototype that showcases the core features of your product. This can be a simple wireframe or a functional prototype that allows users to interact with the product.

3. Test the prototype

Conduct user testing to gather feedback on the prototype. This will help you identify any usability issues and areas for improvement.

4. Refine the product

Use the feedback from user testing to refine the product. This may involve adding or removing features, improving the user interface, or making other changes to enhance the user experience.

5. Launch the MVP

Once you have refined the product, launch the minimum viable product to your target audience. This can be done through a soft launch or a public beta test.

6. Gather feedback

Collect feedback from users to identify any issues or areas for improvement. Use this feedback to make further refinements to the product.

7. Iterate and improve

Continue to iterate and improve the product based on user feedback. This will help you create a product that meets the needs of your target audience and provides value to your customers.

• What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

Every product begins with an idea that is directed towards solving a problem. Minimum Viable Product is the ‘bare minimum’ version of your final product. The idea is to create the smallest and quickest version of the product so you can begin testing it repeatedly.

MVP can be described as the “smallest version of a new product that can be utilized to collect the maximum validated learning about customers’ response with the least effort in the shortest time”.

Why Use a Minimum Viable Product?

Make-or-break situation.

For some entrepreneurs, the launch of a product is a make-or-break situation. There is more at stake when dealing with product development and launch.

Real Market Product Testing

Consumer behavior may differ from factory-controlled tests. Even after rigorous internal testing, any product still requires real market tests, allowing it to identify of areas for improvement.

Core Value– Key Features

The concise and direct nature of MVP allows developers to improve core features that solve customer problems. It helps to avoid more features, that disrupt the user experience.

Cost-Effective and Efficient

It allows developers to release a low-budget version that meets core features, without any frills. Based on the customer response, the plan can be expanded or revised or worst-case dropped.

Defining MVP – Key pointers

It is difficult to ascertain the bare minimum value to the user that will persuade them to use your product, to arrive at MVP .

Minimum Viable Product – Identifying the Target Market

Here are some pointers that can help you

Buyer persona.

Remember that your product should be targeted towards pre-existing buyer personas. The best way to start is to focus on one, preferably the most dominant persona.

Key differentiator

Avoid an MVP clustered with unnecessary features. Include those that are truly central to the product, covering unique aspects of your product that sets you apart from others.

Demand for potential features

This helps to assess the features that truly resound with your target audience. You can add incomplete, or even dummy features that can be tested in the future.

Overall idea and development

This prevents investing time or effort in developing unwanted features. This helps to get overall idea of the features that should be further polished, and those that need to be scrapped.

Product assessment

The core reason behind creating an MVP is to assess your product in real market conditions, without investing significant money in the development process.

Market feedback

The prompt market feedback allows you to modify your approach, thus saving time and effort. The result is a product that has been thoroughly tested and judged against the market forces.

4-step MVP process

• Identify and understand your business and market needs
• Map out user journey(s)
• Create a pain and gain map
• Decide what features to develop

3-step MVP process

• Start with a simple product solving a tiny problem
• Keep iterating, while constantly solving bigger problems
• Constantly communicate the vision of the grand problem

Minimum Viable Product – Businessman Analyzing Stock Market

• Benefits of MVP

1. Focus on the core value proposition

MVP helps define the value proposition clearly and narrowly. It helps define goals, and needed functionality, and spend time and money efficiently.

2. Reduces remakes

Extra features may only complicate the user experience. Keeping it simple will guarantee minimum remakes of the product features.

3. Builds relationships with customers

First users may provide you with the needed feedback on the desired changes or additions. This builds customer relationships, creating a community.

4. Defines critical drawbacks

It allows us to find weaknesses fast and improve them, ensuring all the functions work properly before going further.

5. Spends money efficiently

As product development cycles are iterative, there is no need to search for a huge amount of money at once.

6. Innovative ideas

Innovative ideas qualify as MVPs that make a difference towards what was before.

In the end, if your idea is proven to be a failure, still a lot of money is not spent on it.

Advantage of developing an MVP

• Test the demand for your product – before releasing a full-fledged product
•   Your product does what it says on the tin
•   Avoid failures and large capital losses
•   Reduce implementation costs
•   Release your product to market in the shortest time
•   Gain valuable insight into what works and what does not work
•   There is room for evolution
•   Work directly with your clients and analyze their behaviors and preferences
•   Grow with your customers
•   Gather and enhance your user base

Minimum Viable Product – Businessman Analyze Sales Data And Economic Growth

Additionally, you may find out more problems you can solve or hit on new ideas and exclusive offerings, which means more chances to improve your business.

Lessons you can learn from MVP

• Validate the idea, problem, or solution
• It helps to analyze different parts of your startup plan
• Look for growth opportunities on your own
• A successful MVP does not mean a successful Product
• A good Product with no promo is a bad Product
• Have a personal relation to the problem you are trying to solve
• Keep your Time to Market short
• Pick a niche
• Test your idea before you even start coding
• Keep your MVP minimal
• Pivots and iterations are ok
• Scale gradually

Minimum Viable Product Presentation

• Fundamentals of MVP
• Building an MVP
• Reasons why MVP fail
• Measuring Success

Additional Slides

•   Mission and Vision
•   Contact Us

Minimum Viable Product – Business Presentation On A Laptop

Importance of PowerPoint presentations in businesses

In today’s business world, design and presentation are key. A successful business presentation needs careful planning and attention to detail. A well-designed PPT can greatly enhance a product presentation. By using vibrant visuals, concise text, and effective layout, a PPT can effectively convey product features to clients or investors. Presentation design is crucial for success. It involves selecting and arranging key information, visuals, and graphics to convey a message. Slide design focuses on the aesthetic appeal and layout of each slide.

This involves using suitable fonts, colors, and images for a cohesive and attractive presentation. A PowerPoint template design is crucial for consistency and branding. Each slide should have a purpose in line with the message and theme to engage the audience. Product presentation is a carefully crafted display of ideas and products to make a strong impact. Our expertise in PowerPoint presentations can help create a lasting impression.

Building a MVP template

A PowerPoint template helps create visually appealing presentations. It provides structure and design elements. Business PowerPoint template is designed for business presentations. It includes financial charts, timelines, and team profiles. Our expertise ensures your MVP template aligns with your branding.

Key takeaway

MVP is for creating a basic product quickly. It’s great for startups and big companies with risky investments. It tests product feasibility, decides on features for the next version, and collects user feedback for constant improvement.

Design thoughts

It is equally important to design your MVP Presentation slides that grab the audience’s attention. Great presentations are supported by well-designed slides.

Looking for some creative help for your next presentation project? Our team of talented designers would love to assist!

• How do you make an MVP presentation?

To create a winning MVP presentation, start by clearly defining your product and its unique value proposition. Use visuals and storytelling to engage your audience and highlight key features and benefits. Be sure to include data and metrics to support your claims and demonstrate the potential success of your product. Finally, practice your presentation and be prepared to answer questions and address concerns from your audience.

2. What is minimum viable presentation?

A Minimum Viable Presentation (MVP) is a presentation that includes only the essential information needed to convey your message. It is a stripped-down version of a full presentation, designed to be delivered quickly and efficiently. The goal of an MVP is to communicate your key points in a clear and concise manner, without overwhelming your audience with unnecessary details.

3. How to Plan a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

To plan a minimum viable product, start by identifying the core features that are essential to solving the problem your product is addressing. Then, prioritize those features based on their importance and feasibility. Next, create a prototype or mockup of your MVP to test with potential users and gather feedback. Finally, iterate and refine your MVP based on user feedback until you have a product that meets their needs and solves their problem.

4. What are the objectives of MVP?

The main objectives of an MVP are to test the market demand for a product, gather feedback from early adopters, and validate assumptions about the product’s value proposition and features. It is also meant to help the development team prioritize features and make informed decisions about the product’s future development.

5. How do you determine MVP?

To determine your MVP, you need to identify the core features of your product that are essential to solving the problem for your target audience. You can do this by conducting user research, creating user personas, and testing prototypes with potential customers. Once you have identified the core features, you can build a basic version of your product and test it with a small group of users to gather feedback and iterate on your design.

Related posts

How to make consulting PPT – Tips and Tricks

How to create Professional Business PowerPoint Presentations

How to create a Business PPT Template Design

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MVP PowerPoint Templates For Presentations:

The MVP PowerPoint templates go beyond traditional static slides to make your professional presentations stand out. Given the sleek design and customized features, they can be used as PowerPoint as well as  Google Slides templates . Inculcated with visually appealing unique and creative designs, the templates will double your presentation value in front of your audience. You can browse through a vast library of MVP Google Slides templates,  PowerPoint themes  and  backgrounds  to stand out in your next presentation.

Product Pricing

What is a mvp powerpoint template.

A MVP PowerPoint template is a ready-made presentation template that provides a structured framework for creating professional MVP presentations. The MVP PPT presentation template includes design elements, layouts, and fonts that you can customize to fit your content and brand.

How To Choose The Best MVP Presentation Templates?

Keep the following points in mind while choosing a MVP Presentation template for PowerPoint (PPT) or Google Slides:

• Understand your presentation goals and objectives.
• Make sure the MVP template aligns with your visual needs and appeal.
• Ensure the template is versatile enough to adapt to various types of content.
• Ensure the template is easily customizable.

Are MVP PowerPoint Templates Compatible With Google Slides?

Yes, all our MVP presentation templates are compatible and can be used as MVP Google Slides templates.

What Are The Advantages Of MVP Presentation Templates?

MVP PPT presentation templates can be beneficial because they:

• Add multiple visual and aesthetic layers to your slides.
• Ensure that complex information, insights and data is presented in a simplistic way.
• Enhance the overall visual appeal of the content.
• Save you a lot of time as you don’t have to start editing from scratch.
• Improve the professional outlook of your presentation.

Can I Edit The Elements In MVP PowerPoint Templates?

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How To Download MVP PowerPoint Templates For Presentations?

To download MVP presentation templates, you can follow these steps:

• Select the resolution (16*9 or 4*3).
• Select the format you want to download the MVP template in (Google Slides or PowerPoint).
• Make the payment (SlideUpLift has a collection of paid as well as free MVP PowerPoint templates).
• You can download the file or open it in Google Slides.

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Minimum Viable Product MVP Template

Validate assumptions and build products people will love with the Minimum Viable Product MVP Template.

Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies

About the Minimum Viable Product MVP Template

Bram Kanstein , a startup expert and product builder, developed the Minimum Viable Product MVP Template to help entrepreneurs talk about their products and refine their strategies. The format of this template is similar to the Business Model Canvas, and it serves as a guide to walk anyone through your product idea.

What’s the Minimum Viable Product MVP Template?

The Minimum Viable Product MVP Template is a framework developed to help any entrepreneur structure their approach to product development and business. In this template, you’ll find:

Customer segment

Value proposition

Customer engagement

Riskiest assumptions

Experiment format

Experiment scenario/workflow

Success criteria

Learning and insights

With this framework, you’ll validate your business ideas and uncover opportunities.

Benefits of Minimum Viable Product MVP Template

With years of experience building startups from the ground up, Bram Kanstein identified some of the main struggles that entrepreneurs face. He built this template to solve the following:

Who’s the problem you are solving? Find out your target audience.

Where are your users, and how to find them?

How to make sure your product solves the proposed problem.

Find out if your business idea is viable.

Many people face these main pain points when developing a new product. The MVP template helps you structure the business idea, so you deliver a business plan, even at the early stages.

If you want to know more about how to build an MVP, check out Bram Kanstein’s video .

How to use the Minimum Viable Product MVP Template

Select the MVP template and add it to your board. You’ll find a minimum viable product example next to the empty template you’ll be working on.

Here are a few tips on how to fulfill each section of the template:

Your Customer Segment

Use the Target Audience Template to help you identify which segment of your target customers will gain the most value from your MVP.

Value Proposition

Craft your value proposition according to the template below:

My company, (insert of company)____, is developing (a defined offering) to help __ (a defined audience)(solve a problem) with (secret sauce/differentiation) .

Use the Customer Touchpoint Map to define how you’ll reach your customers and deliver value.

Customer Engagement

Use the Jobs to be Done Template to help you find out how you will engage customers and learn from their experience with a User Research Template.

Riskiest Assumptions

What are you setting out to test with your MVP?

Are these assumptions about the Problem, Solution, or Implementation?

Use the Risk Assessment Template.

Experiment Format

What type of experiment are you going to run?

Organize them with the Growth Experiments Template .

Scenario Workflow

How does that work? Describe the steps from beginning to end.

Use the Production Workflow Template.

What will you measure? (It can be multiple metrics)

Success Criteria

How do you qualify and/or quantify a successful outcome of this experiment?

What are the qualitative and/or quantitative results of your experiment?

Learnings and Insights:

What are your key learnings?

What are your key surprises?

Did you get enough results?

What do they tell you about your Riskiest Assumption(s)?

What do the results tell you to do next?

Are you going to Pivot, Pursue, or Stop?

To help you define your next steps, run a retrospective .

What should an MVP include?

Your MVP should be a version of your product built with the minimum effort possible and still deliver value to the customers so that you can test your assumptions. Before you build your MVP, answer these questions: Whose problem do I want to solve? Is it a big enough problem to solve? If so, what’s the value proposition I should pitch to them? Where can I find and reach these people to validate my solution? After you manage to answer these questions, you can go ahead and build your MVP. Check all the necessary steps using our Minimum Viable Product Template.

Get started with this template right now.

10 Best Examples of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs)

Devathon team.

• 16th Sep '19

In this post, you’ll learn what Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) are and how they help entrepreneurs and companies test new ideas, products, and services. We’ll share ten examples of MVP s that turned into successful businesses and offer some tips about how to build your own MVP.

What is an MVP?

A minimum viable product (MVP) is the most basic version of a product or service that can be released for consumers. An MVP might be a product, an app, a landing page, or even a video with no working product at all.

What are some popular definitions of MVP?

As far as startup jargon goes, few terms are as widely misused and misunderstood as ‘MVP’. To cut through the confusion, it’s helpful to know who invented the phrase and find out what they meant by it. As noted by author and entrepreneur Steve Blank, the term ‘Minimum Viable Product’ was coined by Frank Robinson , CEO of SyncDev, Inc. in 2001. Robinson used MVP to described the “simplest version of a deployable product.”

The term proved hugely influential and was referenced in a number of popular books including The Start Owner’s Manual , the Business Model Canvas , and Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup . In fact, Eric Ries is widely credited with helping to popularize the term MVP.

The term was since clarified by Eric Karjaluoto who described MVPs as a way to “avoid making something people don’t want.” According to Karjaluoto, an MVP is best thought of as a “mid-stage prototype” that allows you to test out an idea and gain data from real users.

Why use an MVP?

MVPs help companies in a number of ways. At the most basic level, an MVP can help a company see whether their idea is of interest to people. MVPs can help entice early adopters and this generates feedback that can help inform future product development. MVPs can also produce revenue if people are willing to buy the product or service.

What are some myths surrounding MVPs?

As the term MVP is so widely misunderstood, there are plenty of myths around MVPs. Here are three of the most common MVP myths you may have heard.

Myth #1. An MVP must be a prototype

Some people think that MVPs must be a prototype. This isn’t necessarily true. Most MVPs are indeed fully working products that people can use or buy, but they don’t have to be. As we’ll show later in this post, some MVPs are simple landing pages or videos of a product or service that doesn’t yet exist. For example, DropBox’s MVP was an explainer video that was released before any of the hardware, software or infrastructure was even built!

Myth #2. MVPs are quick and dirty versions of eventual products

Many people believe that MVPs are just low-quality versions of an app, website or product. They aren’t. An MVP has to demonstrate enough future benefits to attract and retain early adopters. If it is low quality, the idea likely won’t catch on. In fact, releasing a low-quality MVP can hurt the chances of an idea or concept being adopted and catching on.

Myth #3. MVPs purpose is to help gain an initial user base

Some people think that MVPs are just a way to gain an initial user base. In fact, the purpose of an MVP is to help create a feedback loop that guides the developers. Using an MVP is a development technique best applied for technically oriented products. It helps reduce build time and lets developed work with fewer resources.

So, what are the most popular ways of building an MVP?

An MVP could be: 

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Landing Page

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Physical Product

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10 MVPs that turned into big businesses

Are you interested in understanding what to focus on when developing an MPV? If so, here are 10 examples of minimum viable product s that went on to become successful businesses. 

#1. Dropbox

When Arash Ferdowsi and Drew Houston came up with their idea for a cloud-based file-syncing service, they realized that trying to build the actual hardware infrastructure would be incredibly time-consuming and expensive. So they didn’t!

In 1999, Nick Swinmurn felt there might be a market for selling shoes online. But whereas most entrepreneurs would get caught up with building a fully-functioning e-commerce store, buying inventory and signing up delivery partners, Swinmurn did something smart.

#3. Groupon

Back in the late 1990s, coupons and discount vouchers were all the rage and Groupon’s original idea was to make it easier for people to find the best deals. Their concept was simple; they threw up a simple website and if visitors wanted to get their hands on some coupons, they subscribed and Groupon emailed them a range of coupons in PDF format.

#4. Twitter

When Apple released iTunes in 2001, podcasting business Odeo knew they were in for a rough ride. Their entire business model was under threat, and they knew they couldn’t compete. While other podcasting companies doubled down and threw good money after bad trying to build their market share, Odeo thought outside the box and started running hackathons.

Initially, this idea was only used internally by Odeo employees. It wasn’t long before Odeo’s employees were spending significant amounts of their own money posting on the platform and Odeo realized they had a hit on their hands. ‘Twttr’ helped Odeo pivot to become ‘Twitter’ and quickly scaled to become the phenomenon we know and love today.

As an investment banker, Jeff Bezos saw the rise of the internet and came up with the idea of selling books online. While most entrepreneurs would have sunk money into a fully functioning e-commerce store, Bezos did something smart. He realized that unless he operated frugally, he’d never get to properly test his idea and wind up wasting a ton of cash on an idea that no-one wanted. So, he moved back home with his parents and built a simple website.

In its early days, the company had a buzzer set up that would ring whenever an order was placed. Initially, the staff would cheer when they heard the sound, but as sales picked up, the buzzer became so frequent that they had to disconnect it! 

In 2008, Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick were frustrated by the high price of cabs in San Francisco and the lack of affordable alternatives. Their original idea was to pair drivers who were will to take passengers with people who wanted a ride. At this point, most entrepreneurs would have embarked on a frenzy of app-building and website-designing. But Camp and Kalanick were clever: they realized that if they started scaling too quickly, their idea would get killed before it ever got off the ground.

#7. Facebook

In 2003, Harvard University students Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin came up with a simple concept: what if they could build a way for people to share connections and experience with friends and family? When ‘TheFacebook’ launched in 2004, it was only available to fellow Harvard students, offering a sense of exclusivity that wasn’t available elsewhere.

As Etsy founder Rob Kalin tells it, the idea for Etsy came to him when he needed a way to sell his wooden-cased computers. However, according to David Lifson, formerly head of Etsy’s product management team, the idea started in 2005 when Kalin, Chris Maguire, Jared Tarbell, and Haim Schoppik were working as freelance website builders for a crafting community forum. After members kept complaining that eBay’s fees were too high and it was difficult to use, the founders came up with the idea for Etsy.  

Kalin did something smart and created a simple MVP website that let anyone register and sell things they had produced themselves. Almost overnight, thousands of sellers joined and started selling, despite Etsy’s rudimentary design and functionality. This approach let Kalin test his idea quickly and cheaply, before using the revenue to start improving and scaling his site.

In 2008, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were struggling to pay the exorbitant rent on their San Francisco loft apartment. Their original idea was to see whether there was a market for people who wanted to rent out their homes. Instead of following a traditional entrepreneurial route of building a fully functional website and signing agreements with partners and homeowners, Chesky and Gebbia did something pretty bright. They created a simple MVP that was nothing more than a basic website showing photos of their own apartment!

#10. Spotify

Back in 2006, the music industry was facing a huge challenge: file sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay and LimeWire meant that fewer people than ever were paying for music. Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon realized that legislation would never work, so their original idea was to create a free music streaming service and use ads to generate revenue. Many similar music streaming services were launched around this time, so why did they get killed while Spotify went on to become worth $23 billion ?

Spotify’s MVP was initially run on a closed beta to test the market and keep costs to a minimum. This approach confirmed that Spotify’s idea could succeed and the service built on its initial success to quickly sign up artists, develop a mobile app and scale up.

How to go about building your own MVP

As our MVP ( Minimum Viable Product) example s have shown, the MVP development approach is best suited to technical products such as online services, apps, or websites. Here is a six-step guide to building your own MVP. 

Step 1: Market research

Market research helps you identify your target users and develop an idea that fulfills their needs. Many of the example MVPs on our list were created by people who were trying to satisfy their own needs, so their market research was anecdotal, rather than conducted by a professional firm. 

For example:

• Airbnb founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia needed help paying their rent. 
• Etsy founder Rob Kalin needed somewhere to sell the wooden-cased computers he was making. 
• Twitter’s creator Odeo needed to innovate after Apple launched iTunes.

Step 2: Outline your idea

An MVP isn’t an MVP is no-one will buy it. You must outline how your product will provide value to customers. Why would they buy it? What value does it offer them? 

For instance:

• Dropbox founders Arash Ferdowsi and Drew Houston created an explainer video before building any of Dropbox’s infrastructure. This helped them gauge peoples’ interest and figure out how to offer them value. 

Step 3: Consider the design process from the user’s perspective

Imagine you are the end-user of your proposed product or service. What would you expect to see? How would you expect it to work? Always place user satisfaction at the forefront of your mind. Then move on to defining the process stages from there. 

Step 4: Identify the project features

After deciding upon a design process, you’ll likely have many features that can’t be completed or included in the MVP. You need to prioritize them and identify which features will be part of your project. As you saw with our MVP examples , Spotify focused on the single core feature of streaming music and added other features later on. 

Step 5: Build

Always aim to keep the build quality no lower than that of a final product. An MVP isn’t a prototype: it needs to fulfill people’s’ needs and offer them real value. Prioritize ease-of-use, suitability, and intuitiveness as you build.  

Step 6: BML: Build, measure, learn

The purpose of an MVP is to gather data that helps inform the development progress. For a software MVP, the steps involved would be gathering user feedback, identifying demands for new features and fixing bugs and errors. 

Are you looking to get your MVP built? Contact us at [email protected]  or visit our website Devathon to find out how we can breathe life into your vision with beautiful designs, quality development, and continuous testing.  

Posts are written by the top management Team of Devathon - Modern & Affordable Software development for startups

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The Ultimate List of MVP Examples [20+ Case Studies]

Paolo Dotta

In an increasingly competitive business landscape, it’s more important than ever for startups to reach their target users quickly and efficiently.  Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)  has become the de facto process to achieve this.

I’ve lined the ultimate list of  MVP examples, from a range of industries, to share with you – One of which, you probably aren’t expecting to be included in this list.  

Back in 2008, Travis Kalanick and Stumbleupon founder Garrett Camp were just two guys with an idea. The problem they wanted to solve? The cost of black car services.

They built a simple, quick, low-budget MVP to test a simple theory.

People can’t necessarily afford a black car service but they don’t like taxis — what if we can create something that bridges the gap and solves the problem?

Uber was born. Originally dubbed UberCab, their MVP allowed people in San Francisco to order black car services through an iPhone app and SMS on other devices.

Two years later, Kalanick tweeted what is arguably one of the most valuable tweets in the history of Twitter.

Ryan Graves   responded to this tweet simply saying: Here’s a tip. email me 🙂  graves.ryan[at]gmail.com

He would later become Uber’s first CEO and now has a personal net worth of $1.6 billion with Uber’s net worth sitting at $75.5 billion when it went public  in May 2019.

Starting lean, focussing on a core feature, in a small niche allows you to test your idea in the market at a lower cost. 

The more features you build the more your product development costs. Targeting multiple geographies forces you to multiply your marketing efforts to reach that wider market, which also increases your costs.

Do you have a brilliant startup idea that you want to bring to life?

From the product and business reasoning to streamlining your MVP to the most important features, our team of product experts and ex-startup founders can help you bring your vision to life.

We can’t talk about successful MVP examples without mentioning Airbnb.

In 2007, roommates and former schoolmates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia Moved to San Francisco to start a business. The problem? They couldn’t afford the rent of their San Francisco loft apartment.

Their solution? They opened up their apartment as cheap accommodation for attendees of a nearby design conference.

This not only solved their problem of paying the rent, but it also solved the attendee’s problem attendees who had lucked out on hotel bookings.

They took pictures of the apartment, uploaded it to Craigslist and had three paying guests in no time.

They quickly realised there was a market for this and built an MVP to validate their assumptions and prove that people would be willing to use their product (called AirBed&Breakfast).

The rest, as they say, is history. Airbnb is now valued at $18B all from creating an MVP to solve a simple problem.

The decision made by Airbnb to create a functional MVP was paramount to their success. They needed to test more than just market interest. They needed to make sure all stakeholders would continually use their platform. 

A non-functional MVP, such as Dropbox (See #3 in the list of  MVP examples), wouldn’t have gone far enough to test the hypothesis of recurring users. 

Dropbox approached their MVP a little differently to the MVP examples we’ve discussed so far. Their MVP was entirely non-functional.

They created a simple video explaining what the first iteration of their product would look and work.

It was a success and enabled them to collect the feedback they needed to validate their core assumptions such as market need.

While Dropbox’s non-functional MVP validated user intent, it didn’t validate user action. Be aware if you consider building a non-functional MVP that just because people say they like your product doesn’t mean they’ll actually use it. 

4. Facebook

Back in January 2004, Facebook’s MVP, or  thefacebook  as it was then called, was created by Mark Zuckerberg in his Harvard dorm room. 

 The expansion continued in 2005, it now included universities in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, and New Zealand – as well as over 25,000 high schools located in various countries.

In 2006, after buying the domain name facebook.com for $200k Facebook opened it’s services to the public. Now, anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address could create a Facebook account. 

Today, Facebook boasts a whopping   2.5 billion monthly users . Not only is it the most popular social media platform on the planet, but it also owns Instagram & WhatsApp.

The idea for Facebook was nothing new. Competitors, such as MySpace, were already operating similar social media platforms. Proving you don’t need to be the first one with an idea to succeed. 

What you need to do is execute your idea in a way that outshines your competitors and solidifies your foothold in the market.

5. Instagram — Originally Burbn

Instagram’s predecessor, Burbn, was initially designed to allow users to check-in and share their experiences at various locations with friends.

Like many of the MVP examples, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Founder, Kevin Systrom. The initial app, in his words, “felt cluttered and overrun with features”. Adoption was poor, and users found the app confusing.

There was one feature, however, that users loved. Easy photo-sharing. So Systrom made a tough choice. He took the Burbn MVP and completely overhauled it:

We went out on a limb, and basically cut everything in the Burbn app except for its photo, comment, and like capabilities. What remained was Instagram.

They iterated on their MVP and now boast over  500 million active daily users .

Start lean and focus on the core features that solve your users’ key problem – in the case of Instagram, photo sharing. 

Then, iterate your product based on your user feedback. As opposed to what happened to Burbn – Spending time and money building lots of features, only to cut them out when users don’t use them.

6. LinkedIn 

LinkedIn launched its MVP in May 2003. It’s basic features included user profiles, the ability to search for other users & send email requests to users. 

In the beginning, you could only send requests to someone if you knew their email address, which is still an optional feature today.

After a successful release, they quickly iterated; adding features such as uploading an address book for bulk invitations and colleague endorsements.

They’ve continued adding features, and now have  706M users in 200 countries and regions .

Co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, famously said:

"If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late"

The point of your MVP is to rapidly get to market and prove your assumptions. That should be your focus. Not building the most beautiful product on the market.

One of the most famous MVP examples in the world is Amazon.

In the early 90s, when Jeff Bezos saw the rise of the internet he came up with the idea of selling books online. While some entrepreneurs would’ve sunk their entire bank account into a fully-functioning e-commerce store, he did something different.

He left his job as an investment banker, moved back home with his parents and built an MVP in the form of a simple website.

Nowadays, music streaming has become the norm, but it wasn’t always that way.  In 2006, there weren’t many music streaming services on the market and the ones that were available were horrible. 

In an era where pirating music was common, Spotify was founded on a shortlist of key assumptions: 

• People are happy to stream (rather than own) music
• Labels and artists are happy to let people do that legally
• Fast and stable streaming is technically feasible 

Co-founder, Daniel Ek, and his team started their MVP process by tackling the third assumption, their driving metric? How many milliseconds does it take from when I press Play to when I hear the music? It should play instantly and continue to play smoothly. Daniel recalls: 

We spent an insane amount of time focusing on latency, when no one cared, because we were hell-bent on making it feel like you had all the world’s music on your hard drive. Obsessing over small details can sometimes make all the difference. That’s what I believe is the biggest misunderstanding about the minimum viable product concept. That is the V in the MVP.

Once they had a basic MVP they began testing, on themselves, family & friends. It was a success, so they extended the beta release to influential music bloggers in Sweden. 

They loved the experience and began to spread the word about this incredible new desktop app. Spotify began to gain traction and it was released to the public.

New features were added, a mobile app was created and today Spotify has  299M active monthly users & 138M premium subscribers .

Spotify could’ve tried to build in cool features like album artwork and lyrics into the first version of their product. Those (admittedly nice to have) features would have taken more time and money to develop.

Critically, however, those features wouldn’t have got them any closer to proving their main assumptions.

There’s no point putting the cherry on the cake if no one wants the cake.

Twitter, originally known as  twittr  began as an internal app. It was developed by  Odeo  to give its employees a platform to send messages and display them to a group.

After internal success, Twitter was released to the public in July 2006. However, it wasn’t until 2007 that it saw real success. At the South by Southwest Interactive conference that year, daily tweets increased from 20,000 to 60,000.

After the conference, Twitter’s popularity exploded and it’s user base grew exponentially.

10. Zappos 

Back in 1999 Zappos’ founder, Nick Swinmurn was frustrated at not finding the perfect pair of shoes at his local mall.

He decided to create a simple website MVP. He would post photos of the shoes from his local mall on that webpage and wait. When someone decided to buy the shoes, he would go back to the mall, buy them and post them.

While this wasn’t a sustainable business model, it did prove the assumption:  People will buy shoes online .

It was a huge success. Reaching unicorn status, Zappos was  acquired by Amazon in 2009  – to the tune of $1.2B.

In 2010, Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, Jared Tarbell, and Haim Schoppik were working as freelance website builders for a crafting community forum. They saw members complaining on the forum that eBay’s fees were expensive and it was difficult to use. 

This sparked the idea for Etsy. The four founders built a simple MVP website that allowed anyone to create an account and sell things they’d produced.

Despite its basic functionality and rudimentary design, thousands of sellers signed up within days of launch. 

This approach allowed the founders to quickly test their idea while spending little money. They could then use their leftover budget to iterate and scale the website. There are now around 3 million active sellers on the platform reporting a  net income of $96.4M in Q2 2020 .

12. Groupon

Groupon founder, Andrew Mason, didn’t see success straight away. Before Groupon, he launched  The Point.  In an interview with  Mixergy  Andrew recalls that his long time to market was one of the mistakes he made with his first product:

We took between January and November of 2007 to get everything just right and make sure that it aligned with my complete vision of what I wanted this platform to be instead of just getting something started and letting the users tell us if it worked or not

The Point  was a failure. However, Andrew learnt a valuable lesson from it: 

The result of learning it is demonstrated through the creation of Groupon where we went from idea to actual launch product in about a month.

Using a WordPress blog, Groupon posted daily deals as blogposts. Head of customer support Joe Harrow would spend three hours a day  personally emailing customers  who had bought a coupon from the platform. 

Despite it’s less than beautiful design, and the leg work needed to reach early adopters, it allowed them to test their model. Instead of spending time and money on a backend infrastructure, they found the shortest road to reach their customers.  

Groupon was a huge success and it’s unsurprising, as the saying goes everyone loves a good deal, and this MVP example provided just that. 

13. Foursquare

Foursquare is one of many great examples of a single-featured MVP. It encouraged users to check-in at multiple locations. They created a gamification process that would reward users with badges based on the amount and type of check-ins.

They kept with this single-feature until the platform began to gain traction. Once the user base had started growing, they began to iterate, adding recommendations, city guides and other features.  

Today Foursquare  powers location experiences for over 1B people globally .  

Stripe’s story began back in 2010 when John Collison and his brother Patrick started debating why it was so difficult to accept payments on the web.

Patrick was working on several side projects at the time but decided to give this a shot. They started working on a way to solve this problem.

For the first six months, they focused on learning everything they could about the industry and the problems users faced with the solutions available at the time (Paypal).

They shared the idea with friends and family, watching how they interacted with it. Based on that validated learning they began iterating. 

The first version wasn’t much to look at, then called /dev/payments:

Despite its design and limited features, within 2 weeks of building their initial MVP, they had their first transactions – with a  YCombinator  company  280 North.

In those initial six months, they accomplished enough to know they were on to something big.

John & Patrick stopped taking on side-projects and focused on Stripe full-time.

Their original plan was to bootstrap the company, but they realized that as a payment startup they could greatly benefit from the credibility a big investor could provide.

Stripe raised a few rounds from VCs and quickly grew into one of the largest mobile payment processing companies in the US, with big clients such as Lyft and Shopify and partnerships with Visa, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter.

By 2016 the Collison brothers had become the youngest self-made billionaires in the world. Stripe is now valued at  $36 billion .

Early-stage advice, from mentors, investors or startup advisors, can be a critical factor in whether or not your startup succeeds.

The Collison brothers knew this. Despite having the talent to bootstrap a beautiful product from day one, they realised it was more important to build their credibility in the fintech industry.

15. Wellfound (Formerly AngelList)

AngelList is a platform designed to help startups connect with investors and raise capital. Founded in 2010, Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant created a simple test for their idea. 

Leveraging their contacts, the offered founders email introductions to investors. 

After seeing that their idea had potential, they scaled their idea. They have expanded and now offer employee recruitment opportunities to around  3.6M users . 

16. Product Hunt 

Product Hunt’s founder, Ryan Hoover wanted to build a community for users to share their products and discuss them with others. He could’ve spent months building a fully-fledged platform. Instead, he used a pre-existing technology to build an MVP. 

Using a tool called Linkydink, he created a link-sharing group and added his startup friends to it. Using PR and social media to promote his quick MVP he attracted over 170 people within the first two weeks.

With his idea validated, he moved on to building the full platform. It’s become the go-to for product enthusiasts to share and discover new products. 

Monzo started life as a prepaid card service. Like many of the examples of an MVP, they used pre-existing resources to build the first version of their product, in this case, another banks license and card processor. CEO Tom Blomfield recalled the early days of Monzo’s journey in a recent AMA: 

I don’t think we even had cards at first—we just had an API where you could move money around. I think we gave out 15 demo cards at a hackathon. We invited people from our waiting list to come by and see what cool apps they could build atop our API.

Monzo is now a fully-fledged bank challenging traditional banks in the UK boasting  four million registered customers .

18. Kickstarter 

As well as a popular platform for many startups as an MVP platform, Kickstarter itself is one of the examples of an MVP. 

In 2006 they built the first version of the website with only the minimum features needed to prove their concept.

They launched a closed alpha of their MVP in February 2009. In May of the same year, they launched the product to the public. They quickly launched and funded their first project (it raised $35 from three backers). 

They kept going in this fashion and today the platform has successfully funded  190,157 projects from over 18M backers . 

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19. Hubspot 

Hubspot is a complex product used by marketers across the globe. Differently to the other MVP examples, they started out with a much simpler platform. 

In 2005, co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah built a blog – a community for users to discuss topics such as inbound marketing and content.

Seeing the blog gain an audience, the co-founders decided to build it into an actual product and in 2006 they launched the first version in the form of a closed beta.

Today they offer software for Marketing, Sales, Customer Service and Content management. Plus, they’ve carried on with the blog, as well as providing free courses, certifications, ebooks, and many more resources.

20. Curveball – Apple & The Original iPhone 

Finally, here’s the one you probably weren’t expecting. 

For me, one of the prime examples of an MVP was created by Apple: the first-generation iPhone.

Surprising claim right? But stick with me. 

Back in 2007, the original iPhone had a limited number of first-party apps, with no way to download more. There was no notification centre, no copy/paste functionality, no backend exchange server. It was limited to one carrier, AT&T, on a minimum two-year contract. 

At the time of launch,  reporters noted  that it was flawed and lacked some features found in the most basic phones. 

One thing they all agreed on though?  The iPhone was revolutionary. 

Apple wasn’t trying to build a flawless fully-featured product. They were building a product that had the  core features needed to validate several assumptions : 

• Will users adopt the idea of an on-screen keyboard? 
• Do users actually need/want access to the full internet on a mobile device? 
• Will users adopt the idea of using the browser for applications, as opposed to loading apps onto the device? (As all other computing apps had done before it.)
• Will users adopt the  one device for everything  hypothesis? Or would they rather carry several, distinct devices? (A phone, an iPod, etc.) 

They launched it, and one year (and  1.39M iPhones  sold) later they moved onto the next stage of the MVP process. 

They iterated on their original product, releasing the  iPhone 3G  in 2008 .  This newer iPhone offered: 

• Support for third-party apps
• Larger base storage (8GB, up from 4GB)
• Better battery life 
• A much cheaper price ($199 for the base model, down from $499) 

The purpose of an MVP is to excite and attract users, spark conversations about what your product might be able to do next. Your MVP needs to prove that users need your solution and will adopt your product.

Then, once you’ve validated your assumptions, you can build a better product, based on that validated learning. 

Wrapping Up

After reading that list of MVP examples, it’s easy to see why building an MVP has become the de facto process for startups. It allows entrepreneurs to stay at the forefront of innovation and test their ideas, without giving up all of their time, effort and money. 

The trend among all these MVP examples is: 

• Think about your target users’ key problem and how to solve it.
• Cut down your product to the key features needed to prove your value to your target users. 
• Build those features into an MVP.
• Take what you learn from the adoption of your MVP and use that information to iterate on top of it to create your fully-functioning product. 

For more resources on how to build an MVP and other aspects of the startup journey check out our  blog , or  reach out to us , we’d love to hear from you.

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Minimum Viable Product Template – MVP (Powerpoint)

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This Minimum Viable Product template includes 5 well-tested formats that will communicate your product’s prioritised launch feature list – your “MVP”.

What does “Minimum Viable Product” mean?

A “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP) is a simple first version of a product.

It is a cut-back set of features:-

• To enable a rapid launch
• To maximise competitive advantage
• To reduce time wasted on features that users  may not want

Deciding on your MVP will require ruthless prioritisation of your product backlog.

Beware: your stakeholders may want to squeeze-in their features, so be prepared to warn them that this will cause delays and reduce advantage.

5 MVP Template Slides to help your New Product Development (NPD):

• Shows your MVP Plan in relation to two workstreams
• Includes an additional workstream, to show another aspect of your MVP
• Minimum Viable Product indicator
• Key for Epics, Themes and MVP
• Timeline in weeks
• Shows 3 workstreams with a simple stylish graphical activity plan
• Shows levels of risk associated with each activity
• Key for risk levels
• Dashboard to show a selection of “RED, AMBER, GREEN” entries, plus Risks & Issues
• Timeline in months
• Milestones row
• Product Delivery Summary row
• Three Workstream rows
• MVP indicator and dotted line
• Callout boxes to highlight items, at the top
• Infographics format – modern and striking
• MVP indicator
• Opportunity workstream – show how you are serving the market
• Cost workstream – show your startup burn rate
• Market workstream – show market KPIs
• Timeline in Calendar Quarters
• Plan workstream – a summary of features
• Critical Success Factors (CSFs) – show what will indicate success
• RIsks & Issues – bring important elements to attention

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What are Key Minimum Viable Product Examples and How Can They Be Used?

“The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.” Eric Ries

Minimum viable product examples of successful companies, such as Zappos, Dropbox, Twitter support the mentioned quote. The MVP concept is not new with regard to MVP websites and mobile app projects.

However, there is a lot of confusion around the MVP approach and how to utilize MVP examples wisely in a new business idea. The following article sorts everything out and describes the 3-step process to build a minimum viable product for any startup.

We will discuss common minimum viable product examples, namely:

• Product designs
• Demo videos
• Landing pages
• Crowd-funding MVP
• Piecemeal MVP
• Concierge MVP
• Wizard of Oz MVP
• Software prototypes

Minimum Viable Product Definition

There are many MVP definitions available on the Internet, as many gurus have written reports on this topic.

The MVP technique is rather useful, but requires critical thinking within a minimum and maximum gradation. There has been confusion about minimum viable product even among the experts who actually created the MVP concept:

• Eric Ries: ”The power of MVP can be matched only by the amount of confusion that it causes, which is quite hard to do. It certainly took me years to make sense of it.”
• Steve Blank: “This minimum feature set (sometimes called the “minimum viable product”) causes lots of confusion. Founders act like the ‘minimum’ part is the goal or, worse, that every potential customer should want it.”

For starters, the next image represents the general idea behind the minimum viable product.

What does MVP stand for, and what does it mean from a business perspective? Let’s find out.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the first working version of a product, with just enough features to satisfy potential clients and collect & analyze their feedback for the next product version, with minimum effort and resources required. The next, complete product version is developed after elaborating on the initial user feedback.

The MVP concept was created by Frank Robinson, but received popularity through startup consultants Eric Ries and Steve Blank.

Steve Blank supplements the MVP definition with a quote: "You’re selling the vision and delivering the minimum feature set to visionaries, not everyone.”

The key attributes to consider when developing your minimum viable product example are:

• MVP is not MVP until it sells; it must carry enough value to the users
• MVP is more about the process, not the product
• MVP is not a product with the minimum number of elements, but rather has core features sufficient to implement an idea and retain early adopters
• MVP is based on the lean startup philosophy and implies the iterative process of building-> measuring-> learning loop until the product meets the market need completely
• MVP aims to avoid building unuseful, unnecessary products by gaining insight about the market first

In short, MVP should deliver the very essence of the product idea in its simplest form. Based on the context, this form can be different, meaning that your minimum viable product example can differ depending on the project and range from a demo video or a single feature MVP to a working software prototype created with the help of a software development company like MLSDev. Some use MVP in the form of an experiment or as a landing page, while others need to build a fully-functioning MVP product.

The MVP business assumes that early product users see the promise of the final product proposition and stay loyal while providing useful feedback to guide the minimum viable product development team further.

As well, the implementation of minimum viable product examples depends upon the learning ability of a team working on the idea to ensure its value to the target audience and establish monetary relations with them.

Have a new project idea and would like to test it on the market?

Contact our team for a support and a free consultation to define the best way to launch your new product. Our business analysts and software engineers can help with analyzing processes and minimum viable product example you can start with.

What are MVP Examples Used For?

These days, the market situation is volatile and trends come and go quickly. The MVP tests your product with core functionality and with fewer risks in terms of time and budget resources.

Hence, the benefits of using the minimum viable product examples are as follows:

• Ability to test a product hypothesis with minimal resources
• Avoidance of the bigger failures and fund expense
• Checking real-life market tendencies
• Cooperation and hand-in-hand work with potential users in crafting the final product necessary
• Shortest time between product launch on the market and early adopters
• Gaining and expanding the user base
• Possibility to attract investors early
• Ability to apply for crowdfunding
• Continuous product development team learning and education
• Reduction of potentially wasted engineering hours

8 Key Minimum Viable Product Examples

Obviously, any minimum viable product example includes two elements - minimum and viable, which may differ based on the product idea. In one case, a simple video would be a good MVP example; in another, it is necessary to hire an app developer and create a fully-functioning MVP website or mobile app.

Let's now discuss the most common minimum viable product examples, supported by a few real-life cases:

1. Product Designs as the MVP Examples

The design of the product may range from being more complex (mockups) to pretty simple (sketches). Let's briefly describe each of the minimum viable product examples within the design category.

A sketch is a drawing of the system in free-hand format or with the use of some tools like Balsamiq, Proto.io, etc. A sketch presents the main screens or web pages of the future product with their core mechanics. Minimum viable product examples as sketches may be used to highlight the innovative idea, present your project to investors, or apply for crowdfunding.

Wireframes (UX - user experience) define the hierarchy in design and represent a skeleton of the system. They should correspond to the guidelines of a platform (iOS, Android, Web). Wireframes as a minimum viable product example demonstrate the location of the system elements, navigation among screens, and product features.

If you have a limited budget, it is a good option to use this MVP example. You can test some innovative feature that could reshape current behavior patterns among potential users (e.g. right/ left swiping in a dating app like Tinder ).

UI design services , representing mockups and user interfaces, are a colorful, full-size part of your product design that is ready for implementation in the software. Similar to the UX wireframes, these minimum viable product examples can be used for demonstration, evaluation, promotion, and fundraising. To enable MVP tests of the interaction with the future website or app, mockups can be made clickable.

All these design options can be further used in product development. This is neither a waste of your time nor resources. More detailed information regarding the different software design possibilities can be read in the article: How Much Does Your App Design Cost .

2. Demo Videos as Minimum Viable Product Examples

A demo video is a good option to be included into minimum viable product examples. Why not ask the audience if the solution resonates with their needs upfront?

The most famous MVP example in this category is the video by Dropbox. The idea of having all your digital data stored in one place and available everywhere was innovative at that time. With the help of a 3-minute Dropbox MVP video demonstrating its full functionality, it was enough to receive great user feedback and get the necessary funds for development.

Thus, rather than spending thousands of dollars irrationally, develop an explanatory video to present your innovative MVP idea to potential investors and users.

3. MVP Landing Page Examples

A landing page is a single web page optimized in search results in order to provide key information about the promoted product and its advantages, and to offer value. These static pages are mainly used for marketing purposes. Spread the word to the public about an upcoming product, gauge interest, and receive feedback to get early followers and collect a potential user base. It is then much easier to apply for investment with an audience that is already interested.

Buffer's landing page is a great minimum viable product example. This is a small app that allows scheduling social media posts and tweets so that they are shared in accordance with a chosen plan.

Buffer’s founder Joel Gascoigne, created a simple landing page. Those who were interested clicked on ‘plans & pricing,’ but were required to leave their email in order to receive product updates, as it had not yet been built.

Next, he updated the landing page and asked potential users to choose from 3 plans: free, $5 per month, and $20 per month. Many people selected a paid plan. This was a good sign to start building the first version of the product - the minimum viable product. This is a great example of an iterative process of minimum viable product development.

4. Crowd-funding Minimum Viable Product Examples

Pebble has been successful not only in validating its idea but also in receiving payments for the product before its production. Pebble is an e-paper watch for smartphones. This minimum viable product example raised the largest sum, over $10M, on Kickstarter .

Another team, Bounce , came up with the idea of a mobile application that keeps track of your time so that you are never late. This MVP example received pre-payments to build a product as well.

5. Piecemeal MVP Example

The idea behind the piecemeal minimum viable product examples is to use existing tools and services in your own project. Basically, it collects the necessary components and pieces them together in a way that gives a new functionality and user experience.

Groupon is a classic piecemeal MVP example. Groupon is presented in the form of a marketplace where there are offers of exclusive and attractive deals from local retailers, agencies, restaurants, grocers, etc.

The only difficulty that could arise from piecemeal MVP is when it comes to integration and partnerships with other services. They should see their value in collaborating to develop your MVP startup.

6. Concierge Minimum Viable Product Examples

These minimum viable product examples help you to select a target audience while at the same time validating whether your service is useful or not. It is called a “concierge,” which is an MVP product where you need to first provide services manually instead of having a digital product. In this way, you develop your customer base and analyze your audience. With this information, you can easily pivot your concept and redefine your MVP business.

Among concierge minimum viable product examples, Food on the Table (later acquired by Scripps Networks Int.) was the most famous. This mobile application offered food recipes and the best deals from grocery stores based on your food preferences.

Its founder, Manuel Rosso, searched for users to support this idea and interviewed them for food choices and available budgets. Then, he manually selected recipes, created shopping lists, and looked for discounts/coupons in local food stores. Further, this service helped stores promote their deals properly and helped people shop more efficiently.

7. Wizard of Oz Minimum Viable Product Example

The whole concept is hidden in the name. Recall the story in “The Wizard of Oz” where the wizard turned out to be an old man hiding behind a curtain, pretending to be a scary green head.

These minimum viable product examples imply that the projects look completely functional from the outside, while everything inside is operated manually by humans. They can also be called “Manual-first MVPs” or “Flintstone minimum viable products.”

Zappos is the best MVP example in this category. The idea of founder Nick Swinmurn was to check whether people would buy shoes without trying them on. He took a photo at a store and posted it on the Internet - and people did actually make purchases. These days, Zappos is a company worth billions and was recently acquired by Amazon for $880 million.

8. Software Prototype as a Minimum Viable Product

At last, let's cover software prototypes as one of the minimum viable product examples. It is stated that software prototyping is the process of crafting software that is an incomplete version of the program that will eventually be developed.

We argue that the software prototype is the most prominent type among the listed minimum viable product examples since it is the first working version of a product with only the core features and basic components.

An MVP software prototype is a good option if you:

• Have done some prior idea testing and have support from the target audience
• Have some preliminary budget for your MVP product

Interested in the story of the well-known application Shazam, check out the guide here: How to Make a Music Identification App Like Shazam?

Minimum Viable Product Examples: 5 Business Use Cases

For inspiration, here are some stories behind successful services that are well-known these days and how they started with their minimum viable product examples.

1. Virgin Airlines

Virgin Airlines is one of the largest British airlines operating internationally that was established, and is owned, by Richard Branson. What was the minimum viable product for Virgin Airlines? It was just one route and one plane flying between Gatwick and Newark.

What was the MVP product for Yahoo? Yahoo was represented as an MVP website, a single-page website that contained a list of links to other sites. This was a sufficient amount of functionality to satisfy the users and retain early adopters of the system. Today, the system is the second most popular search engine in the world.

Airbnb was started as a concierge MVP. Back in 2017, there was a great design conference in San Francisco. The Airbnb team decided to offer their cheap accommodations during this event and posted the information on a simple website.

Within a short period of time, 3 guests were interested in paying for this minimum viable service. This supported the market insight that potential customers would be willing to pay to stay at someone else’s home rather than in a hotel.

4. Foursquare

Foursquare is another good minimum viable product example. In 2009, when it was launched, it was a simple app allowing people to check-in at a certain place. No special design, no special functionality, just a single-feature minimum viable product. Today, it has 55 million monthly active users and 7 billion check-ins total.

5. Facebook

In late 2004, Facebook was the definition of MVP on social media. Users had a simple profile and a great opportunity to connect with their group mates. This one feature was enough to provide an awesome boost and turn a small project into one of the largest public tech companies in history.

How to Build a Minimum Viable Product: 3-Step Process

In this section, we will explain how to create minimum viable product examples successfully.

Step 1 - Conduct Market Research & Finalize MVP Concept

A successful MVP strategy lies in a well-thought-out business plan. Business Model Canvas can be a helpful tool to finalize both your minimum viable product example and a greater product vision. The market for launching your MVP product is vital to consider, as it would be rather hard to compete with existing services that already have some audience with a mediocre product.

Considering this, you must analyze your competitors and design a better service with the highest quality, feature set, app design, and performance speed. All of these factors should be honed to offer a better user experience with your new product (e.g. job and investment platform with automatic tax inclusions). Based on the context, you can determine the MVP scope.

The business canvas consists of all the required modules to execute your MVP product strategy:

• Key Activities
• Key Resources
• Key Partners
• Customer Segments
• Customer Relations
• Delivery Channels
• Cost Structure
• Revenue Streams

Interested to receive a free consultation to finalize your MVP business idea?

Our Business Analyst can assist you with creating this canvas properly and planning your minimum viable product example, starting with a free one-hour consultation.

Step 2 - Define Minimum Viable Product Functionality & Prioritize MVP Features

To develop the smallest minimum viable product example of your app, it is necessary to define the key features and separate those from functionality, which is nice to have for future versions.

Many tools can help you prioritize the feature list, like the MoSCoW technique. This technique splits the minimum viable product functionality into Must Haves, Should Haves, Could Haves, and Won't Haves.

The right approach of using the MVP concept has changed since its inception in 2001. The minimum viable product examples of Facebook and Yahoo! were tremendous because they were innovators at that time. Now, with new technologies, generations, and internet possibilities, it is hard to come up with a novel product.

Today, it is almost impossible to make something cheap, fast, and of high-quality. Moreover, customers are a tech-savvy and educated audience that is hard to surprise. Not everyone is willing to sacrifice quality or the look, even if it is just a test.

Users are accustomed to the high quality that is expected in all new products.

If you are planning to implement a new idea, its context should be taken into close consideration. Basically, you should ask yourself: what is the minimum product necessary to launch and what does viable mean within this product's market environment?

Unless your idea is fresh and unique, try building a superior product to attract users.

Step 3 - Build-Measure-Learn from Minimum Viable Product Examples

The end goal of your minimum viable product is to scale and evolve into a successful business. Therefore, it is vital to implement your project starting from a minimum viable product example in the right way.

Most software development processes are based on agile software development, which referes to a group of methodologies, among which is the Scrum framework . Scrum is an agile way to manage a project development process with a dedicated development team of programmers guided by a Scrum Master.

Also, software teams should use up-to-date technologies and define what technologies are more appropriate to use (e.g., Objective C vs Swift ).

Agile development - including Scrum - is a flexible development process that coincides with the iterative MVP process, “a learning vehicle” of building-> measuring-> learning . The minimum viable product approach encourages you to interactively learn about your users with the least amount of effort while the development team receives the necessary feedback and acts accordingly - by either working on the next product version or making an idea pivot.

This agile minimum viable product development minimizes the risk of developing unnecessary MVP products while reducing the cost and time for development itself. This is also beneficial as it speeds the appearance of a product and can generate initial clients while product implementation is ongoing. The MVP strategy is rather useful, as the development team can adjust the development process quickly.

The Bottom Line: Creating Minimum Viable Product Examples

It is sometimes hard to distinguish what an MVP actually is and decide which MVP type to choose for your business.

In some cases, a small experiment or a short video can be a reasonable minimum viable product example. In other cases, it is better to create the first version of a software prototype. Either way, your product should be viable and its main purpose should be to test your idea and get “validated learning” with as few resources as possible.

Think about MVP startup in terms of such actions:

• Study the market for a small problem in a bigger context
• Finalize the MVP concept - simple observation and questioning may be a great way
• Launch the MVP product in the shortest time to test the assumption
• Communication and feedback is key to validate your idea and to clear up the vision
• Learn from clients and expand the user base
• Keep iterating (building-> measuring-> learning) and try to solve a bigger issue each time
• Test the demand before the full-functioning product release
• Try to avoid large expenditures at the very start

Therefore, to structure your MVP development strategy - think small, and at the same time have a greater vision with the passage of time. As an example, Elon Musk has a great MVP entrepreneurship vision.

At first, he created an exceptional electric car [Tesla], which became the best-selling car of its kind. Meanwhile, as battery life continues to improve, this results in the possibility to drive longer distances on one charge. As well, Tesla 2 has presented electric buses, trucks, and electric subways. At the top level, Musk has a vision of global usage of alternative energy resources.

To make a final point: any minimum viable product example is not about a product itself, but rather the process of asking two questions each time:

• What is the riskiest assumption?
• What is the smallest experiment required to test it?

Want to launch a new product but not sure where to start from?

Don’t waste your time in such a turbulent market if you have a great MVP concept. Check out information about our MVP development service and start validating and building your minimum viable product with MLSDev as your reliable partner.

Frequently Asked Questions:

11 Minimum Viable Product Examples (With Actionable Tips)

Looking for a minimum viable product example to inspire you? Here are 11 small businesses that have nailed their MVPs and turned them into successful companies.

If you’re knee-deep in building your product and you’re stuck, you’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, you’ll learn the 11 actionable tips (with real examples) on building a successful MVP.

This guide doesn’t feature the minimum viable product examples you’ve heard a gazillion times — you know, like Spotify, Airbnb, Buffer, Apple, Dropbox, Uber, and Amazon.

Instead, I’ll introduce you to the 11 small businesses that have nailed their MVPs and turned them into successful companies .

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Research “Money” Keywords 
• Zoom Into Your Potential Customers
• Spy On Your Competitors
• Summarize Insights In A Master Plan
• Map Out User Flow
• Determine Your Core Feature Set
• Keep It Stupid-Simple
• Just Ship It!
• Promote The Heck Out Of It
• Obtain Customers’ Feedback

But first, let’s quickly recap on the basics.

What Does MVP Mean? (Featuring A Real Minimum Viable Product Example)

A minimum viable product (MVP) is an early version of a new product — with only one or a few core features — that meets the needs of a pool of early adopters who will then provide feedback for future product development .

That’s a mouthful, so let’s unpack it.

Coined by Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup, MVPs come in several forms, such as the Wizard of Oz MVP and Concierge MVP.

Source: Greenice

Here’s an example of a Concierge MVP.

When Adrienne Barnes, a freelance content marketer for B2B SaaS companies, launched her new buyer persona service, she only opened it to a few beta clients.

Source: Twitter

Adrienne worked with her beta clients one-on-one, using their feedback to help shape how her buyer persona service looks like today.

That’s the beauty of MVPs.

You get to test your assumptions and hypotheses with the least effort and eliminate wasted time on building a product or service that doesn’t work .

So whatever businesses you run — mobile app company, online shoe store, e-commerce site, etc — you want to first build an MVP before moving forward with a full-fledged product.

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How Do You Create An MVP? (With 11 Minimum Viable Product Examples)

Even though an MVP consists of at most a few core features, it still requires big effort on your part to bring it to life. To make this section easier for you, I’ve categorized the 11 tips in three phases:

Phase 1: Researching On Market Demand

Phase 2: building and launching your mvp, phase 3: testing and tweaking your mvp.

You’re now at the early stage of your MVP development process, so let’s start with getting in your target audience’s heads.

Put your research cap on! In this phase, you’ll learn how to analyze their needs, so you’ll know what to build and how to best target them.

1. Research “Money” Keywords

There are several ways to research your market and customers — one of the fastest and easiest ways is using Google Keyword Planner.

Source: YouTube

Here’s how it works: Pick a keyword your target audience is searching (make a guess!), and look at the search volume.

Focus on keywords with high search volume and low competition. Why? Because this tells you two things. One, there’s a demand for your actual product. And two, you have a chance of ranking on Google.

That’s exactly what the co-founders of Later did before building their software tool.

Their target keyword, “schedule Instagram post”, boasted a high search volume (9,900 searches/month) and low competition (SEO difficulty score of 31).

That’s when they realized they couldn’t go wrong with their scheduling tool:

“This gave some market validation to the product idea. At the same time, it lets us know some terms to highlight on our landing page, so users could find us through organic search.”

Ian W. MacKinnon, CTO and Co-Founder, Later

2. Zoom Into Your Potential Customers

Target everyone, and you’ll reach no one.

You know it’s time to go back to the drawing board when you’re targeting a broad audience that doesn’t bite the bait.

Here’s a better way: Define your niche audience, so you’ll have a better shot at positioning your product or service as the go-to choice.

To narrow down your target market, answer these five questions:

• Who will use it?
• Why will they use it?
• Will they tell their friends once they do use it?
• How fast can you bring it to market?
• How much profit is each sale going to produce?

These questions will help you be laser-focused on your best customers and help you predict what to expect down the road.

Here’s a minimum viable product example to help you see this tip in action.

Brandon Schaefer, who does project management and consulting at Simple Business Help , uses these five questions when he created his new LinkedIn profile management service.

Using the questions as guidelines, he found his niche audience: CEOs who work in companies with 50+ employees and $10-50 million in annual revenue.

Note the difference it made in his positioning.

If he were to write this positioning statement in his cold emails, it’d be so much more memorable than the snooze-worthy “I help CEOs with their LinkedIn profiles”.

3. Spy On Your Competitors

Tools like Ahrefs and Similar Web make it easy to replicate your competitors’ success.

With Ahrefs, you can see where your competitors get the bulk of their backlinks and the keywords they’re showing up on Google’s first page.

Flawless Content Shop , our next minimum viable product example, goes a step further.

Before launching a custom local SEO product, the founder, Lotus Felix studied not only the best but also the worst competitors in his niche.

Lotus did this for one big reason: He wanted to recreate the proven strategies and avoid those that don’t.

In the end, he discovered two critical things in his competition analysis:

The most successful competitors invested heavily on user-generated content and word of mouth marketing in their social media campaigns. The worst competitors did the opposite — they neglected their PR efforts and had an almost zero market awareness.

Key takeaway?

As you research your most and least successful competitors, pick what’s working and ditch those that are not. Experiment, borrow a few ideas, and see how you can do differently.

4. Summarize Insights In A Master Plan

By now, you’ve unearthed heaps of insights.

Now’s the time to digest everything you’ve learned and summarize your master plan in a business model canvas. (Psst! Grab your free business model canvas template here.)

This canvas should include relevant information, such as your value proposition , customer segments, and revenue streams. In other words, it should resemble something like this:

Source: Sumo

Revisit your business model canvas frequently as you build and market your MVP. This helps to ensure you’re heading in the right direction.

You now know your target customers inside out, so much so that the nuts and bolts of your MVP are starting to form in your head. Now the fun begins. Let’s handpick the core features and bring your MVP to life.

5. Map Out User Flow

Not so fast, tiger.

Before you determine the core features, you should first identify the key pathways and create an MVP flow outline.

Focus on your users’ needs and then plot out the steps they need to take to accomplish a task. Once you’ve defined the steps involved, you’ll be able to move on to the features.

Source: CareerFoundry

Because of the complexity and expertise involved, consider hiring a professional — this is assuming your skills fall outside the realm of user interface (UI) and user experience design (UX).

You don’t want to DIY with something you’re unfamiliar with. This cautionary tale by our next minimum viable product example serves as a good reminder.

When John Croyle, Founder of W-9 Form Manager , created his website, he ended up creating a less-than-intuitive experience. To make matters worse, he’d spent tens of thousands of dollars.

“I then hired a Fortune 500-level designer, and she reworked almost all of our site in a week. Everything she did was so intuitive and user friendly; it was amazing. And she did it effortlessly. The colors and design blended together and looked natural. I would have saved six figures in development costs and time spent if I had hired her from the start.”

John Croyle, Founder of W-9 Form Manager

6. Determine Your Core Feature Set

A great poker player never reveals a royal flush early in the game.

The lesson here: You want to avoid packing your MVP with all features — at least not in the first version.

What you want to do is include just one or at most, a few core features.

For their online digital marketing program, Dotcom Dollar created five-minute videos that gave viewers a glimpse of what was included in each course.

Each video was released every week for two months and promoted to email subscribers and social media followers. In total, these videos were viewed more than 10,000 times.

Don’t reveal all the bells and whistles in your MVP all at once. Observe how customers react to your product and then scale it further to let users tap it for the utmost efficiency.

Allan Borch, Founder of Dotcom Dollar

After launching, sign-ups for Dotcom Dollar went through the roof. Today, 900+ students have registered for the program.

Pro Tip : It’s tempting to get too caught up with unnecessary features. To keep yourself accountable, work under a tight deadline.

Laura Moreno deliberately gave herself two weeks to create an MVP for HomeFlow , and it worked.

“It made us focused on removing the non-essentials and optimizing our onboarding experience. For now, we’re just focusing on creating the two, three features that we know will WOW our users. We’ll have time to improve it afterward.”

Laura Moreno, Founder of HomeFlow

7. Keep It Stupid-Simple

When John Doherty from EditorNinja created his first MVP for Credo on WordPress, his tech stack only involved a membership plugin and Gravity Forms.

Take a look below, and you’ll notice Credo’s original website is a far cry from its current one.

And get this: John only started custom building Credo when he hit $18K in monthly revenue.

It’s worth following John’s steps. Sometimes all it takes is a simple website to get the ball rolling.

If you want to create a simple website for your MVP, check out Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode .

This placeholder website platform allows you to choose from 170+ themes and over a hundred million pictures (thanks to Depositphotos and Unsplash integrations).

If you’re feeling fancy, you can even add a video background to wow your target users.

Get the Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode annual deal on AppSumo today for $69.

8. Just Ship It!

Don’t let perfectionism stop you from shipping your MVP.

If you spend the initial days questioning if your product’s enough, you’ll be forever stuck in the “What if?” phase.

Snap Search , a privacy-first browser for Android, has come a long way since it’s first MVP — and founder, Rajat Vaghani, has no qualms about it.

“Each version I put out gave me more ideas and more feedback from users, which led to the final product today. That’s what an MVP should be.”

Rajat Vaghani, Founder & CEO of Snap Search

This minimum viable product example ties in with one of the tips above: Keep it stupid-simple and just ship it!

9. Promote The Heck Out Of It

Every day, hundreds of entrepreneurs launch their MVP projects in hopes of becoming an overnight success.

How do you stand out from the pack?

Sure, listing your MVP product on sites like Haul Drop or promoting it on Kickstarter and your favorite social network channels might get you initial traction.

But it’s unlikely to sustain you to build a profitable business.

Here’s a better tip: Make sure you surpass a threshold of time or money invested in your MVP to keep the momentum going — meaning, aim for a minimum of three months or $1500 to promote it.

When Michael Alexis launched Tiny Campfire , a virtual team-building event, he and his team promoted it on their blog and other marketing channels.

Take this blog post, for instance.

Source: Museum Hack  

It currently ranks on the first page of Google for the keyword “virtual team building”.

After noticing a massive surge in March, Michael and his marketers decided to add Tiny Campfire in the list.

Within a few days, they saw an increase in leads and sales.

Despite this, it took the company at least three months to stabilize into reliable sales and operations.

“This approach allowed us to take advantage of years of investment in content and SEO, without needing to make the same effort for each of the new business opportunities. If you want your MVP to become a business, you need to support it with substantial marketing.”

Michael Alexis, CEO of Team Building

Today, Tiny Campfire runs 100+ virtual team-building events every month.

If you, like Michael, want to drive targeted traffic to your website, check out Frase .

This SEO tool identifies the questions your target audience is asking online and creates in-depth content briefs in under 12 seconds.

It even optimizes your article to boost search rankings.

Get your Frase lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $69.

You’ve built your MVP and presented it to your users. Now you’re ready to collect their feedback and fine-tune your product. Let’s dive in.

10. Obtain Customers’ Feedback

Most companies poke around their analytics dashboard to dissect their users’ activity.

That’s cool, but these reports and metrics only show how users behave — they don’t tell you why.

If you want to understand your customers, you need to obtain the maximum amount of feedback from them.

Send your user base a survey — or, better yet, pick up the phone and start chatting away! The point of having these conversations is to have them walk you through how they’re interacting with your product for the first time.

If it weren’t for customer feedback, the team at Huan , a smart pet tags company, wouldn’t have known how their customers feel about using GPS.

“We were guided by feedback from our customers who complained that GPS collars required cellular radios, big batteries, and big data plans, which made them bulky and expensive to run.”

Gilad Rom, Founder of Huan

A good rule of thumb: Avoid planning even a single feature until you obtain your users’ feedback .

Surveying can be a messy process. If you’re looking for a zero-fuss form builder for your WordPress site, check out HappyForms .

This drag-and-drop builder offers unlimited forms and unlimited responses with no hidden drip fees. Whether you’re looking to build a signup form, survey, or poll, it’s got you covered.

Get the HappyForms lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $49.

As you prepare your questions, focus on questions that center around these themes:

• What do these users want to accomplish?
• What alternatives have they considered?
• Why did they buy your product?
• How did they find you?
• How well does your product meet their needs?

Pro Tip : If you’re interviewing customers, record them. This makes it easier to review transcripts.

You’ll be able to summarize the interview nuggets, how they think about their problems and the language they use. All this information will help shape your product and marketing.

When Mike Lingle, Founder and CEO of Rocket Pro Forma , interviewed his customers, he realized it helped him adjust quickly.

“It also helps me zero in on exactly which early adopters to focus on and how to talk to them. I only have so many marketing dollars, so the narrower the better. Now I have the first-hand information I need to carefully choose only those features to build, which will have the biggest impact on my customers.”

Mike Lingle, Founder and CEO of Rocket Pro Forma

Looking for an affordable solution to transcribe your customer interviews? You can’t go wrong with Happy Scribe .

Simply upload your audio clip to the transcription tool and leave it to do the rest.

Source: Happy Scribe

It’s easy collaborating on Happy Scribe. The transcription software tool allows you to download transcripts in various formats, like a PDF or a link with editing options.

Happy Scribe supports +119 languages and accents, which is definitely a plus if you have customers all over the world.

Grab the Happy Scribe lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $69.

Don’t Get Stuck In The Weeds: Ship Your Minimum Viable Product 

With the tips and minimum viable product examples in this guide, you’re now armed with knowledge.

You know what steps you need to take and you have the confidence to build your first (or second or third) MVP.

To recap, here are the 10 tips you’ve learned:

• Research On “Money” Keywords

Above all else, do NOT let perfectionism delay your launch.

Your MVP will never be fully polished.

And that’s okay. Because, usually, done is better than perfect.

10 Inspiring Examples of MVP (Minimum Viable Products)

MVP is a crucial concept that should be understood by every entrepreneur. What is it? What are the benefits of implementing it in your company? In this article we will answer both of these questions and provide numerous MVP examples that will surely inspire you on your journey to success . We encourage you to read it to clear up any confusion and learn more about how MVP can help your business grow.

Minimum viable product – what is it?

As already mentioned in the title of this article, MVP stands for “minimum viable product,” which is the minimum version of a product that a company can release to gain initial customers and obtain feedback from them . This serves as a form of market research.

Some may use the term MVP interchangeably with prototype, but this would be incorrect . A prototype is a sample or model that reflects the appearance of a product, but is not intended for market release. It is created to conceptualize a business idea without using the whole budget.

For instance, during the process of developing software prototypes, they are typically given to specialized testers who analyze their performance from a technical standpoint. In contrast, a minimum viable product is designed to be launched on the market and gather feedback from potential customers .

Difference between MVP and MMP

It is common to confuse the terms MVP and MMP, which stand for Minimum Viable Product and Minimum Marketable Product, respectively. However, it is important to understand that these concepts are distinct from one another. MMP is part of the agile development methodology and focuses on delivering products that will generate revenue for the company with minimal effort . On the other hand, MVP is centered on obtaining feedback to aid in the development of your project.

What is the origin of the concept of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs)?

The idea of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is closely tied to the principles of the Lean Startup methodology . This approach views a startup as an experiment and its product as an innovation that will evolve over time if customers express interest in it. In line with this concept, an MVP is allowed to be imperfect and may lack more complex features that will be added in later stages.

Despite any limitations, the product must still be capable of reaching the target audience and functioning well enough to entice them to use it. This approach applies to startups offering both physical and digital products, as well as service based startups.

4 main types of MVP

Minimum Viable Products can be classified into four distinct types, each with a unique MVP strategy. It is crucial to choose the appropriate type of MVP that aligns with the industry, product, target audience, and opportunities . The ideal approach for a RFP for software development project would differ significantly from that of an insurance brokerage service or a shoe retailer.

Concierge MVP

Concierge MVP involves providing individual assistance to users in determining whether they require a product or service. For instance, Manuel Rosso, the founder of Food on the Table, initially lacked a website or a definite product to sell. Instead, he offered to create custom recipes and grocery lists during in-store visits for a monthly fee of $10. This exemplifies the use of concierge MVP and appears to have been successful.

Oz MVP based on Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz model is named after the famous movie because it parallels the storyline in which the main character is actually a different person than he appears to be. The Oz MVP model assumes that users are subtly enchanted. This means that a product, that looks to work flawlessly from the outside, despite many internal processes not yet being perfected, is introduced to the market.

For instance, if you have an application where the system automatically generates responses to user queries, you may not fully automate the process at the outset and instead personally reply to each message yourself

Landing Page MVP 

A landing page is a type of a website that showcases a specific offer, provides a product description, demonstrates how to use it, and includes a prominent Call to Action button (e.g., encouraging users to subscribe to a mailing list). By utilizing a landing page, you can conduct market research to gauge interest in a product and collect contact information from potential clients.

If you already have a customer base and plan to launch a new product or service, you can start by sending an email to check if it attracts its members. If the response is positive, you can proceed with developing the product idea.

Should you consider creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

Launching minimum viable products can be very beneficial for entrepreneurs, as it enables them to conduct testing and collect valuable information without investing excessive resources into product development. By doing so, business owners can avoid bad investments and guide their development team towards the correct path for MVP product development.

Top Benefits of Minimum Viable Products 

Releasing minimum viable products has several advantages, including:

• Quickly verifying the idea and assumptions of the project
• Identifying problems at the initial stage of work
• Gaining a better understanding of the needs of the target audience
• Saving time and money
• Lowering the risk of making a wrong investment
• Obtaining ready-made ideas for MVP development from potential clients
• Creating better and more refined products.

What is the cost of not releasing a Minimum Viable Product?

Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of continuously developing their product, creating extensive versions and striving for perfection before releasing it to the market.

Imagine spending several years working on web application development with a team of developers, graphic designers, and marketing specialists. You keep polishing it, constantly adding new features, and looking for innovative solutions. But when you finally launch it, you discover that users are not interested because the general product features are not useful, which means that you have wasted time and money . You may be fortunate enough to modify some of the elements to encourage customer use, but what if reviews are negative, interest is zero, and feedback is “we will not use it even if you add 100 complex features”? Unfortunately, you will face not only a professional setback but also a significant financial loss.

Opting for a Minimum Viable Product saves you both stress and costs by launching a product that enables you to find out if clients will find it interesting and which piecemeal MVP you can improve or remove altogether.

Is a minimum viable product an unfinished product?

Many people believe that creating a minimum viable product means releasing an unfinished product, which would be unfair to potential customers. This is a common misconception. An MVP is a product that is ready enough for the target audience to evaluate its value . It is not the earliest prototype that is unappealing and misleading. It is a complete product that customers can get to know, test, and provide feedback on what is good and what needs to be improved. However, to achieve the expected goal, the minimum viable product must have core functionality .

For instance, if you create an application for registering for state-subsidized training, it must be possible to submit a form in just a few minutes. Otherwise, the product would be useless. Later, you can refine the application by providing new features, graphics, or content. But a single feature MVP that will not change, such as the ability to submit a form, must work flawlessly from the beginning. The final product might be different, but the basic functionality cannot be altered.

Interesting minimum viable product examples 

Let’s now turn our attention to some of the most inspiring examples of MVP.

Facebook – one of the best MVP examples

It is fitting to start this list with the social media giant, Facebook, which was started by Mark Zuckerberg with a minimum viable product. Initially, the platform was created to connect students at Harvard through a service where they could create posts under their own name.

The minimum version of the product was launched to just four universities — Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Stanford . Positive feedback from users prompted the expansion of the product to a wider audience, leading to massive MVP development. Today, Facebook is a well-known success story and a powerhouse in the industry.

iPhone by Apple – a regular product that became a market leader 

The iPhone is currently one of the most popular smartphones in the world with a wide range of capabilities. It enables us to make calls, send text messages, take photos, browse the internet, use social media platforms, play games, make payments and perform many other important tasks.

However, did you know that when the iPhone was first introduced, it had just one feature, which was making phone calls ? It did not even allow users to send SMS. Nevertheless, in those days, having the ability to make calls from a small, compact device was groundbreaking. By launching the iPhone as an MVP product with just the core components, it was possible to refine it and add more, much more advanced system elements that customers needed.

Uber  – San Francisco-based app that is now operational in 70 countries

Uber is another example of a product that was initially launched as a minimum viable product. At the beginning, the business model involved developing an app called UberCab, which was only used by the founder of Uber and his friends to pick up customers in San Francisco. They started with a single feature MVP, which was the core of their business. Later, the app was expanded, but initially, it was only available to iPhone users.

The original idea was that clients could book a taxi via a text message . Today, Uber is one of successful examples of a Minimum Viable Product that evolved beyond expectations, as it operates in 70 countries and offers many additional functionalities, such as live tracking and different types of rides to choose from. It is worth drawing inspiration from this company.

Spotify –  from a small Swedish music platform to millions of users today

Spotify, the platform that enables users to listen to any music, podcasts and create playlists, was once an MVP product. The idea behind it was to provide free music streaming software and monetize it with ads. The founders of the brand decided to test their idea with a wider audience and only implement further possibilities after receiving feedback.

They began with a web application, which they shared with a close circle, only adding Swedish musicians to it . Once there was interest in the idea, they moved on. By the time they reached the US target market, they knew they had a gold mine in their hands.

Amazon – a large retail giant with multiple brands

What if we told you that the retail giant Amazon started as a minimal product featuring only a bookstore? Founder Jeff Bezos brainstormed 20 product ideas, ultimately choosing books as the most profitable.

The initial website was extremely basic, featuring only book catalogs . When clients placed orders, Amazon purchased the books from distributors and delivered them by courier. This simple platform provided valuable insights into customer needs and paved the way for Amazon’s development into the multi-brand giant we know today. This is a prime example of a successful MVP strategy.

Get inspired by Amazon’s captivating footer design in our article featuring creative website footer examples .

Buffer – a landing page that simplifies life for millions of people today

Buffer is a well-known brand among those who deal with social media publishing, such as social media managers, marketing agencies, influencers, and creators. It provides a platform to plan and publish content across various social media platforms.

Buffer is a great example of a good MVP approach . The founder of Buffer understood that it was important to release a minimum version of the product, as there was no certainty regarding which functionalities were most important to users. So, instead of launching the finished product, he released a landing page that showcased the application and its benefits . He used his email list to contact potential users and gather feedback to refine the product. This is how the journey from a simple landing page to a complete application took place.

Dropbox – transforming an idea into a multi-million dollar business

Dropbox, the cloud storage platform, is a household name today. But did you know that the founders of this business concept were not initially convinced it was a viable idea? Testing the website would have been too expensive, so instead, they created a short video showcasing how Dropbox works and its benefits, and asked for feedback from seventy thousand people . This turned out to be a successful MVP, which required minimal financial investment but plenty of commitment. Its success shows that a great idea can go a long way with the right approach.

Airbnb – a story of how personal problems resulted in a profitable business

Airbnb is a platform that allows people to rent apartments, and it all began with a personal problem faced by its founders. Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia could not afford to rent a whole place in San Francisco on their own, so they decided to rent out their living room with a bed and serve homemade breakfasts.

To test the idea, they created a simple landing page with pictures of their apartment, which turned out to be an effective minimum viable product example . The idea quickly gained traction, and more people wanted to offer their homes or take advantage of the service. Based on customer feedback, Airbnb’s owners developed the MVP into a more cohesive product, which has since become a massive success.

Zalando – from a vague concept into a thriving corporation

Zalando, one of the most well-known stores in the market, began as a minimum viable product. The founder created a landing page called Ifansho in 2008 and uploaded pictures of shoes from shoe stores . Ifansho is another interesting minimum viable product example. When the first order was received, one of the employees went to the store, purchased the selected shoe model, and shipped it. This marked the beginning of the story of this multi-brand store, which today generates billions of dollars.

Instagram – once a basic website, now a multifunctional platform

Our journey began with a social media giant and it will end with one. Instagram, which currently is the most popular social media platform, serves as one of the most outstanding MVP examples.

Initially, it was designed solely for the swift upload, filtering, and sharing of photos among friends . Presently, it has evolved to offer more than just a platform for images; it enables users to add short-lived video snippets, share video reels, exchange messages, and comment on content. Furthermore, Instagram has transformed into a significant workspace for many individuals.

How to measure the success of a minimum viable product? 

Ultimately, what are the reliable techniques to gauge the triumph of a minimum viable product? Below are some validated approaches.

Valuable feedback

There is no metric that carries greater significance than the feedback received from potential users or customers. The more insights you can get from them regarding a particular product version, the better you can cater to their needs. Do not hesitate to pose direct queries to your target audience and be sure to attentively heed all their responses . You may discover that you have overlooked crucial aspects of the product, and you do not want to include undesirable features that could hamper their experience.

There are several ways to quantify engagement, and you should select the one that aligns best with your business. For instance, you could track the number of social media mentions your project receives or evaluate the number of times it has been featured in blog rankings.

Percentage of active users

It is important to continually monitor the ratings and feedback provided by users who frequently interact with your products. Such information is incredibly valuable and can provide ample opportunities for learning and growth. Additionally, it is crucial to keep tabs on the proportion of active users. Even a simple WordPress website can offer access to such data.

Key metrics for SaaS products

You should keep in mind all of the parameters associated with the SaaS business model that require measurement. These include critical indicators such as CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), LTV (Lifetime Value), and RR (Customer Retention Rate).

It is also worth noting the Pirate Metrics AARRR, which can help you effectively measure and optimize your users’ conversion funnel.

Minimum viable product – summary

In conclusion, the minimum viable product approach is an excellent option for those launching a new product and looking to avoid excessive spending on an unproven project. The following steps are worth considering:

• Select an appropriate MVP development strategy for the product, such as the Wizard of Oz or a landing page;
• Develop an initial plan for execution, drawing inspiration from MVP examples;
• Refine the project management framework and delegate tasks as needed. If you’re seeking professional assistance in creating an impactful user interface and seamless design, our web design service is here to help;
• Leverage all existing tools to bring a product with necessary core features to market;
• Gather and thoroughly analyze user feedback;
• Use customers’ opinions to decide whether it makes sense to continue developing the product or whether it is best to leave it at the MVP stage. Alternatively, the project may prove to be a complete startup failure, and it is better to abandon the idea altogether.

Now you understand what a minimum viable product is and why it is important to release one to the market. If you have already launched your own MVP and you are now seeking professionals specialized in software development for startups , please do not hesitate to contact us! We will create a project tailored to your needs and ensure that it meets all of your requirements.

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15 Best Minimum Viable Product Examples to Inspire Your Product Development

Launching a polished product without testing if it meets your audience’s needs is like shouting into the void and hoping for a response.

Surprisingly, about 90% of startups fail for this very reason.

Many dedicated extensive time, effort, and resources to developing an app only to see it struggle because it didn’t resonate with their intended audience.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can sidestep this common pitfall by creating a minimum viable product (MVP).

An MVP allows you to test your concept in the real world, gather authentic user feedback, and make informed decisions based on data. Think of it as a safety net that enables you to refine your product before committing fully.

Many successful companies started with an MVP to validate their concepts. They used early feedback to iterate and improve, ensuring their final product met the market’s needs.

In this post, I’ll share some brilliant MVP examples and the strategies these industry leaders use to turn their visions into successful businesses. Read on to pick up valuable insights for crafting a winning product that meets market demands.

What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

Source: Inflective

A minimum viable product (MVP) is the initial version of a product that includes only the essential features required for it to work as intended.

Think of it like this: Minimum means limited features, and Viable means they are enough for the product to function properly.

Therefore, MVP product development doesn’t have to be complicated. It should simply:

🚀 Serve a target audience

An MVP should be made for a specific group of users. Knowing who you are building for helps ensure your product meets their needs well right from the start.

🚀 Address a key problem or need that users have

The MVP should solve an important problem or fulfill a critical need that users have. This is the only reason why people would want to use your product.

🚀Help the development team know exactly what to build

An MVP gives the developers clear direction on what features to prioritize. This avoids confusion and makes sure they build what’s most important first.

🚀Avoid spending extra money on unnecessary features

An MVP must focus on just the core components needed to test and improve the product. This saves money and time, making the development process more efficient.

In a nutshell, an MVP product is released to users to test features and get feedback for further improvement.

Founders use it to assess how their target audience feels about an idea. If the idea has potential, they develop the next version using the collected feedback.

What an MVP is not?

Validation, speed-to-market, and basic features are the key terms that define an MVP. But does this mean an MVP is the same as a test product? Does making MVPs justify speeding up production through workflow shortcuts?

To clear the fog, let me discuss what is NOT an MVP.

❎ Creating an MVP doesn’t mean cutting corners Although MVPs help speed up and lower the cost of software development , they still should be well thought-out, tested, and successful in meeting customer demands before being introduced into the market.

Remember, a minimum viable product cannot exist independently of future iterations. It should be scalable enough to help inform subsequent development and product decisions. Scalable MVPs enable businesses to expand exponentially while managing expenses.

❎ MVP is not the same as a Minimum Marketable Product Software developers use an MVP during the development cycle to quickly test features, analyze feedback, and determine whether an idea is worth pursuing.

Meanwhile, a minimum marketable product (MMP) represents the early version of a product ready for launch to the general public. It is designed with the customer experience in mind and contains all the necessary elements to remain competitive and desirable for purchase.

If you have a good MVP, you can turn it into an MMP with minimal effort and through continuous improvement.

❎ MVP is not a proof of concept While both a minimum viable product and a proof of concept (POC) aim to validate an idea, they are not the same.

A POC is more focused on demonstrating an app idea’s feasibility from an engineering or technical point of view . It’s like trying a new engine in a prototype car to see if it’ll work.

In contrast, an MVP is primarily meant to test the viability of an idea by getting potential users’ perspectives and feedback. It’s when you release a basic version of the car to real users for feedback to improve the final output.

❎ MVP is not a rough draft Although an MVP doesn’t include all the features of a full-release version of your app, it’s more than just a rough draft. Rather, it’s a crucial element of your app development cycle.

MVP development must produce a product with the minimum set of features — not minimum quality — necessary for customers to start using and seeing the value of your app.

Now that we’ve addressed the common misconceptions about minimum viable products, let’s discover some big-ticket MVP successes in tech and business.

15 Real-Life MVP Examples That Evolved Into Major Success Stories

At Appetiser, we’re fond of hearing and telling startup success stories. Here are some of the best minimum viable product examples from brands that have made incredible impacts:

Source: Altar

It’s common knowledge that the e-commerce giant began as an online bookstore. When Jeff Bezos started his company, he bought books from distributors and shipped them to customers who placed orders online. He did this to test whether people would buy books on the internet.

The initial website was built with a basic design with only the core features to reduce product development costs . Seeing the volume of book sales, Bezos kept adding more books to the store and acquired warehouses, eventually blossoming into the mammoth of a platform it is.

Today, Amazon is the gold standard in the e-commerce niche, generating global revenues of more than $574 billion in 2023 .

Do you also have a groundbreaking app idea? Appetiser has a wealth of experience growing businesses from zero to multimillion-dollar brands — all by starting with a world-class app design .

Another successful business with an excellent MVP example is Vello , a celebrity-fan social app and one of Appetiser’s app development Australia partners.

AFL legend Ben Dixon’s top-rating social app began with a vision: to provide celebrities and their biggest fans a platform to connect. But, to bring his idea to life, Ben knew he first needed to raise capital.

The challenge was getting investors excited and on board with a pioneering concept. It was then that he approached Appetiser.

To help him realize his vision, Appetiser built him world class-app designs that we later put together.

The result? A knock-out interactive prototype that netted Vello more than $1 million in investor funding and secured the partnerships of leading celebrity management agencies in Australia.

Today, Vello’s database includes over 1,000 high-profile celebrities , including Ricky Ponting and George Calombaris, and a combined fanbase of 150 million!

Check out Vello’s case study to learn more about their exciting app growth journey.

Source: Medium

In 2009, Uber launched as “Ubercab,” a scrappy MVP available exclusively on iPhones and SMS, confined to San Francisco. The founders’ vision was simple yet revolutionary: connecting drivers with passengers needing a ride. This initial version allowed Uber to test the waters and gauge market interest.

As user demand surged, Uber swiftly evolved. They integrated GPS for precise location tracking, introduced real-time driver monitoring, and implemented new features like ratings and reviews to enhance user trust and satisfaction. Each iteration was informed by valuable feedback from early adopters, propelling Uber to refine its service and expand globally.

Today, Uber is a testament to the power of starting small and iterating based on user insights. From its humble MVP beginnings, Uber has grown into one of the world’s most prominent ride-sharing platforms, revolutionizing urban transportation and setting a benchmark for innovation in the tech industry.

Another brand that has used an MVP as its most powerful tool for success is Roamni .

App founders Jason Fabbri and Greg Curciosaw a need to solve a genuine problem: how to share, create, and experience local stories.

For such an avante-garde concept, Jason and Greg knew they needed more than a pitch deck to stimulate investors’ interest and engage early adopters . So, they turned to Appetiser for help.

In 6 short weeks, we created a design that reflected Roamni’s unique personality and a clear picture of the vision in action. The resulting prototype has allowed the startup to test the waters, make data-driven iterations, and deliver a superior final product in 6 months.

Shortly after hitting the market, the app witnessed overwhelming user reception and sparked the interest of world-renowned businesses.

Roamni is now valued at $5 million and recognized as the official partner of Formula 1 and the Australian Grand Prix!

Roamni’s inspiring app success story shows how MVPs can grow the seeds of simple ideas into fruitful digital businesses.

Source: Wayback Machine

Airbnb first started as a concierge minimum viable product.

After moving to San Francisco, product designers Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia realized their loft apartment rent was too steep for them.

That’s when they came up with a solution: opening up their apartment for short-term rental to attendees of a nearby conference to earn extra income.

They created an MVP of nothing more than a website, uploaded photos of their apartment, and found paying guests almost immediately.

Their initial goal was to make some extra cash, but they quickly realized there was a market for people who wanted to rent their homes.

From there, the platform grew and is now a roaring success.

Speaking of success…

Reading about the best practices for building successful mobile or web apps written by one of our founders could start your journey toward digital business success .

6. Wine Valet

Wine Valet makes a great crowdfunding minimum viable product example .

After experiencing the frustrating challenges of finding restaurant wines locally, app founders Alain and Sarah came up with a breakthrough idea : use technology to tailor wine selections to one’s unique tastes.

But as first-time entrepreneurs with zero tech background, they needed a full-journey partner to help them turn their vision into a reality.

Fortunately, they found a team equally passionate about pushing the boundaries of innovation : Appetiser.

Soon after, we began working together to build an interactive design they could use to hype investors’ interests and support.

This collaboration resulted in a prototype that looked as smooth and refreshing as the wine they represented. It empowered the startup to breeze past its target on Birchal and earned the commitment of numerous investors.

Wine Valet proves that MVP designs are crucial in tapping investor grapevines to raise millions through crowdfunding .

Source: Gordon Yu (YouTube channel)

Another brand with a great minimum viable product example is Dropbox.

Dropbox’s founders had a great idea to create online storage for files. They wanted people to get a feel of the app before the actual development process.

Get the latest industry news first.

Instead of investing and building the hardware right away, they started with a demo video MVP. The simple video explained how the first iteration of their product would look and work.

It turned out to be a massive success as the number of signups increased overnight—without an actual product!

The experience of seeing the video was enough to sell the idea and collect feedback validating their product.

Pinch is an innovative app designed for capturing, creating, and sharing life’s memorable moments with ease. It allows users to seamlessly weave photos and videos into cohesive stories.

Claire Fitzsimons founded Pinch after experiencing frustration during a holiday, envisioning a platform where loved ones could easily collaborate on media from special events. Knowing the market dominance of giants like Instagram, she focused on creating a solution for problems that aren’t addressed by the existing options.

She envisioned a platform that would preserve original media quality, offer multi-user editing capabilities, and integrate social and camera functionalities cohesively.

Partnering with our team at Appetiser, Claire initially tested basic functionalities to validate the concept, refining features based on early user feedback. This iterative approach allowed Pinch to grow its user base rapidly, becoming a favored tool for collaborative media sharing despite competition from larger platforms.

Claire’s commitment to refining Pinch from its early stages underscores the importance of starting with a focused MVP to navigate and succeed in competitive markets.

By initially testing their idea with an MVP, Pinch not only proved its appeal but also set the stage for rapid development and expansion.

BuzzMe is a web app created by Susan Vincent to improve how customers are notified when their orders are ready.

Instead of using traditional in-store buzzers or calling out names, BuzzMe sends notifications directly to customers’ devices, making the process more convenient for small businesses, restaurants, and cafés. As one happy user put it, “Why do we need to be shouted at to pick up our food?”

Susan originally wanted a text notification system, but she had to change plans due to budget and compatibility issues. Working with Appetiser, she developed a web app with push notifications instead, and left room for text notifications in the future.

This change allowed BuzzMe to launch earlier than expected, and its easy-to-use design was a hit right from the start. Since its launch, BuzzMe has received positive feedback and continues to grow, with plans to add more features and reach more users.

The BuzzMe story shows how starting with a simple, flexible MVP can help startups manage resources, get early feedback, and build a solid base for future growth and improvements.

Source: MLSDev

Buffer started as a series of landing pages before transforming into an app for scheduling social media posts.

Founder Joel Gascoigne created a landing page with just enough information describing what Buffer did. He wanted to gauge people’s interest before making it a profitable venture. He then promoted the first landing page on social media and asked viewers to fill up the signup form.

The positive response from the signups encouraged him to create another landing page with pricing information to understand how much people were willing to pay for the app.

With many people signing up for the paid plans, Buffer clearly had potential. The rest is history.

11. Spotify

Source: Stfalcon

In the 2000s, people downloaded music through pirate sites. But it didn’t take long before these sites faced strict regulations and were eventually shut down.

It was then that Spotify co-founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon came up with the idea to offer a music streaming service. They developed an MVP and tested it with family and friends before presenting it to a larger audience.

Today, Spotify is a global on-demand music, video, and podcast streaming giant with more than 615 million users .

12. Foursquare

Foursquare began with a simple idea: letting users check in at different places to share their locations with friends. This then-novel feature was engaging, as it rewarded users with badges based on their check-ins. As more people joined, Foursquare expanded by using the data from these check-ins to suggest new places to visit.

Over time, Foursquare evolved beyond just check-ins. They added features like city guides and personalized recommendations based on users’ check-in history. This transformation turned Foursquare into a full-fledged city guide, providing insights into popular venues and personalized suggestions for users exploring new places.

Today, Foursquare is a widely used platform with 16+ billions of visits monthly from 500+ millions of unique devices worldwide.

Their journey from a simple check-in app to a comprehensive city guide highlights the success of starting small with an MVP, listening to user feedback, and expanding strategically to meet evolving user needs in the competitive landscape of social and location-based services.

Groupon started with a straightforward minimum viable product (MVP) that helped local businesses attract customers by offering exclusive deals.

In the beginning, the founders didn’t have a fancy system to manage these deals, so they used WordPress, like a blog to post daily offers. This allowed them to test if people liked the idea without spending a lot on complex technology.

As more people started using Groupon and liking the deals, the founders improved their website. They created a better system to handle deals and manage customers, making it easier for businesses to join and offer discounts. This growth helped Groupon become popular quickly and connect millions of consumers with local shops and services.

Today, Groupon is a big name in online discounts, helping people find deals from local businesses around the world. Their journey from a simple blog-like setup to a major online marketplace shows how starting small and listening to what customers want can lead to big success.

14. AngelList

Another app that makes a great MVP example is AngelList. The job and investment platform aimed to help startups connect with investors and raise capital.

Initially, the platform relied on its founders’ personal networks to facilitate introductions between entrepreneurs and potential investors. This minimalistic approach allowed AngelList to validate its concept effectively and gain initial traction without extensive development or financial investment.

As AngelList demonstrated its value proposition and gained momentum, it gradually expanded its platform’s capabilities. They introduced features like automated matching algorithms and simplified investment processes to improve user experience and scalability.

These enhancements made it easier for startups to find funding and for investors to discover promising opportunities, driving the platform’s growth.

Today, AngelList boasts a user base of over 10 million and manages nearly $1.8 billion in investments.

Its evolution from leveraging personal connections to becoming a pivotal player in startup fundraising underscores the effectiveness of starting with a focused MVP and iterating based on user feedback.

Zappos is a famous example of the Wizard of Oz minimum viable product strategy .

In 1999, founder Nick Swinmurn tested the hypothesis that people were ready to buy shoes online before trying them out.

He went to local shops, took pictures of shoes he wanted to sell, and placed them on his website, Shoesite.com . If anyone placed an order, he would go to the store, buy the pair, and ship it over.

When people started making purchases, Swinmurn discovered consumers liked this model a lot. This prompted him to develop his website, rebranding it as Zappos. It became a huge success and was later acquired by Amazon in 2009 for $1.2 billion.

Countless other MVP-powered businesses didn’t make it to our list. But regardless of what they came up with, their MVPs mostly boil down to just eight strategies. Read the next section to learn more.

8 Effective MVP Strategies for Launching Your Product

The following MVP templates are good to note in case you’re out to launch your product to the market:

1. Product design: Best for refining product’s features and functionality

Product design as a minimum viable product is particularly valuable for software, mobile apps , and tech tools.

You can implement MVP in various ways, like a sketch (simple design done by hand or with a tool), a wireframe (shows the location of system elements, user experience , hierarchy, and navigation), or a mockup (demonstrates precisely how your product will work.).

Going back to product design, it’s your best bet as an MVP if you want to build a dedicated audience for your solution faster.

2. Landing pages: Best for testing market interest and collecting early sign-ups

A landing page is essentially a webpage that encourages visitors to perform a desired action.

An attractive and professional-looking landing page can spark interest in a product idea. You can hire a graphic designer to create one or use a landing page builder for the best results.

Aside from being visually appealing, a good landing page must provide vital information about your product and links to request more information.

This app marketing strategy is commonly used to gauge interest in a new product or service quickly.

If few visitors click the links on the landing page, there’s no need to continue with the product’s development.

A landing page is just a component of many websites. At Appetiser, we’ve successfully built not just landing pages but also whole websites. Our collaboration with PointsBet enabled the startup to penetrate the U.S. market through growth-enhancing website design and content marketing.

3. Demo videos: Best for showcasing product value and functionality

A demo video describes what a product does in detail.

It shows how your product works, what functions it will have, and what user needs it will address. A great demo video also lets you ask your targeted audience if the solution you provide meets their needs.

Making a video is generally more cost-effective than building an app. Videos make a great pre-launch marketing tool , too.

A Wyzowl study found that 69% of consumers prefer learning about a new product or service through a short video.

If you want to present your app idea to potential users and investors without spending irrationally, consider using a demo video to validate your business concept.

Our video marketing hack for startups is a good read if you want to leverage video to exponentially grow your business or organization.

4. Piecemeal MVP: Best for launching quickly

The piecemeal minimum viable product allows you to test your idea using existing tools and services in your project.

Piecemeal MVP is a collection of mini-features designed to gather customer feedback to improve the overall product. It involves building and launching a product incrementally, feature by feature.

Instead of creating one product, you break its features into smaller pieces and test them individually. You show the users one critical function that solves a fundamental problem.

This helps reduce risk while allowing you to get user feedback early in the development process.

Our app development experts recommend using the piecemeal MVP when introducing an idea on a tight budget.

5. Wizard of Oz: Best for service-based startups

This concept was derived from the “Wizard of Oz” story, where the scary green head was an old man hiding behind a curtain.

Like the story, an app with this MVP strategy looks completely functional from the outside. But in reality, everything is operated manually by humans or “wizards” behind the curtain.

This type of minimum viable product is also called “Manual-First MVPs” and is ideal for startups offering personalized services that want to understand user needs firsthand.

6. Concierge: Best for validating app-market fit

Concierge MVP is almost like the Wizard of Oz MVP, but instead of making the user believe everything is automated, you let them know it takes a human to work (called a “concierge”).

Here’s how it works: You first provide services manually and then collect user feedback on them. Based on the input, you then work on automating your processes. This strategy is best for testing whether an app is relevant to market needs.

7. Crowdfunding: Best for validating demand and securing early funding

This is a collection of minimum viable products by crowdfunding platforms. The essence of an app prototype crowdfunding platform is to enable you to receive donations before the release of the app or product.

Donation-based crowdfunding is one of the ways to raise funding without paying for things like principal or interest. For other innovative capital-raising schemes, check out our article on unique startup funding options .

Founders use crowdfunding to explore the place of their final product in the market through consumers’ contributions on these platforms.

8. Software prototypes: Best for demonstrating core functionalities and UX/UI concepts

Creating a software prototype is the most common type of MVP. It’s the first working product version to test your app’s viability.

If you have done some testing before and have support from the market, then a software prototype is a good choice.

How to Build a Winning MVP

From the strategic level, let’s now move to the tactical level of developing MVPs.

Here are the steps that have worked and produced incredible MVPs for many of Appetiser’s app development clients:

1. Identify your target audience

You need to know who your target audience is before building anything. This will help ensure that your product meets their needs and wants.

Here are some of the most basic factors you need research to define your ideal users:

• Demographics . Understand the basic characteristics of your potential users such as age, gender, income level, education, occupation, and location.
• Behaviors. Analyze how your target audience behaves online and offline. This includes their purchasing habits, media consumption, social media usage, and interaction with similar products or services.
• Needs and pain points. Identify the specific problems or challenges your target audience faces that your product can address. What solutions are they currently using, and how satisfied are they with these solutions?
• Preferences and expectations. Know what features, functionalities, and user experience elements your audience values most in products similar to yours. This helps in prioritizing development efforts.
• Feedback and reviews. Look at feedback, reviews, and discussions on forums, social media, and review websites related to similar products. This provides insights into what users like and dislike, and areas where competitors may be falling short.
• Competitor analysis. Study your competitors to understand who they are targeting and how successful they are in meeting their audience’s needs. Identify gaps or opportunities where your product can differentiate itself.

2. Define your core functionality

What makes your product unique? What key features should it have? Ensure the answers align with your identified target audience’s needs and wants.

The MoSCow method is one of the best ways to determine which features to keep and which ones to reject (at least initially).

It’s tempting to want ALL your favorite features to come out in your MVP. However, the MoSCow “filter” helps cut through the fat of favoritism and leaves you with a lean and mean MVP.

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

With the help of MoSCow and other similar methods, your MVP will have enough value for customers even as it maintains a minimalistic interface , functionality, and scope.

I encourage you to also check out our related article for more in-depth insights: How to Prioritize Product Features: Avoid Mistakes, Unlock Success

3. Prototype your MVP concept

Based on your basic features list, create a prototype of your MVP using wireframes or mockups. These outputs enable potential users and investors to visualize what your MVP will look like when complete.

This also helps identify any issues before they become major problems during actual development, saving you time and money in the long run.

4. Test early and often

Get valuable feedback from potential users as early as possible to inform further development of your web, ioS, or Android app . Then, once you have data, analyze the results and use the information to refine and improve the initial design concept before coding.

5) Implement and iterate

Once testing is complete, begin coding and implementing your final design concept into a working product that meets your audience’s needs or wants. After launch, continue iterating based on user feedback.

Create an MVP to be the MVP in the long run

Building a minimum viable product is the smartest way to bring your vision to life , especially in a fast-evolving app development market.

It allows you to validate your business idea and gain access to customer insights — two crucial decision-making steps — all while saving precious time and money.

Take it from us!

This winning strategy has propelled the success of our numerous app development partners. Through our world-class design, many startups have grown into the biggest brands with millions of active users and generating billions of revenue .

Ready to build and launch your app? Schedule a consultation with our app development experts today!

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Jessica La is a Content and SEO Consultant at Appetiser with 6+ years in the industry. If she’s not writing and optimizing content, you can find her with a cup of coffee delighting in literature or sci-fi books.

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The product management process: 4 easy and digitally-powered steps, accelerator vs incubator: which is best for your startup funding and growth, how jason & greg built an app worth over $5 million.

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Minimum viable product (mvp) experiment – the handy guide example.

8 minute read

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a foundational approach to tech products today, but it’s often misunderstood to always mean technical iterations , to always involve coding and development. That’s far from the truth! Experimentation starts long before any developer is involved. In fact you can use the MVP concept in areas of your company that have nothing to do with code, but could have a big positive impact on your business. To prove this point, let’s explore the MVP process through the example of something not exactly tech-y. ProdPad used the approach on one of our most popular pieces of brand collateral: The Handy Guide for Product People . You’ll probably walk away with new ideas for your company and a solid way to test them! But first, we need to cover the basics.

Minimum Viable Product definition

A Minimum Viable Product, or MVP, is a product with the least amount of effort put into it – the least you can get away with, so to speak – in order to test, collect feedback, and learn. “Doing the least” seems counterintuitive in our modern work culture, but it’s the most efficient and effective way to discover the right product to build. When building a product, every idea you have is a hypothesis. As part of The Lean Startup build-measure-learn feedback loop, you build the bare minimum of your hypothesis in order to validate it. If you’re right, then you can put more time and effort into building – you iterate on it and measure again. If you’re wrong, then you’ve saved all that time and effort, you’ve learned something new, and can immediately move to the next hypothesis (or pivot altogether).

The Handy Guide MVP

Minimum Viable Product is a process of experimentation that you can apply to almost any part of your work or business – including free marketing materials, whether they’re designed for brand awareness or concrete lead generation. It’s how we developed our free booklet, the Handy Guide for Product People .

Did it launch as a complete, comprehensive, perfectly designed and polished book? No. It started out as pieces of scrap paper stapled together.  We started this in the early days of the company, back when it was just me and my co-founder Simon. We needed a brand play to get people’s attention on ProdPad. Over the years, the Handy Guide has iterated and evolved alongside our product and the business as a whole.

You should frontload the testing and prototyping before you ship a product, especially if it’s a physical product. So Version 1 is where the bulk of the experimentation is done, after you’ve identified your problem or goal. Our goal was brand awareness. Once we could go to conferences as ProdPad, we wanted to leave people with something other than a business card–something with higher value, but not as time-consuming as writing an actual book! We decided to test something that was cheap and cheerful. So the Handy Guide began as an in-hand booklet with 28 pages.

Build It was just me testing the content, which was repurposed from ideas we’d write about on the blog. I started with the most broad question, “What things would I want to teach somebody in this guide?” Then could focus on defining the principles of product management (what the guide calls “pillars”) and map it all together on sheets of paper.

Test I would then show the actual papers to people in my product circle and say, “This is the kind of content I want to create. Is this right?” People would respond with new ideas or concepts I’d left out. They’d suggest quotes or other valuable stuff to include.

Iterate In those early days, when it was just a piece of scrap paper stuck together, I could experiment with order and structure without upsetting the design. I was interslicing quotations and visuals, adding valuable tidbits and removing other stuff that didn’t work as well.

Learn All the while, I was trying to figure out–and starting to understand–how it fit together as a prototype. All of this experimentation and research revealed how much space the content needs, and how many pages the guide needs to be. And most importantly, from the feedback in my product circle, I knew it was worth advancing this guide to the next stage of development.

Versions 2-5

During this phase, iterating from Version 2 to 5, the guide really took shape. Build With the bulk of the content settled, we could focus on design. We upgraded to a digital version of the design, but the process was still pretty scrappy. I downloaded a template from the web and edited it myself in Adobe InDesign. I’d do a self-print run just in time for a conference. Learn When we’d hand out the guides, I’d tell each person that we’d love their feedback on it. And we got lots of feedback, largely via email. We collected feedback in our ProdPad backlog like anything else. During this phase, the quality and quantity of feedback starts to shift. The earlier in the MVP, the easier it is to iterate – and the more crucial! You’re sensitive to feedback, because you know the product is probably incomplete. There’s lots of low-hanging fruit and easy wins. As the versions mature, feedback is less about the core usability of the product. For the guides, we’d hear about a missing comma or a subjective opinion about the branding. You learn how to tell if this feedback is actually important. Does it address a core problem about the guide’s readability, or is it a minor typo or personal preference? Iterate We did have to do some release planning when it came time to print a new version! We’d need to understand how much feedback we collected, review it all, implement the worthwhile stuff, make any design adjustments, review the new version, then ship to the printer. We’d have to do all of this by a deadline to get to the conference on time!

Versions 6-7

This phase was more of the same building, learning, and iterating. We leveled up the design and had the guides professionally printed, but we still kept the release efforts as simple as possible. We continued using InDesign and saved the guide as a PDF that we could send to a local printer at a few days’ turnaround.

We went digital, baby! The guide proved so popular that we put it online. Now you can sign up for it on the website, and get a PDF of the e-book in your inbox. The digital-only offer makes more sense for a few reasons. It’s cheaper and eco-friendly. Updates and iterations are easy to republish. Plus, now we’re able to reach product managers from all around the globe.

Measuring and validating the Handy Guide MVP

Measuring and validating your hypothesis – your idea, your direction, your feature – is a big part of developing an MVP. But this can be a gray area if you’re working on projects that don’t have quantifiable data or user insights.

At ProdPad, we felt that people loved the Handy Guide! But this was hard to validate and track with data because the guides were a brand play more than anything else. So we used our own anecdotal forms of validation:

• Positive response in person and via email. This feedback was the top form of evidence that informed and confirmed the process.
• How quickly the guides disappeared at conferences. They were always the first type of merch to go!
• How long people kept the guides. We’ve heard and seen that people keep their copy for many years! We could recognize each version because each printer run was slightly different: small tweaks, big edits, new branding, new copy on the inside.
• A discount code for signing up. At one point, we iterated to include a code to get a discount on ProdPad, so we could track who converted as a customer. But this was secondary to the brand value.

Now, several years later, we have a solid marketing asset that takes very little resources to maintain, and we’ve established ProdPad as a thought leader in the space. By treating it as a minimum viable product, we could minimize our own efforts while ensuring we produced something super high-value. The Handy Guide has gone through huge iterations but still kept its original purpose – to help people become great product managers .

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What is MVP?

Don’t skip the basics! Let’s start with minimum viable product definition — that is what letters MVP stand for. It is the first version of an app, with only the necessary features for functioning the minimum set of features required to meet the needs of the very first users.

What is not an MVP ?

Important: sometimes people confuse an MVP and a prototype, thinking it is the same thing. Here is the difference: a prototype is a sample or a basic plan of your product or service. Typically, companies use prototypes internally to explain a larger concept. For example, to show the team what they’re supposed to build, while working on the project. It can be just a sketch or an interactive design, developed in Figma. The point being that you can’t release a prototype and give it to users, as it’s not a functioning app or website.

Also, you shouldn’t confuse an MVP and a proof of concept (PoC). PoC is the first stage of a product, when you need to check if a project is feasible. It takes place even before hiring a full team or raising any investments. A proof of concept usually includes a project scope, technical validation, success criteria, risk analysis, and a cost estimate. In contrast to an MVP, it doesn’t provide any market value and it can be useful only for businesses.

A minimum viable product is not a plan or a draft. Instead, it is a fully functioning version that is ready to go on the market. MVPs are released publicly to receive honest market feedback and to course-correct in the right direction.

Top 4 types of MVP

To better understand why certain minimum viable product examples succeeded, first you need to understand what type of an MVP they used and what they started with.

There are many approaches to MVP development . To save some time, we picked the 4 most popular minimum viable product templates , broke them down, and described how startups would benefit from them.

Wizard of Oz MVP is the half-manual, half-functioning solution. Users think they use an app when in reality, the core functionality relies on humans or ‘wizards’ behind the curtains.’ Humans can’t deliver many features simultaneously, so usually, a minimum viable product template like this is used for focusing on 1-3 main sections of a solution.

👍🏻 Best for: testing the representation of the solution itself with a limited number of features.

Piecemeal MVP is a way to test your idea with already existing services and platforms without pulling extra resources. Let’s imagine you want to build a marketplace to sell pet goods. Before developing the solution, you can check other marketplaces already out there and see if there is an actual demand in the area. 

👍🏻 Best for: introducing the solution to the market with a tight budget.

Concierge MVP is human-based. Within this type, most solution functions are replaced with people, or ‘concierges,’ that serve customers and collect their feedback on the idea.

👍🏻 Best for: checking if an app is relevant to the market needs.

Single Feature MVP is also called ‘One Painkiller.’ This minimum viable product template works like this: you pick one key feature that will be a painkiller for your target audience and solve their problems. Usually, these single features correlate with a unique selling point of a startup.

👍🏻 Best for: verifying the technical feasibility of an app.

MVP development stages

As minimum viable product examples show, speed matters. The faster you release an MVP and collect feedback, the more chances you have to succeed before someone else executes the same idea.  

At Purrweb, we know what a sensitive issue time is, which is why the average timeline for delivering an MVP for us is 3 months .

👆🏻Note: that’s our timeline, and for some other companies, it might take longer.

MVP product development process consists of 5 steps:

• We meet with you and learn about your idea;
• Research competitors and note their strengths and weaknesses;
• Determine the target audience and check what users need;
• Create a roadmap and design concepts;
• Develop the solution.

Let’s break each step down!

👟1️⃣ To start, any developing team needs to dig deeper and get to know your idea to calculate the time and costs of the solution. The main goal of this step is to dive in and learn about your project. It takes us 2-3 days on average to get the full context and start creating.

👟2️⃣ The next phase is to see what the market already has and what are the advantages of competitors’ apps there are already in existence. If you have any thoughts on that or references, please, share them. For example, you tried to use another company’s solution, and you liked onboarding and texts but hated the interface as it was messy. Make sure to let your developer know about it!

👟3️⃣ Then, the team turns to the users’ side. To start with, they usually define main usage scenarios for your minimum viable product — how your customers will use the solution, where they will click, and what problems they can face. After that, it is time to prioritize features for the app, define must-haves, map the user’s journey and plan the interface. 

👟4️⃣ The f ourth step is to create a roadmap of the MVP product development process and master the workflow. We decide what to work on first and what can be executed later. At the same time, UI/UX designers and copywriters generate ideas for an interface and present their ideas to you.

A little addition: At Purrweb, we always start with building a solution as soon as you approve our design ideas. This fact allows us to fall with a 3-months deadline. However, the exact timelines depend on how complex and deep your idea is.

👟5️⃣ Almost there! In the last step, the team actually develops your app, turns concepts into a robust interface, and tests it. QA engineers search and close all bugs before the launch.

But that is not the end!

➕ Also, to ensure your software runs smoothly, app developing teams usually offer post-launch service for reduced costs. For example, after your MVP is released, developers from an original team will dedicate some time every week to supervise the app’s code, keep up with further updates and requirements of AppStore and GooglePlay, and fix bugs that users can occasionally experience.

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Minimum Viable Product Template – Cheat Sheet

What is a minimum viable product.

  A minimum viable product is the activity that allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least amount of effort. The MVP must allow the startup to complete one cycle of the Build-Measure-Learn loop by presenting something to the customers and receiving feedback.

A minimum viable product template has four parts :

• Value Proposition – The solution  or the promise of a solution.  What benefits will the customer receive?
• Customer Segment – A specific target market that has a job to be done. These are the people who will give feedback on the value proposition.
• Channel – The customer must receive the value proposition to give feedback, so there must be a method for reaching the specific target market.
• Customer Relationship – The customer must give feedback on how the solution actually benefited them. To measure the effectiveness of the product, the customer must maintain contact with the startup somehow.

But the above definition is not exactly what Eric Ries says in the Lean Startup book. Instead, he says:

The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

That’s the textbook definition, but there’s a lot more to it, and there are some reasons we’ve adjusted our own definition away from canon. In particular, many of the examples given in the book and verbally by Eric himself seem to contradict those definitions. This explains why there have been many attempts to replace the term Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with alternatives such as:

• Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)
• Minimum Viable Experiment (MVE)
• Minimum Viable Experience (MVX)

To understand why we’ve made those modifications and why there’s a bit of disagreement in the lean startup community, we’ll break down MVP word by word:

A Minimum Viable Product Is Minimal

Easy enough. The term MVP comes from lean startup principles, which in turn comes from lean manufacturing principles. Those original principles from Toyota were about producing a valuable product (in this case, cars) with the least amount of waste possible. There shouldn’t be any extra pieces lying around, and workers shouldn’t find themselves carrying pieces from place to place unnecessarily. Even items kept in storage and not being actively used in the production process were considered waste.

So a minimum viable product template should be about reducing waste. For a startup, waste isn’t about creating a product with the least amount of scrap metal left lying around when the product is finished. The output of a startup isn’t a product, it’s a business model. And a business model is composed of knowledge. Share on X The concept of the business model as units of knowledge was famously represented by Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas.

The Business Model Canvas represents 9 chunks of knowledge that startups must verify before they can successfully scale and sustain their business. These bits of knowledge include:

• Customer – Who is the customer? What are their needs?
• Channels – Where and how will we sell to them?
• Relationship – How will we continue to service the customer with brand value or support?
• Value Proposition – What do we need to offer to the customer that will satisfy their pains, needs, and job to be done?
• Key Activities – What do we need to produce that Value Proposition?
• Key Resources – What are the tangible or intangible assets we need to do those Key Activities and produce the Value Proposition?
• Key Partnerships – Who do we need to collaborate with to get the Key Resources and perform the Key Activities?
• Revenue – How will we make money?
• Costs – How much will it cost us to perform all these other activities?

That’s a lot of things to get right, and all of them are ultimately important to scale. But not everything on the canvas is equal, and there are a number of dependencies.

If we’re wrong about our Key Partners, well….we have to get new partners.

If we’re wrong about our customer segment, well….virtually everything else on the canvas must change.

The Value Proposition is going to be different for a different customer segment. The Channel for how to reach the customer must change if the customer segment changes. The revenue model will change if the new customer segment has a different ability to pay.

So if we’re going to be minimal, an MVP can’t answer all of these questions. But it must answer the most critical questions we have that everything else depends on. It cannot focus on the least important parts.

That’s like having a cake made from only icing. You can have a cake without icing and it would be a pretty bad (and dry) cake. But it would still be a cake.

A cake with only icing and no actual cake….well. It may be delicious, but it’s not a cake and won’t win any Michelin stars.

A Minimum Viable Product template must answer our most critical question about the business model, and do it with the least amount of effort.

Example Minimum Viable Product: Concierge Test

A concierge test is often used to test services. The entrepreneur attempts to charge a customer for manually performing the service without any product development. The most famous example was done by Manuel Rosso for his company Food on the Table (mentioned in the book), but here’s a simple example:

Charlie wants to create a website radio service to play songs according to the customer’s individual taste. He’s unsure if people want a dynamic mix of music of different genres or just a steady beat. So instead of building a mobile app with artificial intelligence technology, Charlie recruits some initial customers.

Alice is the exact target market Charlie is interested in. She’s a professional who works in a co-working space and needs music to block out background noise, but she has sophisticated musical taste. So Charlie physically sits with Alice at work and constructs a playlist on the fly, based not only on Alice’s music selections, but also on her visible emotional reactions to the music.

Essentially, Charlie is acting as Alice’s personal DJ. Like a hotel concierge, Charlie’s job is to make Alice happy. It’s not scalable, and it’s very expensive, but it delivers the answer Charlie is looking for: What type of music does Alice want to hear at work?

If Charlie can’t figure out how to do that with his natural intelligence, then he might have a tough time training an artificial intelligence algorithm to do the same thing. This approach allows Charlie to refine what elements of the music are important so he can focus on them as inputs to his algorithm.

(Please note: This is not the origin story of Pandora, just an example that most of us are familiar with.)

A Minimum Viable Product Is Viable

This is a tricky one. Eric Ries has been asked about this on stage.

• “How many features does it have to have?”
• “What if it doesn’t satisfy the customer demand?”
• “Isn’t this just a bad product?”

Eric’s pushback is that an MVP must be  viable in that it should deliver the value promised to the customer. But that’s not actually required if the goal is simply for the startup to learn, and it’s not true of the examples that Eric actually lists in his book.

Example Minimum Viable Product: Explainer Video

Dropbox is one of the first examples of an MVP in The Lean Startup , but the test that Dropbox ran was clearly not a product. It was a landing page with an explainer video and an email signup form.

This video explained the value proposition to prospective customers, who then had the ability to express interest in the solution by submitting their email to get an invite to try out the product. But the product did not exist, and the landing page provided nothing but the  promise of a solution.

This type of landing page or explainer video test belongs to a family properly grouped as Value Proposition Tests (you might have heard these referred to as Smoke Tests.) They always involve offering the Value Proposition to a customer and requesting some form of payment (sometimes called currency ) in the form of money, time, or data. (Reminder, Time = Money, and data is valuable.)

A Minimum Viable Product Is a Product

Well……nope. A minimum viable product is often not a product. From the examples already given, an MVP can be a service or even just a landing page. So an MVP doesn’t have to be anything at all.

Lean Startup is built on many of the concepts from Steve Blank’s Customer Development theory, whose most famous phrase is “Get Out of the Building” (Also known as GOOB). Steve advocates that the simplest and most effective way to learn is simply to go talk to customers and listen to them.

Simply talking to customers is clearly not a product, but lines up well with Eric’s definition if we modify it slightly:

The minimum viable product is that activity version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

If the goal is learning about the business model, talking to customers is often the simplest thing we can do.

Two Paths to a Minimum Viable Product

So an MVP is a pretty confusing concept when even Eric Ries gives somewhat contradictory examples. The term will often take two contexts depending on whom we’re talking to.

For the die-hard lean startup fanatics (like us) who focus on validated learning, you’ll hear something along the lines of:

The minimum viable product template is that activity which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

This definition implies that an MVP is some form of research or experiment that results in knowledge and insights about the business model. So it can just include talking to people.

But for most people, they are generally referring to something beyond just a test that actually delivers the value proposition. Either way, the goal is learning about our business model.

One thing everyone agrees on is that the MVP or experiment must actually come into contact with the customers to learn anything. A minimum viable product that customers have not seen is not an MVP, it’s a prototype.

So there must be some form of measurement of customer reaction for there to be any learning. This may be notes taken, website visitor statistics, or any other method relevant to the product.

• The goal of an MVP is to learn about a business model.
• Keep MVPs minimal. You might not have to build anything.
• An MVP is not necessarily a viable product that solves a customer problem.
• An MVP is  not necessarily a product.
• Measure something if you want to learn anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a survey an mvp.

Surveys and focus groups are sometimes criticized as bad MVPs as they are prone to misinterpretation, group think, and leading questions. If the results from a simple survey can indicate that the product should not be built , then it is delivering insights! That means it’s a real test and can be considered an MVP.

Is talking to customers considered an MVP?

Most people would say no, but if it results in learning about your business model, stop caring about the terminology and go and do it. Get Out of the Building! The hardcore lean startup enthusiasts aren’t going to nitpick your choice of words.

What’s the point of an MVP?

To answer the most critical question about a business model with the least amount of effort.

Is an MVP a prototype?

No. A prototype is just a demonstration that a solution is technically feasible to build. A prototype can be an MVP if you show it to customers and get feedback on it.

If you build a prototype and never show it to any customers, then generally it would not be considered an MVP. That’s just because whether you  can build something is not the biggest risk of most business models. Technology is advancing at a pace where we can build almost anything we think of.

Of course, there are some businesses where technical feasibility is the biggest risk. In that case, it could be argued that testing the technical feasibility with a prototype is in fact the most efficient way to validate the business model.

How do you define an MVP?

There are a large variety of methods, but the simplest is to think about the biggest risk for your business model. Most commonly this will be in the customer segment. Once the biggest risk is identified, coming up with the MVP is relatively simple. If the biggest risk is in the customer segment, talking to customers is always the best first step.

If the biggest risk is the value propositions or revenue portions of the business model canvas, then it’s often necessary to build an actual product, but don’t forget you can always just build a landing page and see if anyone will click on “Buy Now.”

Minimum Viable Product Templates and Downloads

If a Minimum Viable Product is an experiment or research method, then there are a variety of templates used to plan:

• Learn S.M.A.R.T. Experiment Template 
• Learn S.I.M.P.L.E. Experiment Template

If we are focusing on building a minimum viable product template that delivers the value proposition to the customer, a more comprehensive approach can include the use of this template to map out the user experience, as well as channels to deliver it:

• Product Market Fit Storyboard

For a complete listing of experiment and research types, try:

• The Real Startup Book

Additional readings:

• Minimum Viable Product Guide
• Minimum Viable Product template
• Minimum Viable Product Examples

MVP Exercises for the Classroom

Concept: Minimum Viable Product

Skill Goal: Be able to test a product hypothesis with minimal resources

Individual Exercises:

Define the Minimum Viable Product for your own product hypothesis.

• What criteria will you use to validate the hypothesis?
• What would you consider successful validation based on those criteria?
• Can the MVP fail to meet the criteria?
• Can you remove any features?

Define the Minimum Viable Product for:

• Ford (before cars existed)
• A Thai restaurant in Mexico City

Group Exercises:

Explain one member’s product hypothesis but not the MVP to the group. Each member of the group should define an MVP for that product.

• Which MVP requires the least amount of effort to implement?
• Which MVP provides the most learning?

As a group, construct an MVP for a product / service of your choice. Some ideas:

• An energy-efficient air conditioner that reduces costs by 50%.
• A web service to filter out advertising from Twitter.
• A new psychology technique to help people with schizophrenia.

Thought / Discussion Exercises:

• Under what circumstances will you learn more about customer needs by implementing more features?
• Should you charge customers to use a Minimum Viable Product?
• What products / services will not be testable with a smoke test?
• What products / services will not be testable with a concierge test?
• What would you consider a good example of a Minimum Viable Product?

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– 20.09.2020.

11 Standout Examples of Minimum Viable Products

A major reason why startups fail is because they design their initial product based on assumptions. Entrepreneurs fall into the trap of assuming their product will solve a problem better than any existing solution on the market. They also assume that people care enough about the problem to pay for a solution. When these assumptions…

Laura Holton

A major reason why startups fail is because they design their initial product based on assumptions. Entrepreneurs fall into the trap of assuming their product will solve a problem better than any existing solution on the market. They also assume that people care enough about the problem to pay for a solution. When these assumptions are wrong, the startup never gets off the ground. For these reasons, it makes sense to create minimum viable products (MVPs). These allows companies to test their ideas to see how users react.

Before we go on to look at examples of minimum viable products, it’s important to be clear what we mean by the term.

The Definition of a Minimum Viable Product

A minimum viable product is the first form of a product that you can release to users. It provides core functionality without any additional features. Entrepreneurs use MVPs to assess how customers feel about an idea. If the idea does have potential, they use customer feedback to develop the next version of the product.

When you use an MVP, you’ll have only invested minimal effort and resources to create your product no matter what happens. You’ll avoid building a complete product that has no appeal to customers and eliminate the risk of including undesirable features that you later need to adapt or remove.

The Minimum Viable Product and Lean Startup Philosophy

The minimum viable product concept is based on the lean startup methodology , which applies to both products and businesses as a whole. The aim of a lean startup is to reduce the length of time spent on product development cycles and to figure out if a business model is viable early on.

Minimum Viable Product vs Minimum Marketable Product

It’s important to note that a minimum viable product is not the same as a minimum marketable product. An MVP is a learning vehicle. It allows an entrepreneur to assess an initial product by measuring data. A minimal marketable product, however, is a complete product that is ready to sell. It has the fewest features users need, but it still allows the business to see decent sales.

Minimum Viable Product vs Proof of Concept

Proof of concept is also distinct from a minimum viable product. Proof of concept tests an idea you have to see if it’s attainable. No customers are involved — you just create a small project to assess the technical capability and feasibility of your business concept. You may like to use proof of concept before moving on to building an MVP.

Types of Minimum Viable Products

It’s useful to understand what possibilities you have for creating an MVP. There are six main ways to use the concept.

1. Software Prototypes

A prototype of a piece of software is one of the most complex, yet most common, types of MVPs. It requires building software with just the core components.

Minimum Viable Product Agile Software

Most MVP software uses agile development . This flexible process involves discovery and development through collaboration, followed by continuous improvement. The scrum framework is the best-known example of agile development.

2. Product Designs

There are a few different ways to use product design as an MVP, all of which are especially useful for software, mobile apps, and other tech tools. The most simple is a sketch, which you can do by hand or using a tool. Slightly more complex is a wireframe, which will show things like user experience, hierarchy, and navigation. Finally, you have a mockup, which can demonstrate exactly how your product will work.

3. Demo Videos

Through a demo video, you explain what your product will do. Showing the video to potential users allows you to see if it’s the kind of solution the market is looking for.

4. Landing Pages

With a landing page, you can announce your new product to quickly gauge public interest. By asking users to submit their email address for updates, you’ll figure out how many people are interested and gain leads whom you can market to.

5. Piecemeal

To create a piecemeal MVP, entrepreneurs bring together components from tools that already exist to show how the product will work.

6. Concierge

Through a concierge MVP, you find people who would like to try out a subscription service that sends them a personalized selection of products. You start out manually selecting products for each individual. If the idea proves successful, you build an app that analyzes user responses and chooses what product to send to each person.

7. Wizard of Oz

Also called manual-first and flintstoning MVPs, the Wizard of Oz model involves acting as if your product already exists when, in fact, it’s still in development stage. This is ideal for many types of service-based startups.

Examples of Minimum Viable Products

The most successful minimum viable products don’t stay startups for long. In fact, you’ve undoubtedly heard of most of these — although you may not have known that they were once MVPs.

Starting out as a demo video MVP , Dropbox explained the benefits of storing data in one place. The feedback from users helped the then-startup receive the funds it needed to develop its offering.

Most people know that Amazon began as an online bookstore. You may be unaware, though, that Jeff Bezos started out by buying books from distributors and shipping them to customers every time his online store received an order. The high book sales meant it made sense to keep adding more products to the store, then acquire warehouses, and finally provide each user with a personalized experience on the website.

3. Foursquare

When users began using Foursquare, it had just one feature. People would check in at different locations, which allowed them to win badges. The gamification made people excited about using the service. Only once Foursquare had a solid user base did it expand to become a full city guide.

4. AdWords Express

When AdWords Express came out, it seemed like it was automating ad copy. In fact, there was a team of students quickly typing ads and delivering them customers. Once it became obvious that this was a service people wanted, AdWords Express developed into an actual automated process.

Today, Groupon is a huge platform, operating in countries all over the globe. However, it began as a piecemeal MVP, promoting the services of local businesses and offering deals that lasted for a limited amount of time. As the founders were unable to build their own content management system at first, they used a WordPress blog. They waited until they were successful before scaling the venture.

The most famous example of a Wizard of Oz MVP is Zappos. To test his business idea, founder Nick Swinmurn took photos of shoes he found at stores to see if anyone would be willing to purchase a pair without trying it on first. It turned out that consumers liked this model!

Beginning with the founders’ own apartment, Airbnb gave people the option to list a room for short-term rental to earn extra income. It became clear that travelers were willing to stay in someone else’s home to save money on accommodation, and the platform grew from there.

8. Facebook

Upon its release, Facebook was just a basic social media tool to connect with friends. Profiles were as basic as could be and members were all students at Harvard University. The idea proved popular enough to be worth expanding, and the platform gradually added more complex features.

9. Food on the Table

An example of a concierge MVP is Food on the Table, which sends users recipes and deals from grocery stores to help them save money while making meals they’ll love. When the company was still an MVP, founder Manuel Rosso chose recipes, created shopping lists, and found coupons manually. After user feedback showed that the model was viable, he set up an automated process.

Before Buffer actually had its app for scheduling social media posts, the startup launched a series of landing pages. The first landing page just asked people to submit their email if they were interested in plans and pricing for the product. The second asked users if they were interested in a free version or one of two paid options. As most people chose one of the paid plans, it was clear that Buffer had potential.

11. AngelList

Many platforms require a huge network to take off, but they can start small by launching first as an MVP. AngelList, a job and investment platform, is a great example. It started out using just the team’s own contacts, and the first connections all took place via email. This showed that the model worked and AngelList was able to grow into the much larger platform it is today.

If the type of offering you want to create is suitable as a minimum viable product, it’s worthwhile going this route. If your idea turns out to be less successful with users than you hoped, you can pivot before you’ve wasted a large amount of resources. Furthermore, if the idea is viable, using an MVP model will allow you to take user opinions into account in the early design stages.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that developing a minimal viable product is easy — it requires a large amount of work. To receive support during this period, contract a virtual assistant for entrepreneurs . Your VA will help you with tasks like website updates, email management, and newsletter marketing. Schedule a consultation to find out more.

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Design Patterns

Model View Presenter

Jean-Paul Boodhoo

Code download available at: DesignPatterns2006_08.exe (4423 KB)

Following the MVP Making the First Test Pass Filling the DropDownList Implementing the View Interface What's Next?

As UI-creation technologies such as ASP.NET and Windows® Forms become more and more powerful, it's common practice to let the UI layer do more than it should. Without a clear separation of responsibilities, the UI layer can often become a catch-all for logic that really belongs in other layers of the application. One design pattern, the Model View Presenter (MVP) pattern, is especially well suited to solving this problem. In order to illustrate my point, I will build a display screen that follows the MVP pattern for customers in the Northwind database.

Why is it bad to have lots of logic in the UI layer? The code in the UI layer of an application is very difficult to test without either running the application manually or maintaining ugly UI runner scripts that automate the execution of UI components. While this is a big problem in itself, an even bigger problem is the reams of code that are duplicated between common views in an application. It can often be hard to see good candidates for refactoring when the logic to perform a specific business function is copied among different pieces in the UI layer. The MVP design pattern makes it much easier to factor logic and code out of the UI layer for more streamlined, reusable code that's easier to test.

Figure 1 shows the main layers that make up the sample application. Notice that there are separate packages for UI and presentation. You might have expected them to be the same, but actually the UI layer of a project should consist only of the various UI elements—forms and controls. In a Web Forms project this is typically a collection of ASP.NET Web Forms, user controls, and server controls. In Windows Forms, it is a collection of Windows Forms, user controls, and third-party libraries. This extra layer is what keeps the display and the logic separate. In the presentation layer you have the objects that actually implement the behavior for the UI—things like validation display, collection input from the UI, and so forth.

Figure 1** Application Architecture **

Following the MVP

As you can see in Figure 2 , the UI for this project is pretty standard. When the page loads, the screen will display a dropdown box filled with all of the customers in the Northwind database. If you select a customer from the dropdown list, the page will update to display the information for that customer. By following the MVP design pattern you can factor behaviors out of the UI and into their own classes. Figure 3 shows a class diagram that indicates the association between the different classes that are involved.

Figure 2** Customer Information **

It's important to note that the presenter has no knowledge of the actual UI layer of the application. It knows it can talk to an interface, but it does not know or care what the implementation of that interface is. This promotes reuse of presenters between disparate UI technologies.

I am going to use Test Driven Development (TDD) to build the functionality of the customer screen. Figure 4 shows the details for the first test I will use to describe the behavior I expect to observe on page load. TDD lets me focus on one problem at a time, write just enough code to make the test pass, and then carry on. In this test I am making use of a mock object framework called NMock2 that allows me to build mock implementations of interfaces.

Figure 4 The First Test

Figure 3** MVP Class Diagram **

In my MVP implementation, I have decided that the presenter is going to take as a dependency the view it is going to work with. It is always good to create objects in a state that enables them to do their work immediately. In this application, the presentation layer is dependent on the service layer to actually invoke the domain functionality. Because of this requirement it also makes sense to construct a presenter with an interface to a service class that it can talk to. This ensures that once a presenter is constructed, it is ready to do all of the work it needs to do. I start off by creating two specific mocks: one for the service layer and one for the view that the presenter will work with.

Why mocks? A rule of unit testing is to isolate the test as much as possible to focus on one specific object. In this test I am only interested in the expected behavior of the presenter. At this point I don't care about the actual implementation of the view interface or service interface; I trust the contracts defined by those interfaces and set the mocks to behave accordingly. This ensures that I focus my test solely around the behavior I expect of the presenter, not of any of its dependencies. The behavior I expect the presenter to exhibit after its initialize method is invoked is as follows.

First, the presenter should make one call to the GetCustomerList method on the ICustomerTask service layer object (mocked in the test). Notice that with the use of NMock I can simulate behavior of the mock. In the case of the service layer, I want it to return a mock ILookupCollection to the presenter. Then, after the presenter retrieves the ILookupCollection from the service layer, it should invoke the collection's BindTo method and pass the method an implementation of an ILookupList. By using the NMockExpect.Once method I can be sure that the test will fail if the presenter does not call the method once and only once.

After writing that test I am in a completely non-compilable state. I'm going to do the simplest thing possible to get the test to pass.

Making the First Test Pass

One of the advantages of writing the test first is that I now have a blueprint (the test) I can follow to get the test to compile and eventually pass. The first test has two interfaces that do not yet exist. These interfaces are the first prerequisites for getting the code to compile correctly. I'll start with the code for IViewCustomerView:

This interface exposes one property that returns an ILookupList interface implementation. I don't yet have an ILookupList interface or even an implementer, for that matter. For the purpose of getting this test to pass I don't need an explicit implementor, so I can proceed to create the ILookupList interface:

At this point the ILookupList interface looks pretty useless. My goal is to get the test to compile and pass, and these interfaces satisfy the test's requirements. It's time to shift focus to the object that I'm actually testing—the ViewCustomerPresenter. This class does not exist yet, but looking at the test you can glean two important facts about it: it has a constructor that requires both a view and service implementation as dependencies, and it has a void Initialize method. The code in Figure 5 shows how to compile the test.

Figure 5 Compiling the Test

Remember that a presenter requires all of its dependencies in order to do its work meaningfully; this is why the view and service are passed in. I have not implemented the initialize method so if I run the test I get a NotImplementedException.

As mentioned already, I am not coding the presenter blindly; I already know, from looking at the test, what behavior the presenter should exhibit once the initialize method is called. The implementation of that behavior is as follows:

In the source code accompanying this article there is a complete implementation of the GetCustomerList method in the CustomerTask class (which implements the ICustomerTask interface). From the perspective of implementing and testing the presenter, though, I don't need to know whether there is a working implementation yet. It is this level of abstraction that allows me to plow through with the testing of the presenter class. The first test is now in a state that will compile and run. This proves that when the Initialize method on the presenter is called, it will interact with its dependencies in the manner that I specified in the test, and ultimately when the concrete implementations of those dependencies are injected into the presenter, I can be sure that the resulting view (the ASPX page) will be filled with a list of Customers.

Filling the DropDownList

So far I have been dealing mainly with interfaces to abstract the actual implementation details away, allowing the focus to be on the presenter. It is now time to build some of the plumbing that will ultimately allow the presenter to populate a list on a Web page in a way that can be tested. The key to making this work is the interaction that will occur in the BindTo method of the LookupCollection class. If you take a look at the implementation of the LookupCollection class in Figure 6 , you will notice that it implements the ILookupCollection interface. The source code for the article has the accompanying tests that were used to build up the functionality of the LookupCollection class.

Figure 6 The LookupCollection Class

The implementation of the BindTo method is of particular interest. Notice that in this method the collection iterates through its own private list of ILookupDTO implementations. An ILookupDTO is an interface that caters well to binding to comboboxes in the UI layer:

Figure 7 shows the code that tests the lookup collection's BindTo method, which will help explain the expected interaction between a LookupCollection and an ILookupList. The last line is of particular interest. In this test I expect that before attempting to add items to the list, the LookupCollection will invoke the Clear method on the ILookupList implementation. I then expect Add to be called on an ILookupList 10 times, and as an argument to the Add method, the LookupCollection will pass in an object that implements the ILookupDTO interface. To make this actually work with a control that lives in a Web project (such as a dropdown listbox) you will need to create an implementation of ILookupList that knows how to work with controls in a Web project.

Figure 7 A Test that Describes Behavior

The source code that accompanies this article contains a project named MVP.Web.Controls. This project contains any Web-specific controls or classes that I chose to create to complete the solution. Why did I place the code in this project and not in the APP_CODE directory or the Web project itself? Testability. Anything that lives in the Web project is difficult to test directly without either running the application manually or automating the UI using some sort of testing robot. The MVP pattern allows me to think at a higher level of abstraction and test implementations of the core interfaces (ILookupList and ILookupCollection) without manually running the application. I am going to add a new class, a WebLookupList control, to the Web.Controls project. Figure 8 shows the first test for this class.

Figure 8 First Test for WebLookupList Control

Some things stand out in the test that is shown in Figure 8 . The test project clearly needs a reference to the System.Web library so that it can instantiate DropDownList Web controls. Looking at the test, you should see that the WebLookupList class will implement the ILookupList interface. It is also going to take a ListControl as a dependency. Two of the most common ListControl implementations in the System.Web.UI.WebControls namespace are the DropDownList and the ListBox classes. A key feature of the test in Figure 8 is the fact that I am ensuring that a WebLookupList correctly updates the state of an actual Web ListControl to which it is delegating responsibility. Figure 9 shows the class diagram for the classes involved in the WebLookupList implementation. I can satisfy the requirements of the first test for the WebLookupList control with the code in Figure 10 .

Figure 10 WebLookupList Control

Figure 9** WebLookupList Class **

Remember, one of the keys to MVP is the separation of layers introduced by the creation of a view interface. The presenter doesn't know what implementation of a view, and respectively an ILookupList, it will be talking to; it just knows that it will be able to call any of the methods defined by those interfaces. Ultimately, the WebLookupList class is a class that wraps and delegates to an underlying ListControl (base class for some of the ListControls defined in the System.Web.UI.WebControls project). With that code now in place, I can compile and run the WebLookupList control test which should pass. I can add one more test for the WebLookupList that tests the actual behavior of the clear method:

Again I am testing that the WebLookupList class will actually change the state of the underlying ListControl (DropDownList) when its own methods are invoked. The WebLookupList is now feature complete for the purposes of populating a DropDownList in a Web Form. It is now time for me to wire everything together and get the Web page's dropdown filled with a list of customers.

Implementing the View Interface

Because I am building a Web Forms front end, it makes sense that the implementer for the IViewCustomerView interface would be a Web Form or a user control. For the purpose of this column, I'll make it a Web Form. The general appearance of the page has already been created, as you saw in Figure 2 . Now I need only to implement the view interface. Switching to the codebehind for the ViewCustomers.aspx page, I can add the following code, indicating that the page is required to implement the IViewCustomersView interface:

If you look at the code sample, you'll notice that the Web project and the Presentation are two completely different assemblies. Also, the Presentation project has no reference whatsoever to the Web.UI project, further maintaining the layer of separation. On the other hand, the Web.UI project has to have a reference to the Presentation project, as that is where the View interface and the presenter live.

By choosing to implement the IViewCustomerView interface, our Web page now has a responsibility to implement any methods or properties defined by that interface. Currently there is only one property on the IViewCustomerView interface and that is a getter that returns any implementation of an ILookupList interface. I added a reference to the Web.Controls project so that I can instantiate a WebLookupListControl. I did this because the WebLookupListControl implements the ILookupList interface and it knows how to delegate to actual WebControls that live in ASP.NET. Taking a look at the ASPX for the ViewCustomer page, you will see that the list of customers is simply an asp:DropDownList control:

With this already in place, I can quickly continue to implement the code required to satisfy the implementation of the IViewCustomerView interface:

I now need to invoke the Initialize method on the presenter that will trigger it to actually do some work. To do that, the view needs to be able to instantiate the presenter so that methods on it can be invoked. If you look back to the presenter, you'll remember that it requires both a view and a service that it will work with. The ICustomerTask interface represents an interface that lives in the service layer of the application. Service layers are typically responsible for orchestrating the interaction between domain objects and converting the results of those interactions into Data Transfer Objects (DTOs) that are then passed from the service layer to the presentation layer and then to the UI layer. There is a problem, however—I have stipulated that the presenter needs to be constructed with both the view and service implementations.

The actual instantiation of the presenter is going to take place in the codebehind for the Web page. This is a problem, because the UI project has no reference to the service layer project. The presentation project does, however, have a reference to the service layer project. This allows me to solve the problem by adding an overloaded constructor to the ViewCustomerPresenterClass:

This new constructor satisfies the presenter's requirement for implementations of both the view and the service, while also maintaining the separation of the UI layer from the service layer. It is now fairly trivial to finish off the code for the codebehind:

Notice the key to the instantiation of the presenter is the fact that I am making use of the newly created overload for the constructor, and the Web Form passes itself in as an object that implements the view interface!

With the code for the codebehind implemented, I can now build and run the application. The DropDownList on the Web page is now filled with a list of customer names without the need for any databinding code in the codebehind. Plus, scores of tests have been run on all the pieces that ultimately work together, ensuring that the presentation layer architecture will behave as expected.

I'm going to wrap up my discussion of MVP by showing what is required to display customer information for a customer selected in the DropDownList. Once again, I start by writing a test that describes the behavior I hope to observe (see Figure 11 ).

Figure 11 One Last Test

As before, I am taking advantage of the NMock library to create mocks of the task and view interfaces. This particular test verifies the behavior of the presenter by asking the service layer for a DTO representing a particular customer. Once the presenter retrieves the DTO from the service layer, it will update properties on the view directly, thus eliminating the need for the view to have any knowledge of how to correctly display the information from the object. For brevity I am not going to discuss the implementation of the SelectedItem property on the WebLookupList control; instead I will leave it to you to examine the source code to see the implementation details. What this test really demonstrates is the interaction that occurs between the presenter and the view once the presenter retrieves a CustomerDTO from the service layer. If I attempt to run the test now, I will be in a big failure state as a lot of the properties don't yet exist on the view interface. So I'll go ahead and add the necessary members to the IViewCustomerView interface, as you see in Figure 12 .

Figure 12 Completing the IVewCustomerView Interface

Immediately after adding these interface members, my Web Form complains because it is no longer fulfilling the contract of the interface, so I have to go back to the codebehind for my Web Form and implement the remaining members. As stated before, the entire markup for the Web page has already been created, as have the table cells which have been marked with the "runat=server" attribute and are named according to the information that should be displayed in them. This makes the resulting code to implement the interface members very trivial:

With the setter properties implemented, there is just one thing left to do. I need a way to tell the presenter to display the information for the selected customer. Looking back at the test, you can see that the implementation of this behavior will live in the DisplayCustomerDetails method on the presenter. This method will not, however, take any arguments. When invoked, the presenter will turn back around to the view, pull from it any information it needs (which it will retrieve by using the ILookupList), and then use that information to retrieve the details about the customer in question. All that I need to do from a UI perspective is set the AutoPostBack property of the DropDownList to true, and I also need to add the following event handler hookup code to the OnInit method of the page:

This event handler ensures that whenever a new customer is selected in the dropdown, the view will ask the presenter to display the details for that customer.

It is important to note that this is typical behavior. When a view asks a presenter to do something, it asks without giving any specific details, and it is up to the presenter to return to the view and get any information it needs using the view interface. Figure 13 shows the code required to implement the required behavior in the presenter.

Figure 13 Completing the Presenter

Hopefully you now see the value of adding the presenter layer. It is the presenter's responsibility to attempt to retrieve an ID for a customer for whom it needs to display details. This is code that would normally have been performed in the codebehind, but is now inside a class that I can fully test and exercise outside of any presentation-layer technology.

In the event that the presenter can retrieve a valid customer ID from the view, it turns to the service layer and asks for a DTO that represents the details for the customer. Once the presenter has the DTO in hand, it updates the view with the information contained in the DTO. A key point to note is the simplicity of the view interface; aside from the ILookupList interface, the view interface consists entirely of string DataTypes. It is ultimately the responsibility of the presenter to correctly convert and format the information retrieved from the DTO so that it can actually be handed to the view as a string. Although not demonstrated in this example, the presenter would also be responsible for reading information from the view and converting it to the necessary types that the service layer would expect.

With all the pieces in place I can now run the application. When the page first loads, I get a list of customers and the first customer appears (not selected) in the DropDownList. If I select a customer, a postback occurs, the interaction between the view and the presenter takes place, and the Web page is updated with the related customer information.

What's Next?

The Model View Presenter design pattern is really just a fresh take on the Model View Controller pattern that many developers are already familiar with; the key distinction is that MVP truly separates the UI from the domain/service layer of the application. Although this example was fairly simple from a requirements perspective, it should help you abstract the interaction between a UI and the other layers of your applications. Also, you should now see ways that you can use these layers of indirection to make your application more testable with automation. As you delve deeper into the MVP pattern, I hope you'll find other ways to pull as much formatting and conditional logic out of your codebehinds and place them into testable view/presenter interaction models.

Send your questions and comments to  [email protected] .

Jean-Paul Boodhoo is a senior .NET delivery expert for ThoughtWorks where he is involved in the delivery of enterprise-scale applications that utilize the .NET Framework and agile methods. He frequently delivers presentations on harnessing the power of .NET utilizing test-driven development. Jean-Paul can be reached at [email protected] or at www.jpboodhoo.com/blog .

Additional resources

COLLEGE FOOTBALL 25 ROAD TO GLORY DEEP DIVE

Learn more about road to glory in ea sports college football 25..

Hey there College Football Fans, Today’s Campus Huddle is covering another core game mode that we all know and love, Road to Glory.

Here to deliver the information is Chad Walker, Producer, and Ben Haumiller, Principal Game Designer. Let's get started with Road to Glory!

BUILDING ROAD TO GLORY

When setting out to design Road to Glory, we immersed ourselves in the world of college athletes. We spoke with current and former players, engaged with our community, and absorbed countless stories and experiences. Our goal was clear: to create an authentic, engaging, and replayable experience that captures the essence of being a college athlete.

With this vision, we anchored Road to Glory around four core pillars: “ Live the Life of a College Athlete ”, “ Week-to-Week Experience ”, “ Fast to Fun and Highly Replayable ,” and “ Foundation for the Future ”.

Live the Life of a College Athlete: This pillar is all about immersion. From the excitement of game day to the challenges of balancing academics and athletics, every aspect of a college athlete's life is brought to you. Your journey will be filled with highs and lows, triumphs and setbacks, mirroring the real experiences of student-athletes.

Week-to-Week Experience: In Road to Glory, every decision matters. We’ve designed the experience to revolve around key in-game decisions and time management. Whether it’s choosing how to spend your time between practice, studying, and social activities, or making critical plays on the field, your choices will shape your path to glory. We drew inspiration from story driven games where meaningful decisions with no clear right answers helped shape your journey. The way you respond to situations will ultimately decide your path.

Fast to Fun and Highly Replayable: Road to Glory is designed to be fast-paced and fun, ensuring that you’re always in the thick of the action. With multiple storylines and pathways to explore, each playthrough offers a unique and fresh experience.

Foundation for the Future: Road to Glory is not just about the here and now; it’s about building a lasting legacy. This year lays the groundwork for the future and enhancements, ensuring that your journey as a college athlete continues to evolve and improve.

Your decisions will ultimately shape your journey, your story, and your Road to Glory.

Your journey in Road to Glory begins with your first meaningful decision point, one that will have a significant impact on where your journey begins and how it will be shaped. 

Begin by choosing which path you want to take. There are four different journeys you can choose from, each offering a unique starting point and set of challenges.

• Elite: An elite recruit is a five-star prospect, starting with the highest overall rating (OVR) of 79. This player is expected to get on the field immediately and start right away at most programs across the country. Additionally, you will receive one extra mental ability and the five starting skill points, which you can use to upgrade your player. We will dive further into how this all works later. 
• Blue Chip: A blue chip prospect is a four-star recruit with a strong starting point at a 75 OVR, along with one mental ability and four skill points. This player will be able to contribute immediately to most programs and earn significant playing time at some schools.
• Contributor: This is a three-star prospect who may have the chance to get on the field earlier in their career, but will have to work hard for any playing time. They do not get an additional mental ability and start with only three skill points.
• Underdog: This is the true underdog Road to Glory story. It is the hardest starting point where you will see little playing time and have to earn every snap on the field. Starting as a two-star recruit with a 60 OVR and only receiving two skill points, this journey is for those who love a challenge.

Next, select your position from quarterback, running back, wide receiver, linebacker, or cornerback. Each position comes with its own unique set of challenges and gameplay styles, impacting where you play on the field and what mental abilities you have available.

Based on the position you selected, choose your archetype. Your archetype will affect your starting attributes and skill group caps, as well as which physical abilities are available to you. For example, a field general quarterback is going to be a better passer in the pocket than a scrambling quarterback. The field general will also have access to abilities like Sleight-of-Hand, which boosts the effectiveness of play action and trick plays on defenders, along with Step Up, which gives an accuracy boost when climbing in a clean pocket. On the other hand, a scrambler quarterback is going to be better at making plays on the run. The scrambler archetype will have access to abilities like Option King, which gives an aggressive boost to quick pitches and the off platform ability which improves your accuracy for cross body or back foot throws.

Once you have selected your position and archetype, you will then customize your player. This is where you can make your player unique and swag them out with gear to give them that on field drip. This year we have added new gear customization options like pants above the knee, scrunched socks, tights, hoodies, and the crop top jersey style, so you can show off that sweet six pack. If you are a quarterback, you will also be able to select your throw style animation.

Once you have customized your player's look, you will then select your starting mental ability. Every position and journey will always have three core mental abilities tied to your weekly agenda meters, which we will talk more about later. Each of your core mental abilities has an activation and deactivation requirement:

• Fan Favorite: This ability increases composure gains at home. It is tied to your academics, and if your GPA is above a 3.0, the Fan Favorite ability will be active. If it falls below a 3.0, then it will become deactivated.
• Road Dog: This ability increases composure gains on the road. It is tied to your brand meter. When you reach Influencer status, it will turn on, and when it falls below that level, it will turn off.
• Clearheaded: This ability limits the amount of composure you will lose during gameplay. It is tied to your leadership. When you become an excellent leader, it will turn on, and when it falls below that threshold, it will turn off.

If you select the Elite or Blue Chip journeys, you will be able to select an additional mental ability. This grants you a fourth ability that is in addition to your three core mental abilities. It is not tied to a weekly agenda meter and it will always be activated. The mental abilities you can select are based on your position.

Once you finish selecting your starting mental ability, it is time to start your Road to Glory.

YOU'RE THE RECRUIT

Your recruiting journey will begin with an interview with a local TV reporter, Donna Harper. In this interview, Donna will ask you about your motivations and what drives you as a player. Just like our Dynasty recruits, this will formulate your own Ideal Pitch. For example, do you want to compete for a national championship? Become a starter early in your career? Or make it to the next level and play on Sundays? Your answers to these questions will determine the schools that align with your goals and values, creating a more personalized and engaging recruiting experience.

After completing your interview with Donna Harper, you will land on Signing Day. Signing Day is your big day. This is where you will decide who you want to start your career with. 

Every school will have an interest bar that tells you how interested they are in you. On the right-hand panel, you can see high-level information about the school, such as their team overall rating, what their record was last year, and their offensive and defensive schemes. Additionally, it will show whether they offered you a scholarship or not, and what your projected role is. You can also see the projected depth chart and where you stack up relative to your teammates. If your OVR is very close to another player in the depth chart, it is likely that you will initiate a position battle at some point, where you’ll have to compete against that player for that depth chart spot (more on that later).

WEEKLY MANAGEMENT

Just like a real-world student-athlete, you’ll have to manage your time both on and off the field. Each week, you will have two main activities to focus on. First, practice is where you will earn coach trust, which is essential for improving your spot on the depth chart. The more trust you earn, the more opportunities you will have to prove yourself and climb the ranks within your team. Second, your Weekly Agenda, where you will manage your time off the field. You will have to decide how to allocate your time among various activities. Do you want to focus on your academics to ensure you meet eligibility requirements and perhaps even activate certain mental abilities? Or do you want to get better in the weight room to improve your physical attributes? Alternatively, you might choose to socialize to boost your brand. Proper time management will be key to excelling in all areas, from improving your skills and performance on the field to maintaining your academic standing and building your personal brand off the field. Balancing these activities effectively will be key to becoming a well-rounded and successful student-athlete, however it will be difficult to keep all of them in good standing.

WE TALKIN’ ABOUT PRACTICE?

Practice plays a vital role in your development and progression as a student-athlete. During practice, you will complete one minigame each week. Each minigame has a score threshold to earn different medals: bronze, silver, and gold. The medal you earn will dictate how much coach trust you gain, with bronze earning you 200 coach trust, silver 350, and gold 500. This coach trust is crucial for improving your spot on the depth chart and earning more playing time.

You will have the option to choose which minigame you want to play. Minigames are grouped into two categories: team and skill.

• Team Minigames: These involve more than just your player and require you to work together with your teammates. An example of a team minigame is the pass skeleton game, where you will play 5v5 against the defense.
• Skill Minigames: These are more focused on your individual player skills. For example, the pocket presence minigame involves you dodging projectiles and hitting targets at the same time.

If you don't feel like playing the minigame, you have the option to simulate it. Simulating the minigame will give you the same amount of coach trust as your highest medal earned, ensuring that you still make progress even if you choose not to actively participate in the minigame for that week.

PUTTING THE STUDENT IN STUDENT ATHLETE

As a student-athlete, managing your time off the field is just as important as performing well on it. Each week, you will need to balance your responsibilities and manage your time, which is represented as energy. By default, you will have 5 energy points to spend each week. In a short week, when you play on a Thursday, you will only have 4 energy points to spend. Conversely, in a free week when you have a bye, you will have 6 energy points since you have more free time. Each week, you will have to juggle your time between these activities, and it will be very difficult to keep each one in good standing. Balancing these activities effectively will be key to becoming a well-rounded and successful student-athlete. Proper time management will be essential to excelling in all areas, from maintaining your academic standing and building your personal brand to improving your skills and performance on the field.

You will decide how to spend your time among five key activities: Academics, Leadership, Health, Training, and Brand. Each activity is represented as a meter and comes with its own set of pros and cons.

• Academics: Focusing on your studies will help you maintain your GPA, which is crucial for staying eligible.
• Leadership: Spending time on leadership activities will help you earn respect and trust from your teammates and coaches, potentially leading to a leadership role on the team.
• Health: Prioritizing your health ensures you stay injury-free and maintain peak physical condition, which is essential for consistent performance.
• Training: Extra training sessions will help improve your physical attributes and skills, giving you an edge over your competition.
• Brand: Working on your brand can increase your popularity and open up opportunities for NIL endorsements and other off-field benefits.

Mastering the art of time management will ensure your success both on and off the field.

Academics play a crucial role in your life as a student-athlete, impacting both your eligibility and overall success. Academics are divided into two key components: test readiness and GPA.

• Test Readiness: Each week, by spending time on academics, you will be studying, which will improve your test readiness. This is essential for performing well on midterm exams. If your test readiness is low, your likelihood of failing a midterm is increased.
• GPA: Your GPA is a reflection of your academic performance and is influenced by the results of your exams and quizzes.

Every week, you have the opportunity to allocate some of your energy towards studying, which will boost your test readiness. How prepared you are is represented by the bar at the top of the panel. The pane also shows how long you have until your next midterm exam is, allowing you to plan your study schedule accordingly. Midterms occur on Week 8 and Week 15 of the regular season. The higher your test readiness, the better you will perform on these exams.

Your performance on midterm exams will directly affect your GPA. A high test readiness will result in better exam scores, positively impacting your GPA. Conversely, if you do poorly on the exams, your GPA will take a significant hit. Maintaining a minimum GPA of 2.0 is essential to your eligibility to play in games. If your GPA falls below this threshold, you will be ineligible to play and will be required to attend mandatory study hall sessions to improve your GPA. These study hall sessions will consume a portion of your energy each week until your GPA is back up.

In addition to midterms, you will also face periodic quizzes that come through various scenarios. Unlike exams, quizzes do not utilize your test readiness. Instead, you will be asked how much you want to study for each quiz, which will consume a set amount of energy for that week. Quizzes serve as additional checkpoints to ensure you are keeping up with your academic responsibilities.

Maintaining a high GPA has several other benefits:

• Fan Favorite Mental Ability: If your GPA is above 3.0, it will activate the fan favorite mental ability. Conversely, if your GPA falls below 3.0, this ability will be turned off.
• Weekly Coach Trust Bonus: Your GPA will also affect your weekly coach trust bonus. A higher GPA will result in a positive bonus, while a lower GPA will incur a negative bonus.

Balancing your academic responsibilities with your athletic commitments is essential for maintaining eligibility and achieving success both on and off the field. Proper time management and dedication to your studies will help you excel in all areas of your student-athlete life.

Leadership is a vital aspect of your role as a student-athlete, influencing not only your relationship with your coach and teammates but also your overall team dynamics and performance.

Spending time on team building activities will improve your leadership skills. These activities help you earn respect and trust from your teammates and coaches, potentially leading to a leadership role on the team.

Your leadership level will provide you with a weekly bonus in coach trust. If your leadership is high, you will receive a positive bonus each week, reflecting your coach's confidence in you as a team leader. Conversely, if your leadership is low, you will incur a negative coach trust bonus each week, as your coach may view you as a negative influence in the locker room.

Your leadership also significantly impacts how fast your teammates progress. A strong leader acts as a force multiplier, making your teammates better every day and helping them achieve their full potential. On the other hand, poor leadership can drag your teammates down, resulting in less than 100% XP for them.

Leadership also affects your team's starting composure. A good leader can rally the team and get everyone pumped for a big game, ensuring high team morale and readiness. In contrast, a negative energy force can bring the team down, negatively affecting their composure and performance.

Once you reach excellent leadership status, you will activate the Clearheaded ability. This special ability provides protection from composure loss events in-game, ensuring that you and your team remain focused and composed during critical moments.

Managing your body and health as a student-athlete is critical to maintaining peak performance and ensuring you stay in the game. In Road to Glory, your health is represented by your wear and tear.

As you take damage on the field and through training, it is essential to allocate time to recover and get your body back to full health. Unlike Dynasty players, you will not automatically recover a set amount of wear and tear damage when advancing to the next week. If you do not spend your time recovering, your wear and tear damage will persist, affecting your performance and availability.

If your health gets too low, it will impact how much you play on gameday and could potentially prevent you from playing at all until you recover. Maintaining a good balance between training and recovery is essential to ensure you are fit and ready to perform at your best.

Within the health panel, you can monitor your current wear and tear damage and see the ratings impacts of your damaged body parts. This detailed view helps you understand which areas need attention and how your overall performance is being affected.

In addition to ratings impacts, wear and tear will increase your chance of injury. An injury can keep you off the field for a significant period, hindering your progress and affecting your team's performance. Regular recovery sessions are crucial to minimize this risk and maintain your health. Lastly, any unspent energy each week will be automatically applied to recovery to improve your health.

Training is a crucial aspect of developing your skills and enhancing your performance as a student-athlete in Road to Glory. In RTG, you will earn XP by completing in-game goals. As you earn XP, you will fill a progression bar. Once the progression bar reaches 100%, you will earn a skill point and the progression bar will reset, allowing you to continue progressing and improving your abilities.

While gameplay will naturally progress your player, the best athletes also dedicate time off the field to improve. This means spending time in the weight room and on the practice field to hone your skills further.

As part of your weekly agenda, you have the opportunity to spend time on training. This dedicated training time will earn you additional XP, helping you fill your progression bar faster and earn skill points more quickly.

Each time you train, you will earn XP but also incur a small amount of wear and tear damage, which will reduce your health. It's important to balance your training with recovery to avoid letting your health get too low. If your health falls below an acceptable level, you will be unable to train until you recover and restore your health to a good level.

Balancing your training regimen with proper recovery is essential for maintaining peak performance and ensuring continuous improvement. Dedication to both on-field and off-field training will help you become a well-rounded and successful student-athlete.

Your brand is a representation of your off-field social status and influence as a student-athlete. Building a strong brand can open up numerous opportunities and benefits. You will have the opportunity to grow your brand and potentially become a Global Phenom. Your brand is represented by the number of followers you have. The more followers you gain, the higher your brand level becomes.

As your brand level grows, you will unlock Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) Deal slots. These slots allow you to be offered off-field NIL opportunities, which can enhance your overall brand and provide additional benefits (more on NIL deals later).

Once you reach the Influencer tier, you will activate the Road Dog ability. This special ability increases your composure gains when playing on the road, helping you perform better in away games.

Each time you perform the socialize action, you will increase the number of followers you have, as well as your engagement meter. The more frequently you socialize, the higher your engagement meter will be. A higher engagement meter means your content is more likely to go viral, allowing you to gain followers more quickly.

SCENARIOS AND DILEMMAS

As you progress along your journey as a student-athlete, you will encounter unexpected scenarios and dilemmas that add complexity and excitement to your experience. These scenarios and dilemmas will trigger based on the decisions you make and how you spend your time off the field. They can involve interactions with teammates, advisors, other students on campus, NIL deals, and other fun surprises that keep your journey dynamic and engaging.

When faced with a new dilemma, there is no right or wrong answer. How you choose to respond will ultimately shape your journey. Your decisions will determine how these scenarios impact your various meters, such as health, brand, and coach trust.

Some dilemmas will present actual conflicts, such as being asked to attend an off-campus party. Attending the party could increase your brand by boosting your social presence, but it may also require you to skip your night class. There is a risk associated with this decision; getting caught skipping class could negatively impact your GPA, which might affect your academic standing and eligibility.

There might also be situations where you are playing poorly and the fans are just letting you have it. You’ll have to make a decision on how you want to respond. Do you want to take the high road? Criticize them? Make a burner and be your biggest hype man?

Navigating these scenarios and dilemmas requires careful consideration of the potential benefits and risks. Each decision you make will contribute to your unique story and influence your journey as a student-athlete.

Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals are a significant aspect of your journey as a student-athlete, offering you opportunities to become an ambassador for various brands and earn rewards.

As part of the scenarios you encounter, you may be presented with NIL deals. To be offered an NIL deal, you must have an open NIL deal slot, which is determined by your brand level. The higher your brand level, the more NIL deal slots you will have available, increasing your opportunities for brand partnerships.

NIL deals come with a duration for which they will run and an energy cost associated with them, as they require some of your time. The energy cost can be either an upfront cost or a weekly cost over the course of the contract. Managing your energy and time effectively is crucial to balancing your commitments.

Accepting an NIL deal comes with rewards, which can be provided upfront, weekly, or at the conclusion of the deal. These rewards can be:

• Gameplay Bonuses: Improvements to your in-game attributes, such as enhanced catching ability, increased speed, or better stamina.
• Off-Field Bonuses: Enhancements to one of your meters, such as increasing your number of followers, boosting your coach trust, or improving your health.

When deciding whether to accept an NIL deal, consider the associated energy cost and the potential rewards. NIL deals provide valuable opportunities to enhance your brand and gain various benefits, both on and off the field. By strategically managing these deals, you can maximize your rewards and grow your influence as a student-athlete.

An example NIL deal you could earn is with a physical therapy center. As a part of their deal, they want you to participate in a regional commercial shoot that will air during the next month. While you won’t physically pose for the camera this year in Road to Glory, the deal will cost you two energy up front. In return, they will give you free physical therapy sessions which will give you immediate wear and tear recovery and improve your health. By taking the deal and getting the health recovery, this will enable you to do other things during your weekly agenda time management.

Keeping your brand high ensures you will always have the best opportunity to secure more NIL deals. Don’t overlook the power of NIL deals and the flexibility they can provide to you in your weekly agenda as a result. Some opportunities and gains will only be possible via NIL deals.

COACH TRUST AND POSITION BATTLES

We've talked a lot about the off-field elements, so let’s dive into the on field action. In Road To Glory, Coach Trust is your lifeline. It’s a constant currency that you’ll earn throughout your journey. Think of it as the key to unlocking your playing time on the field. Whether you're a hotshot five-star recruit or a gritty two-star underdog, earning enough Coach Trust is essential. You can build it up by managing your weekly activities, excelling in weekly practice sessions, and playing well during games.

Not only are you going to be earning Coach Trust but your fellow teammates will also be earning Coach Trust based on their performances and actions each week. You can see where you stand on the depth chart in comparison to other members of the team by accessing the Coach Trust screen from within the weekly agenda. Scrolling the bar left and right you can see how close or far away you are from your teammates in the eyes of your coach.

Once you've accumulated enough Coach Trust, you’ll trigger what we call a position battle. This is your golden opportunity to earn your spot on game day. Position battles are intense and task you with winning 2 out of 3 position-specific mini-games. For example, if you're a QB like in this scenario, you might find yourself playing the option attack. It’s all about showcasing your skills under pressure.

But here’s the catch – if you lose the position battle, you’ll need to climb back up the ladder over the next few weeks before you get another shot at challenging your teammate. On the flip side, winning the position battle gives you a sweet bump in Coach Trust boosting your position on the depth chart.

Keep in mind, though, that your CPU teammates are also vying for Coach Trust throughout the season. If you’re not performing up to par and they are, they might just initiate a position battle themselves, trying to take over your job. So, stay sharp and keep pushing your limits.

ALL ABOARD THE GAIN TRAIN

Player progression is a core element of your journey in Road to Glory, allowing you to continuously improve your character's skills and abilities. You can upgrade your player at any time by pressing the Upgrade Player action item in the actions tab of the RTG Hub or via the Player Info button the Player tab.

As a Road to Glory character, you will earn progression XP through various activities:

• Gameplay: Completing in-game goals and performing well during games.
• Training: Dedicating time to training sessions in your weekly agenda.

Unlike Dynasty players, your RTG character will not earn any off-season progression. This places an increased importance on how much time you spend training and your performance on the field.

As you accumulate XP, you will fill a progression bar, once that is filled, you will earn a skill point which can then be spent on upgrading your character's ratings and physical abilities. This system will allow you to tailor your progression to suit your play style and strategic needs.

Skill Groups

Similar to Dynasty players, you will upgrade your attributes by spending Skill Points to upgrade an entire Skill Group. A Skill Group is a collection of related attributes; for instance, the quarterback Power skill group includes Throw Power and Strength. Every Skill Group can reach a maximum level of 10. Each time you upgrade a skill group, its level increases, thereby enhancing all the attributes within that group. However, your Road to Glory character may have a Skill Group maximum level or cap that is less than 10 depending on the archetype you chose during character creation.

Skill Group caps represent your character's maximum potential in a specific area. These caps vary depending on the Skill Group, position, and archetype. Once a Skill Group reaches its cap, it cannot be upgraded further unless your coach possesses the Architect archetype along with the Limitless or Put a Ring on It abilities. The Limitless ability offers a chance to increase a random skill cap each time your character levels up, while the Put a Ring on It ability provides a chance to raise your highest skill cap after winning a Conference or National Championship.

Mental and Physical Abilities

Unlike your Dynasty players, your Road to Glory character has the unique opportunity to progress their mental abilities by completing in-game objectives. Each time you complete an objective, the corresponding ability will upgrade to the next tier, up to a maximum level of platinum.

For example, to upgrade the Field General ability to the silver tier, you need to throw for 20 touchdowns in a season. As you continue to meet these performance benchmarks, your mental abilities will progressively enhance, providing significant advantages on the field.

It is important to remember that three of your mental abilities are tied to your meters. If your meter is not in good standing, the corresponding ability will not be active and you will not be able to reap the rewards of that upgraded ability until you activate it again by bringing your meter back into good standing. However, you can still make progress towards the upgrade objective even when the ability is inactive.

On the other hand, physical abilities can be upgraded with skill points if you meet the upgrade requirements. Every physical ability tier has a rating requirement associated with it. For example, to unlock the Sleight of Hand ability at the bronze tier, you need an 83 Play Action rating. This applies to every tier up to the maximum tier of platinum.

In Road to Glory, our goal is to immerse you deeply into the game environment, making you feel every moment on the field. During gameplay, the effects of homefield advantage are palpable. As a quarterback, you'll experience challenges such as incorrect preplay art, missing button icons, and miscommunication with your receivers when attempting to hot route them. These obstacles are designed to simulate the pressures of playing in a high-stakes environment.

This is where your composure and mental abilities become crucial. If your leadership meter is high, you'll have the ability to keep your teammates calm and composed, especially at the start of a big game. Additionally, possessing the Head Strong mental ability will allow you to remain more composed yourself, making pre-snap adjustments and communication with your receivers much smoother.

To enhance immersion, we've introduced new camera angles that place you right in the heart of the action. These dynamic perspectives are designed to make you feel like you are truly on the field. When you are in the zoomed in camera angle, you can press R2/R2 to open the coach cam and then move the left stick to pan the camera side to side. If you prefer a different view, you can always back up the camera by pressing down on the D pad.

We've also added multiple presentation elements that revolve around you and your character. These elements are intended to highlight your journey and achievements, making your gameplay experience uniquely personal.

Managing Your Wear and Tear

Wear and tear play a central role in the Road to Glory gameplay, requiring you to actively manage your character's physical condition. Unlike Dynasty players, your character in Road to Glory does not automatically recover from wear and tear on week advance. Each week, you are responsible for managing your wear and tear, making it critically important to enter each game in good health. The wear and tear damage you carry into the game will affect your starting condition on the field.

You'll need to make strategic decisions to preserve your health. Do you purposely miss a block to save your body? Do you think twice about scrambling on 2nd down and taking a big hit? Do you give yourself up on a big run and step out of bounds as opposed to fighting for extra yards? These are the decisions you will have to make during gameplay.

During the game, you can monitor your wear and tear status every time you are taken off the field. This screen provides vital information about your current attribute hits and damaged body parts. Remember, the more damaged a body part is, the higher the risk of sustaining an injury.

If your body takes too much damage, your coach may decide to pull you from the game to let you recover on the sideline. Additionally, if you start the game too damaged, you may not play at all. Therefore, managing your wear and tear effectively is crucial to ensure you remain on the field and perform at your best.

Along with your wear and tear status, you will also be able to see additional game insights, including your current game stat line, how much coach trust you’ve earned this game, and the key moments that positively/negatively impacted your coach trust in the last drive.

By keeping a close eye on your wear and tear status and managing your health effectively, you can reduce the risk of injury and maintain peak performance throughout the season.

Playcalling

Within gameplay, you will initially have access to limited playcalling. On the play selection screen, you will see only one play that the coach has called for you.

As you increase your Coach Trust, you will earn the ability to change the play. By pressing Triangle (for PlayStation) or Y (for Xbox) during the playcall, you can expose two additional plays to choose from. The number of times you can change the play is displayed above the center play on the play selection screen.

Once you get to the line of scrimmage, you will not have the ability to change the play via audibles. However, you can still make pre-snap adjustments to optimize your chances of success by hot routing your receivers. Additionally, you will be able to initiate no huddle after the play to hurry up to the line of scrimmage.

TRANSFER PORTAL

In the world of RTG, the transfer portal is just as pivotal as it is in real life. At the end of each season, your player will face a crucial decision: stay loyal to their current school or enter the transfer portal to explore new opportunities. This choice isn't just a simple yes or no—it's a gateway to new adventures and possibilities based on your player's performance throughout the season.

The potential suitors lining up for your player won't just be random picks. They'll be schools that align with your player's performance and the key pitches that initially attracted them during the recruitment process. This adds an authentic layer of strategy and realism, making every decision meaningful and tailored to your unique journey.

The transfer portal keeps your experience fresh, allowing you to find the perfect fit for your play style or craft the epic story you want to tell. Whether you're looking to climb the ranks, find a team that complements your skills, or simply shake things up, the transfer portal offers you the opportunity to reshape your journey.

END OF JOURNEY

Imagine a world where there’s no definitive end—only the boundless possibilities of your journey, uniquely crafted by the choices you make.

In RTG, you chart your own path. Will you aim for those coveted conference player of the week awards? Or perhaps set your sights on the prestigious national player of the week honors? The Heisman trophy is up for grabs, but so are ten other position-specific awards like the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. The stage is yours.

Do you envision yourself leading your team to multiple conference championships? Or maybe you’re driven to navigate the thrilling new 12-team playoff gauntlet and reach the National Championship game. How many National Championships can you win in your four-year career?

We want you to immerse yourself in RTG, to invest time in your first journey, and then dive back in with fresh decisions and perhaps a new position to see how differently your career can unfold. 

Once you’ve conquered college football, your adventure is just beginning. We’re incredibly excited about the seamless transition to Madden NFL 25 and Superstar mode, where you can continue your unique career in the NFL (EA account, internet connection, and all game updates required). The road ahead is limitless, and we can’t wait to see how you navigate it.

So, gear up, make your choices, and let’s see what incredible stories you’ll create in RTG!

Time To Play

We are excited to see what stories you create and the decisions you make along your Road to Glory journey. Being a college athlete is not easy and our goal was to replicate that experience, while providing you with the ability to shape and craft your story the way you want. Thank you all so much for tuning into today’s Campus Huddle. Next time we come to you, it will be for the final Deep Dive for College Football 25, where we’re talking about TeamBuilder. See you all next time! 

 - Chad Walker, Ben Haumiller & And the Entire Road To Glory Development Team

College Football 25 launches worldwide on July 19th, 2024. Pre-order the Deluxe Edition* or the EA SPORTS™ MVP Bundle** and play 3 days early. Conditions and restrictions apply. See disclaimers for details. Stay in the conversation by following us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , YouTube , and Answers HQ .

Pre-order the MVP Bundle*** to make game day every day, and get both Madden NFL 25 and College Football 25 with exclusive content.

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