ABSTRACT: 

Building successful products under conditions of extreme uncertainty is challenging. Statistics indicate that a high percentage of products launched fail to hit the market and sustain themselves. Data also shows that product failure has one pattern in common—not resonating well with customers. 

New products must deliver significant value, cut through the noise, and gain momentum to firm up their position in the market before the competitors react. Customers have several choices and are less patient to tolerate products that fail to match their expectations. Creating a differentiated product, validating the approach, and establishing a foothold in the market is something that businesses need to practice before launching a product. It is essential to adopt MVP(Minimum Viable Product) - a process where companies can build a product that is just required to test the hypothesis of product-market fit. With MVP, businesses can test and iterate cost-effectively before the product is developed into a lucrative one.

From Facebook to Uber, multiple giants have seen success after experimenting with an innovative concept like MVP. The lean startup framework allows businesses to launch a product faster with just the required number of features, understand market feedback and trends, and launch the enhanced product with minimal risk.

Although businesses have the motivation to launch a product, they often lack the necessary expertise to carry out the launch, conduct a market-fit analysis, and practice sustainability techniques. To fill the knowledge gaps and create a product with minimum viability that can correspond to the market opportunity, GoodFirms has come up with a new survey that aims to provide step-by-step guidance to help build products that can successfully stay atop. This research study will clarify what an MVP is and how it can drive business success.

The MVP approach has helped several brands achieve heights. With big brands like Instagram and Dropbox standing as the  evident examples of how MVP can be extremely successful, undoubtedly, MVP has the potential to revolutionize what businesses can offer. 

The build-measure-learn approach for the success of a lean startup is completely encompassed in the MVP methodology, which leads to a higher number of businesses opting for the approach. A number of benefits, like idea validation, gathering valuable user feedback, and enabling data-driven decision-making offered by investing in an MVP, make it an efficient option for startups. 

Although there are several challenges accompanied with a minimal viable product, including management hesitation and uncertainty of the market demand, MVP is surely a trending approach for businesses to make their mark. 

GoodFirms gathered the MVP statistics via surveying prominent businesses in an attempt to understand the purposes and benefits of MVP and the challenges associated with the approach. The survey also aims to shed light on the necessary aspects that newcomers must consider when opting to build a prototype.

The survey “The MVP Advantage: How Minimum Viable Product Drives Business Success” is an attempt to study the benefits MVP can have for a business to be successful. This survey, conducted in September 2024, queried 680 businesses to study their views on the adoption and impact of a minimal viable product for their business. 

The survey highlights the benefits of the MVP approach for startups and aims to study its role in driving business success.

In an attempt to find out how well MVP is adopted by businesses today, GoodFirms initiated a question: Has Your Company Launched a Product with MVP Approach?

91.3% of the businesses responded that have already launched a product with an MVP approach while only 8.7% of the businesses are yet to give it a try.

Moreover, over 74.1% of the businesses are willing to launch their MVP in the future while 23.1% of the businesses might opt for the MVP approach. A mere 2.8% of the businesses said that they will not go for a prototype of their product.

Product idea validation is the process that allows businesses to test and iterate  products before launching it, to increase sustainability. The concept also involves the study of market demand and making decisions based on customer feedback.

Product idea validation lets businesses launch a product that is customer-centric and less prone to failure. 

While businesses cater to various methods for validating a product idea, some of the most cost-effective methods are adopted by the participants of this survey. The survey reveals that building a prototype is the most widely used method for product idea validation, and around 81.7% of the businesses prefer the same. 

Over 74% of the survey participants mentioned conducting market research as a cost-effective method for validating ideas, whereas 63.9% of the respondents analyzed their competitors for validation.

Conducting A/B testing was a method for validating the product idea suggested by 56.3% of the respondents, and 51.2% of the respondents opted for social media surveys. While 19.6% of the businesses prefer email marketing campaigns for product idea validation, 9.1% of the businesses consider going for M&A (1).

“The version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort,” said Eric Ries, the entrepreneur, and author who coined the term MVP in his Lean Startup book.

A minimum viable product is a low-risk testing of a product model just to ensure the viability, and to launch a sustainable product quickly. The process will enable  the scope for improvement if any. 

Businesses opt for an MVP for a number of reasons. Following are some of the purposes that an MVP can serve according to the survey conducted by GoodFirms:

About 81.6% of the survey participants believe that an MVP can help to test the feasibility of an idea.

Startups come up with unique ideas. These ideas might sound great but that does not make it a successful business idea. An MVP is a great tool to test the feasibility of an idea. It serves as an aid for testing the assumptions about the product. 

Businesses can test the user response, development approach, pricing models suitable for the product, and the marketing of the product all at once. 

An MVP can be crucial in evaluating market demand, said 78.3% of the survey respondents.

With the minimal nature of the product built, businesses can evaluate the market demand for the product. 

Testing the core idea of the product with initial adopters can give clarity of the product market fit and help in deciding the future roadmap.

According to 62.7% of businesses, an MVP can be crucial for risk mitigation.

Launching a full-fledged new product involves a huge investment. A product with ample features will require loads of time, money, and effort to launch in the market.

An MVP allows the introduction of only the core product while minimizing the investment. This leads to avoiding the risk of losses associated with the failure of the product in the market. Testing the product is also beneficial in identifying any pitfalls in the near future, further lowering the risk.

Over 59% of the surveyed businesses consider MVP for faster product creation.

Introducing a product in the market with all the additional features requires a significant amount of time. Instead, introducing just the core product can improve the time-to-market. 

The MVP approach enables faster product creation to attract users and gain a competitive edge. Moreover, faster product creation also ensures faster money for the business to work on product improvement.

An MVP is a tool to attract investors, according to 53.4% of the surveyees.

Nearly half of the startups failed in the year 2022 due to a lack of investor interest and funding.(2) This explains the criticality of investor funding for a startup.

An MVP can help businesses attract investors. With the core product to demonstrate, businesses can assure investors about future growth prospects and attract funding for them.

Gaining future clarity is the purpose served by an MVP, as mentioned by 45.1% of the survey participants.

An MVP facilitates an iterative process for the further development of the product. The initial acceptance of the product in the market offers clarity about the future probabilities for the product.

Based on the initial user preferences, businesses can focus on future development and features to be incorporated for a better customer experience.

“The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation,” said an expert.

Building an MVP is gaining immense popularity among startups and small businesses owing to the ample benefits it offers. Some of the benefits mentioned by the surveyees are as follows;

About 87.9% of the survey participants said that MVP can help validate business ideas.

A minimum viable product is one of the best ways to test a business idea or hypothesis. It allows decision-makers to test the feasibility of an idea and the chances of the product to thrive in the market.

An MVP serves as a tool to find the target audience and understand customer expectations, leading to a better understanding of the essential features to be included in the product. It gives an overview of the probability of the product meeting the product demand. 

According to 81.4% of the surveyees, MVPs enable faster product release.

With the limited number of essential features required in the MVP, the development time is significantly reduced. A lesser time for development ensures faster time-to-market. 

Faster time to market results in quicker results and monetary relief. It is also a great chance for businesses to gain a competitive advantage over their counterparts trying to release similar products. Moreover, a faster product release helps in moving in the right direction for improving the customer experience.

Building an MVP can help gather valuable customer feedback before the actual launch of the product, as mentioned by 76.8% of the survey respondents.

Once the basic version of a product is available for customers, businesses can collect valuable customer feedback without any delay. 

It is not just the product; an MVP is crucial for testing the acceptance of the product among the targeted user base. Gaining early feedback from active users is crucial to building the product without any risks and at a faster pace. An MVP also helps build a stable connection with the customer, leading to better customer satisfaction.

Around 73.5% of businesses believe that an MVP can help gauge user interest.

The concept of MVP revolves around the user-centric nature of a product. With the minimum features included in the released product, businesses can gauge user interest and iterate the product accordingly.

An MVP gives room for more products to fit in the market. It allows developers to work on the modifications quickly and align with the user preferences and requirements. A final solution that is more inclined toward user demand makes an MVP an excellent choice for small businesses to avoid any extra features that can cost time and money.

The MVP approach allows businesses to release a product preview and then iterate the final product, according to 69.3% of the surveyees.

The basic purpose of an MVP is to help create the best of breed products that are just the ones that fit the demand. It is the early version of the product that can be improved according to customer feedback.

An MVP allows businesses to release a preview, gain feedback, and then iterate the product to make it an improved version with constant refinement. 

An MVP is capable of attracting investors, asserted 62.5% of the businesses surveyed.

While an MVP can help in understanding customer needs and making the product more user-centric, it is also a tool to increase the chances of external funding.

An MVP, being a working solution to serve a certain purpose, has the ability to attract investors. Introducing a novel concept that can solve a real problem and with the potential to scale is an aid to attracting investors.

Businesses opting for the MVP approach can avoid strategic mistakes, said 58.7% of the survey participants.

MVP is the product with the least number of features reducing the resources invested in the entire process from design to development. The minimal nature of the product and investments make the idea seem less risky.

The simplicity of the product minimizes the chances of failure and avoids any strategic mistakes. 

In fact, an MVP helps in creating products with the lowest risk and highest ROI, as mentioned in The Lean Startup  by Eric Ries.(3)

Over 52% of the businesses mentioned a data-driven approach as a crucial benefit of building an MVP.

Build products that the customers want, and this is the only winning formula for B2Bs. Finding the fit can best be done with the data. The agility involved in MVP development leads to the gradual improvement of a product. Improving the product based on the customer feedback and interests makes the entire process data-driven.

Gathering and analyzing the feedback for the prototype and making decisions control the approach and help mitigate risk. Analyzing the gathered data gives a chance to understand the user likes, dislikes, potential pitfalls, market trends, and possible bottleneck situations. Accumulation of the data and planning the future roadmap of the product is a robust and data-driven cycle that avoids any strategic pitfalls.

MVPs can assist in enabling cost-cutting, according to 48.6% of the businesses.

A product with the least number of features leads to faster development of the product with fewer efforts.

The minimal nature of the product means faster design and development with fewer resources invested. The inclusion of only the required features makes the product cost-efficient. Avoiding the extra features and focusing only on the core idea of the product cuts down any extra costs involved in the development enabling budget-friendly launching of the product.

Scalability is a major benefit of building a prototype, said 34.6% of the surveyees.

The iterative nature of a minimum viable product ensures its scalability. Introducing the basic version of a product leaves a scope for improvement to a large extent.

An MVP ensures the scalability of a product based on user preferences and market demand. Small businesses and startups can surely think of entering the fierce competition keeping in view the scalability of the product to thrive in the industry.

Building an MVP brings a whole lot of benefits to businesses. With the above mentioned benefits of MVP approach, small businesses can gain a competitive advantage in the industry. With the data driven approach and the perfect market fit, MVP helps businesses meet the customer expectation with fewer resources invested in the launching of an MVP.

The cost-cutting and faster time to market with MVP are crucial for staying ahead of the competition. Following are some of the statements from the survey participants on how MVP can help businesses gain a competitive advantage.

“It gives an early view into how the product will perform & can also substitute as a cheap/ free form of feedback. One which does not impact too much on the Org./ Products name, since it's an MVP/ trial.” –Aximsoft.

“A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) can significantly enhance a business's competitive edge by: Rapid Market Entry,  Customer Feedback Loop, Resource Optimization, Market Validation, and Competitive Intelligence” –Cyber Nest.

“MVP allows us to prioritize valuable features as preferred by the customers” –XB Software.

“Moreover, an MVP fosters a cycle of continuous learning and improvement, enabling teams to make data-driven decisions early. This agility allows one to pivot and adapt quickly, avoiding the expensive, time-consuming changes that could otherwise create a ripple effect across the entire product. By staying flexible and responsive, businesses can save costs and remain ahead of competitors who are still locked into traditional, more rigid development models.” –Click Chain.

“An MVP helps a business gain a competitive advantage by enabling faster market entry with minimal investment, allowing the product to capture early users and gather valuable feedback. This approach lays the foundation for future growth.” –.AppX

“Building an MVP allows you to test and learn while your competitors are still getting ready. This early market entry lets you adjust your product based on real user feedback, making sure you're offering something unique that your competitors don’t have.” –Attract Group.

“The success of an MVP strategy can be measured by tracking key metrics such as user engagement, feedback, and retention. Initial adoption rates, the number of active users, and the quality of feedback gathered will indicate whether the core product addresses a real need. Additionally, monitoring customer satisfaction, feature usage, and conversion rates from early testers can help determine if the MVP is ready for further development or needs adjustments before scaling.” –Cidersoft.

“An MVP provides a structured way to test your hypotheses and gather real user feedback. This validated learning helps you make smarter decisions about where to invest resources.” –SYMVOLT.

“It’s a physical product, not an idea. It can gain an understanding of the feasibility of the idea, and therefore of how much resources to put into it.” –SovTech.

“Yes because it allows businesses to test the viability of a product idea with minimal investment, reducing the risk of committing to a full-scale product that may not resonate with the target audience.” –Newwave Solutions Jsc.

“If you do not have a ready business that you can scale and automate now, you should go with MVP.”  –Fora Soft.

“Yes, it is because it provides valuable insights and inputs.” –Musato Technologies.

“By focusing on essential features, it enables faster iterations and helps refine the product based on actual needs, ensuring a higher chance of long-term success.” –PegaSync.

“MVP is crucial in product development because it minimizes the risk of building unwanted features, accelerates time-to-market, and ensures that the product evolves based on actual user needs. By focusing on core functionality it helps businesses allocate resources more efficiently and adapt quickly to market feedback.” –QArea.

“By focusing on core features and releasing a functional version to early adopters, businesses can gather valuable feedback, identify potential issues, and gauge market interest before committing to full-scale development. This iterative approach helps minimize risks, optimize the product based on real user needs, and ensure that resources are invested wisely, ultimately increasing the chances of a successful product launch.” –MindInventory.

“Overall, an MVP helps streamline development, reduces costs, and improves the chances of creating a successful, user-driven product.” –Codiant Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

“Better clarity and proof of concept” –Foreignerds INC.

“It helps businesses to validate hypotheses with minimal resources while allowing them to make the right decisions on their investment strategy and bring products to market in the shortest time possible. Besides, it's the easiest way to attract external investment.” –ORIL

“Yes, it helps you save costs by going to the market at a lower cost.” –KEYSS Inc. 

“By launching a core version of the product early, a company can gather valuable insights from first users, allowing them to refine the product based on real-world feedback. This approach reduces the risk of investing heavily in features that may not resonate with the market while ensuring a more efficient allocation of resources, helping the company stay competitive and responsive to customer needs.” –Diffco.

“Early feedback from actual users provides insights into what works, what doesn’t, and what needs improvement, enabling you to make informed decisions and enhancements.” —Codahead.

“MVP is designed with future growth in mind, enabling businesses to scale quickly once they find product-market fit.” –Fayrix.

Building a successful MVP involves a systematic approach with the end goal in mind. The focus percentage of the participating companies for building an MVP are as follows:

The survey asked participants about the percentage of focus they allocate for every phase of building a successful MVP. The results were interesting. 

While there is no one-size-fits-all formula for developing an MVP, every business has its own priorities. Based on the product and target audience, businesses focus on various phases of the MVP development process. 

About 19.4% of businesses allot less than 5% of focus for the market research phase, while 13.8% of the businesses give focus above 85% for market research.

16.7% of the participant businesses shared that they allot 6 to 20% of their focus area to defining the product and its purpose, and 21.2% of the businesses allot 71 to 85% of their focus for the same stage.

Over 22% of the business owners consider defining a target audience as crucial to allot 41 to 55% of the focus to the stage, and a similar number of businesses allot 56 to 70% of their focus to this stage.

Around 24.1% of the survey respondents allot 31 to 40 percent focus for prioritizing the must have features of the product, while 22.5% of the businesses allot 56 to 70% of their focus for the same stage. 

The development stage of the MVP gets 31 to 45% of focus from 21.2% of the businesses and 41 to 55% from 17.6% of the businesses that participated in the survey.

The importance of feedback for an MVP can be understood from the fact that 23.2% of the businesses allot 71 to 85% of their focus to gathering feedback, and 19.3% of businesses do it with a focus above 85%.

Due to the iterative nature of an MVP, 21.6% of the businesses give improvement and iteration above 85% of their focus.

One of the major reasons that startups fail is due to the lack of market demand. Conducting market research is therefore crucial for any business to understand the feasibility and potential of the product to stay relevant in the market.

According to Software development company Sofmen, the company has been building a successful Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by focusing nearly 86-100% on conducting thorough market research. 

Market research can be done by surveys and competitor analysis about the current offerings in the market and the existing competitors.

Defining the product includes the definition of th problem that the product will solve. It also defines the usability of the product. Having a problem statement and possible solutions is the first step in creating a product. 

Analyzing the products the competitors offer is also crucial to devising a unique solution that stands out in the market.

Defining the target audience is associated with identifying the target users for the product. The process involves determining the audience based on the usability of the product and user preferences. The target audience is decided based on the age group, sex, and preferences of the product.

Building an MVP is about launching a product that solves a problem with just the required features. Startups usually are impacted with the abundance of features that are not really required for the product functioning.

Prioritizing only the ‘must have’ features that can essentially solve the core issue. 

The development phase of the MVP starts with the selection of an agile product development methodology. The success of the product development lies in the bug-free nature of the product. The development phase of a minimum viable product must focus on bug-free development with an user-friendly interface.

The minimal nature of the product ensures faster time-to-market. This phase involves the process of making the product available to the target audience. It also includes the marketing of the product to make it popular among the target audience and improve consumption.

America-based digital marketing firm Olive Street has been building a successful Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by focusing nearly 86-100% on minimizing time-to-market.

Post the launch of the MVP, gathering feedback is critical to the success of the product and business. Gathering valuable feedback from genuine customers allows businesses to analyze the functionality of the product and offers a place for improvement.

Constant improvement and interaction are essential for customer satisfaction. Analyzing the feedback and making iterations to the basic version of the product makes the product more efficient and customer-centric.

Airbnb is one classic example of how MVP stands as a crucial step in developing a product/brand/business (4). With the iterative and constantly improving nature of MVP, it has immense potential to drive the success of a business. The cost-effectiveness and faster product launch make it a crucial step in product development.

Following are some of the views from the survey participants about the role of MVP in product development:

“In most cases, full market-ready product development takes a lot of time and resources.” –SmartSites.

“Correctly plan an iterative strategy, choose the best technologies for implementing the idea, define the most prioritized path for product development” –JetSoftPro.

“Yes. Spending the time to build a fully developed yet unproven product is costly.” –SlideFactory.

“Yes. Many times business owners, in more than 90% of cases, have to pivot based on market trends and demands, and keeping it small initially helps them to save money to make changes, and the chances of success are much higher.” –Alakmalak Technologies.

“Yes, it is. It helps gauge the market and acceptability of the product idea as well as gives a customer/ target audience viewpoint about the product that the product development team might have missed out on and that might be crucial for success” –Tecziq Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

“With an MVP, you get to market faster than your competition, and you can show potential investors that people actually want your product. It's also a great way to learn and improve because you're getting original feedback from real users.” –Trigma. 

“Yes, MVPs let you validate if your assumptions about the solution of the problem is right, and you can get feedback early to get a better result; this means a smart investment of the resources” –Designli.

“Demonstrating traction with a real product, even if minimal, can significantly boost investor confidence.” –Wisitech InfoSolutions Pvt. Ltd.

“We considered it a fundamental step in our product’s journey because it allowed us to validate the market fit with minimal risk. Our team was able to test assumptions, gather real feedback, and make meaningful adjustments before fully committing resources. For us, skipping the MVP could’ve meant missing crucial insights that ultimately shaped the product’s direction.” –Content Whale. 

“If there is a large-scale launch with a big budget, this is the best way to test the success of the project in a shorter period with minimal cost.” –Glorium Technologies.

“Yes, MVP is crucial as it allows businesses to test core functionalities with minimal risk. It provides valuable insights early in the development process, guiding future investments while ensuring the product aligns with customer expectations, ultimately reducing the chance of failure.” –BugRaptors.

“MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is a crucial step in product development because it allows teams to test and validate their ideas quickly and cost-effectively with real users.” –Cabot Technology Solutions, Inc. 

Building an MVP has become a popular trend among startups due to various reasons. Although going for the MVP approach is beneficial in many ways, it comes with its own set of challenges. This GoodFirms survey reveals a  few challenges that are common when building an MVP.

About 68.3% of the survey respondents mentioned budget constraints as a major challenge when building an MVP.

Although building an MVP is a cost-effective method of product idea validation, it still requires a considerable amount of budget allocation. To ensure the smooth functioning of the entire prototyping phase and the launch of the product, every function needs to be prioritized.

Launching the MVP not only involves the design and development of the product but also includes marketing, sales, and data analytics. Budget constraints can impact these aspects and amper the success of the MVP. Therefore, balancing the functions with the available budget becomes a significant challenge for businesses.

According to 52.3% of businesses, resource constraints are a significant challenge when opting for an MVP.

Startups and small businesses often have issues with the budget, time, technologies, people, materials, and other resources. Building a successful MVP also requires expertise and skilled professionals to build the required product. 

With the lack of technical advice and necessary tools, building an MVP can become a daunting task for beginners. Resource constraints often pose challenges for businesses when building an MVP.

Over 41% of the surveyees said that a scarce market demand is one of the major challenges while building an MVP.

The excitement of building a prototype might lead to decisions that are made with a lack of understanding or without proper market research. 

While the concept of MVP is based on the user-centric approach, a lack of market study can result in a product that has scarce market demand. An MVP with no market demand can be disastrous as the invested resources will not give any returns. 

Conducting proper market tests and building a product that is aligned with user interests is crucial to the success of an MVP.

Fear of probabilities can be challenging while building an MVP, said nearly 40% of the surveyees.

Investing resources into building a product can be done when the decision-maker is hopeful of the outcomes. However, launching an MVP might result in failures. 

The fear of probabilities after the product is launched results in delayed decisions. Also, the decision about the features to include in the basic version of the product is also impacted due to the probability of user feedback. 

Technical issues can hinder the process of MVP development -as mentioned by 37.5% of the survey respondents.

Building a successful MVP has a lot to do with the business's success. A successful MVP can be built with the right technological approach. It involves the right resources accompanied with the right technological stack.

Right from selecting the resources that would work on the product to the product management methodology everything needs to be in place for building the right product that would solve the problem. 

Hiring the right resources and ensuring the availability of the required tools is a challenge that requires attention when building the MVP.

A reluctant top management can pose challenges while going for an MVP approach, as indicated by 32.4% of the respondents.

While MVP might have become a popular choice in recent times, it still seems overwhelming for many. Especially when the top management of an organization is reluctant to adopt the MVP approach, it is quite a challenge for successful implementation.

The lack of support from the top management can result in scarce resources and budget allocation, leading to inefficiencies and an incompetent product. It is crucial for the entire team to be on the same page for a worthy outcome.

About 29.6% of the businesses surveyed mentioned negative feedback as a significant challenge for building an MVP.

The power of harnessing negative feedback is high when it comes to product iteration and success thereafter. The iterative nature of an MVP is the fact that helps in the improvement of the final product. Gathering feedback and working on the changes in the product is what makes a business successful. However, prompt collection of feedback and its analysis can be a challenge. 

Failing to attract users and negative feedback can be a task for the developers to iterate the product as per the user requirements. This can also result in a failed product and lead to monetary losses for the business.

Maintaining data privacy and security is a challenging factor when building an MVP, said over 25% of the survey participants.

Software solutions, especially mobile apps, collect personal information from the users in order to personalize their experience. With the rising awareness about data privacy and integrity, users are always hesitant to share data on newer platforms. 

It, therefore, becomes crucial for businesses to ensure the privacy and security of user data. Maintaining data privacy and security becomes a challenge for businesses when it comes to building a product with a limited budget and resources.

Around 19.7% of businesses consider ensuring the scalability of the product a major challenge when opting for the MVP approach.

MVPs are iterated based on customer feedback and changing user preferences. While the initial version of the product has the least features required, it is essential to think of the scalability of the product from the very beginning.

The technical tools and team working on the product development must be well-versed to consider all the scalability options and make the product more customer-centric.

“Not having the right mindset is the biggest challenge, and the above-mentioned challenges are easy to overcome with experience,” said Successive Digital.

While the adoption of MVP can offer significant benefits leading to business success, it is necessary to assess the success of MVP itself. 

The measures to monitor the success of an MVP can be done in a number of ways, including key performance indicators(KPI) monitoring, customer feedback, number of purchases, and subscriptions. When queried about the measure of success of an MVP, participants of the GoodFirms shared their experiences. Some of them are as indicated below:

“Measuring the success of your MVP strategy is crucial to understanding whether your product is on the right track and how it can be improved. One of the key metrics and approaches you can use to evaluate the success of your MVP is Market Position and Competitive Edge” –Technoloader Pvt. Ltd.

“By conducting surveys, interviews, and user testing, we can gather invaluable feedback on user satisfaction, identify areas for improvement, and understand the product's overall impact. This qualitative data can help refine the product roadmap and ensure that it aligns with user needs and preferences.” –Virtual Height IT Services Private Limited.

“It should be calculated based on the value received from the product by each target user type. For the features or functionality that doesn't provide much value to the target user, they shouldn't be focused upon.” –Agile Infoways LLC.

“By evaluating user feedback, tracking key performance indicators, and assessing whether the MVP meets its intended goals and validates the product concept.” –Uran Company.

“Measure MVP success through user adoption metrics like acquisition and retention rates.Track key business indicators such as revenue, conversion rates, and customer feedback. Assess technical performance and progress in validating core assumptions to guide development.” –SaaSify Labs.

“We utilize CSATS, NPS, and Overall engagements across multiple channels to obtain feedback and accordingly measure the success of our NVP.” –Exemplifi.

“You can measure the success of MVP by measuring the predefined KPIs. These KPIs allow businesses to understand how a product works and behaves in specific scenarios. It includes measuring the impact of customer feedback on the product. You also want to check for risk aversions and the cost of developing MVP to understand whether it was a successful strategy.” –aPurple.

“One of the key metrics is customer feedback which could be in the form of CSAT or NPS. Customer acquisition, retention, and attrition also play a key role in understanding how the product is onboarded and received in the market. User engagement is the third matrix which helps in understanding how engaged the customers are and builds the foundation for long-term success” –Boston Technology Corporation.

“MVP development minimizes the risk of premature investment in unproven concepts by allowing you to test even complex ideas—such as those involving emerging technologies like generative AI—without significant financial commitment.” –ELEKS.

So, is MVP only for Startups?

Startups have presented the most successful MVP examples. However, the many benefits of implementing an MVP can also be leveraged by established businesses and large organizations.

MVPs can help large organizations introduce products to the market more efficiently while cutting down the required resources.

MVPs can help large established businesses in a number of ways:

• Test and introduce new ideas or features with minimal risk.
• Help validate new ideas cost-effecively.
• Help foster innovation to enhance the current offerings.
• Invest minimum resources to add value to products.

Interestingly, around 84.3% of the participants of this GoodFirms survey believe that MVP can also be beneficial for large organizations, whereas 13.9% of the businesses believe that MVP can add value to only startups.

The advent of artificial intelligence has touched almost every possible industry. AI today plays  an important role in  MVP development from designing phase to analyzing the user feedback and providing personalized suggestions. 

With the support of AI, building an MVP can become more efficient and faster. Similar thoughts were shared by the survey participants about the future of MVP with AI.

“Yes, I believe AI will play a significant role in the development of MVPs in the future. AI can streamline various aspects of the MVP development process, making it more efficient and effective.” –Rapid Dev.

“AI is already being used in MVP development to a great extent. It can automate user behavior analysis, predict market trends, and personalize MVP features to specific user needs.” –Seasia Infotech.

“Use of AI is very subjective to the nature and purpose of your product. It may vary on a case-to-case basis.” –Yield Interactive.

“Yes, we believe AI will play a big role in developing MVPs in the future. AI can help speed up market research, predict customer needs, and even automate parts of the development process. This way, we can create faster, smarter MVPs that better match what customers want.” –Brainium Information Technologies.

“Yes, AI can significantly accelerate and optimize the MVP process through Prototyping & Development, Market Research, Feedback & Testing and Predictions.” –Wervas.

“AI-driven tools could help businesses simulate different versions of a product, forecast market reception, and optimize design decisions based on real-time data. Additionally, AI can be used to quickly analyze user feedback during the MVP phase, helping teams iterate and improve faster. This enhances the efficiency of MVP development while reducing time and resource investment.” –UKAD.

“I think yes. AI could generate initial prototypes or wireframes based on simple inputs. AI can analyze user feedback providing deep insights into user preferences. AI can customize the MVP for different user segments, providing a more tailored experience from the start. AI could simulate user behavior and provide predictive feedback on how an MVP might perform, although I don't think it's a good idea.” –Halo Lab.

“Yes, it will be helpful in generating & refining initial requirements for an MVP along with wireframes for it. AI will also help in creating a base framework and code structure for the MVP.” –Square63.

“Yes, AI will likely be used in MVP development by streamlining design, automating coding tasks, and predicting user needs based on data analysis, thus speeding up the development process and enhancing product fit.” –Imaginet Ventures.

“Yes, AI will aid MVP development by enabling rapid prototyping, automating testing, predicting user behavior, analyzing data for feature prioritization, and personalizing experiences, improving efficiency and scalability overall.” –Kalgisoft Technologies.

Key Findings:

• About 91.3% of the businesses have already launched a product with an MVP approach.
• Over 74.1% of the businesses are willing to launch their MVP in the future.
• Building a prototype is the most widely used method for product idea validation.
• Conducting A/B testing was a method for validating the product idea suggested by 56.3% of the respondents.
• About 81.6% of the survey participants believe that an MVP can help to test the feasibility of an idea.
• An MVP is a tool to attract investors, according to 53.4% of the surveyees.
• About 87.9% of the survey participants said that MVP can help validate business ideas.
• Businesses opting for the MVP approach can avoid strategic mistakes, said 58.7% of the survey participants.
• About 68.3% of the survey respondents mentioned budget constraints as a major challenge when building an MVP.
• According to 52.3% of businesses, resource constraints are a significant challenge when opting for an MVP.
• AI today plays an important role in MVP development.

Starting small is the best way to create a product that can create exceptional experiences and value for the customers. The cost is less, errors can be rectified, and the product can be tested, iterated, and scaled as per the customers’ preferences. The market is so unpredictable and volatile; both startups and established organizations struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis. The adoption of the MVP approach helps businesses to offer a product with fewer resources invested. Launching an MVP gives businesses an upper hand with the faster release of the products that are sure to hit the market successfully.

The approach which is supported by feedback analysis makes the product better data-driven and customer-centric. It also helps businesses avoid excess investment on features that do not add value to the customer experience. 

Moreover, with the advent of technologies like AI, businesses can expedite the prototyping process and enable better data analysis for improving the product quality, thereby driving the business success. 

We sincerely thank our Research Partners for their valuable insights.

References:

1. https://www.goodfirms.co/resources/impact-mergers-acquisitions-on-market-competition
2. https://www.skynova.com/blog/top-reasons-startups-fail 
3. https://www.delve.com/insights/mvp 
4. https://fueled.com/blog/airbnb-mvp/