MVP
Many people who want to start their own startup come up with an idea with a lot of hope and energy with an ambitious perspective. Although hope is the major motivation for doing great things, we must realize that for something in which we have no experience, we have to walk cautiously, in small steps.
Just as in old businesses, great businessmen usually started with retail, the startup rule also advises you to produce and sell goods in small quantities. In order to become a large company, you must first start your work on a small scale so that you can see the performance and production process of your product or service in practice and eliminate its shortcomings and deficiencies.
This step in starting a start-up business is called Minimum Viable Product which is abbreviated as MVP. MVP means “minimum product available”. In other words, it means the least available sample of a product or service. MVP helps you get an acceptable sample of the product at the lowest cost to get feedback from the customer in the submission process as well as convincing the investor.
To provide an MVP, consider a list of features of your product or service that may be included in an application. Highlight the basic features you want your product to offer and implement them in your product’s MVP. For example, suppose your product is a task manager application. The main feature of your application is to write, edit, and confirm a task. These features are sufficient for an MVP. Sharing, scheduling, and archiving tasks are features that can be added over time to an MVP in the original version of the application. The MVP is not meant to be your ultimate flawless version. According to LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman, whenever your MVP was the one you were proud of, know that you launched it too late. You have probably spent time on features that the user does not care about at all. MVP should be introduced to the market quickly to get the necessary feedback from users.
Customer relationship
As mentioned earlier, startups are basically formed based on the needs of society; so, in order to continue their life and development, they need to communicate with customers and receive feedback from them. A startup that can keep pace with customers will always be dynamic and successful. Prepare a pre-list of features that you can provide to users through your application. Prioritize the features when they are highly demanded by users. Of course, there may be suggestions from users that will not be of interest to you. In addition to the opinions of customers, the opinions of experienced people such as investors, partners, and consultants should be considered. One should not just pay attention to the opinions of like-minded people and encouragement of friends and relatives. As might be expected, any negative feedback should not disappoint and cause us to make a hasty decision.
If you are inexperienced in running an Internet-based business, it is important to consult with experts in the organizational, cultural, and social fields and evaluate your business from their perspective. Social media is the best option for startups to connect with customers. In addition to being inclusive, they are inexpensive and cost-effective. On top of communicating directly with the customer, social media can be used to introduce and advertise your product or service, launch campaigns, and publish your news and announcements. You can easily ask your audience to participate in an online survey to comment on your service or product, even a future feature with just one click.