4 simple yet effective minimal viable product strategies

In the West, “MVP” often means “most valuable player” on a sports team. For those of us into entrepreneurship, however, the term has come to mean “minimum viable product” – deconstructing a product into the bare minimum in order to test the market. The “way” to do this becomes a strategy, and that will vary widely based on the end product you have in mind.

If you have been procrastinating over a product because it is just too complex, take heart. Here are four strategies to launch that MVP which might just become your “most valuable player.”

1. Pre-selling: launch a product idea with a prototype and a video

Whether it’s a new piece of software or a physical product, produce a prototype. Create an explainer video that demonstrates the product and throw it up on Kickstarter. Also send them to product reviewers. You have nothing to lose – if you do not get fully funded, that’s that. But you will learn a lot in the process (feedback) and can re-launch when you are ready.

Who ever thought a card game could get US$8 million worth of funding? Exploding Kittens, of course, is not just a traditional card game. But it received immediate excitement. Today, the card game has expanded, includes an app, and is as popular as the recent Whirly Birds game. It was launched using an explainer video.

Pebble Watch, as of the end of 2015, was the most highly-funded Kickstarter project. And it competes quite well with wearable watches from the “big guys.” It, too, was launched by a video and received US$20 million in funding.

You could also pre-sell them on your website (in other words, begin to take orders). If the response is good, go into full production. This was the approach used by the founders of Glif, a smartphone holder and tripod. The two designers made it quite simple (they were not design engineers themselves) and produced their prototypes through 3-D printing. Orders came in quickly and they were able to get the necessary funding to mass produce. They have since expanded their product line.

See: The Titan behind Singapore’s most successful crowdfunding campaigns

2. Sell a product before improving on it

There’s a product being sold on Alibaba or Amazon. You have an idea to greatly improve the product, but you don’t know if there is really a market. Order up a batch of that product from one source and sell it on another platform. If the market is there, you can then develop your own improved version.

3. Software-as-a-plugin

Suppose you have an idea for a piece of software. Rather than go through an expensive design and development phase for the entire idea, create a mini-version and add it to an existing system – WordPress, Shopify, Chrome, iOS and more. You can tap into an existing base of users, discover if it is popular, and go from there.

4. If you’re doing online content, do a mini-version first

If you are an expert in something, you may want to establish a full online education or training course. Here are two problems. You may have no idea what the market response will be. You may be putting in months developing each course, unit by unit, lesson by lesson. This is a major endeavor.

Instead of developing an entire course series, develop a shortened version of one course. Generate a pool of “testers,” either through your current email list from your blog or a combination of that and your social media contacts. Enroll them in your mini-course, get their feedback and comments, and you will probably know if you have a viable product. One thing to ask, of course, is if this were expanded into a full-length course series, would they pay?

This is exactly how Fizzle and Teaching Sells began. Teaching Sells, by the way, is now a US$10 million dollar operation.

MVP strategies really do work. Your task is to narrow down your idea to the basic value proposition, identify the core of the product, and develop that piece first. Once viability is established, obtaining funding and scaling is much easier.