Mistakes are inevitable, but which MVP mistakes can beat out a path to the “grave” for your product? Although the list of possible pitfalls that can kill off your minimum viable product is extensive, here are a few to note:
🚩 Rushing into Development
If you initiate the development process earlier than you confirm that the product is worth building, you’re in for some trouble. You need a plan in place as a solid foundation for your MVP. So take the time to ensure that you’re building a solution to a real problem (that you are not trying to match a solution to some problem you have no clue about) and that you’ve planned everything out.
🚩 No Market Validation
Are you sure you’ve done your research? Is there a market need for your product? If not (and that’s the case with too many MVPs), you’re investing time and money into a useless solution. These are significant resources you probably wouldn’t want to put to waste.
🚩 Squeezing in Extra Features
Maybe it’s because a competitor does so, or you simply want to make the MVP as perfect as possible, but it is vital to try to resist the urge to add excessive features. This might derail your focus, waste your resources, and backpedal your release.
🚩 Releasing Too Soon
Startups are often short on time, and the pressure to release something before another company does is high. So, on the contrary, if you launch the MVP earlier than needed, your early users will likely “boo” you. An MVP is not a half-baked product, remember that.
🚩 Skipping the Testing Phase
Again, thorough testing is highly important. Don’t release a glitchy product, your users won’t like it. Although this seems obvious, lots of bugging MVPs hit the hands of users. Uncover bugs and usability issues, find potential bottlenecks, and fix this stuff first.
🚩 Ditching User Feedback
Isn’t the whole point of building an MVP in testing your idea out in the real world? If an MVP fails to gather feedback or you simply ignore the information you’ve obtained, then you’ll be basing your decisions on your own point of view. This biased approach can be depriving you of opportunities for improvement.
Are there more MVP mistakes you should know about? Of course! Here’s a guide filled with other pitfalls to watch out for with tips on avoiding them timely 👇
