Explainer Video
This is a short video that explains what the product does and how it can benefit the customer. It is usually between 1 and 3 minutes long and can be embedded on the website or posted on various social media for testing. A great example of an MVP in form of an explainer video is Dropbox, who used this approach to boost their waiting list from 5,000 to > 70,000 people within one day.
Concierge MVP
A Concierge MVP means that instead of providing a product to the customer, you provide a manual service that involves the same steps your customer would go through when using the actual product.
A detailed example of a Concierge MVP can be found here: https://scalexl.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-minimum-viable-products/
Wizard of Oz MVP
This refers to an MVP which seems like a real product but in the background the tasks are carried out manually. For example, the founder of Zappos, an online shoe retailer, didn’t stock large amount of shoes and built a whole backend operation but he went to local shoe shops to take pictures of the shoes and only buy and ship it to them when somebody ordered them on his website. This is not a scalable operation but it helps to validate the idea.
Piecemeal MVP
This type of MVP is similar to the Concierge MVP, as you also go through the same steps as if you would use the actual product. However, instead of providing the service manually, you would use existing tools (e.g. typeform, email, etc.) and piece them together to get the basic functionality you need to deliver the product.
Landing Page
A landing page refers to a website where customers ‘land’ after they have been referred to it via email, social media or other channels.
The aim of the landing page is to communicate what you are offering, diffuse any concerns the customer might have and lead them to take action by either leaving their email, inviting friends or actually buying something. Furthermore, the landing page can also be used for validating certain aspects of your business.
- 404 Error & Coming Soon Page
- If your landing page is not quite ready yet you can have a coming soon page, but with a field where you capture the customers' email address. Same goes for when you are testing a new feature and you are testing it with a “Buy now” button, but you don’t have the processes in place to make the payments or send the product to the customer. This is when a coming soon or error page can be helpful. However, do think about the image of your company if the customer sees something is not working on your page.
- Shadow Button
- If you are building a new feature and or want to test something specific, you can show a button on your website that links to that specific feature. The number of clicks and other analytics you get from people clicking on the button indicates interest in what you are testing. However, if you have a button that says “Buy now” but then customers actually can’t, it might trigger a negative response and thus you should acknowledge the fact that its not working yet and you might want to limit the amount of users who are involved in this type of testing.
Crowdfunding MVP
This refers to the idea that you set up a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, Indiegogo or other sites and ‘sell it before you build it’. This will help you to validate your product while raising money for it. There is also the additional benefit of already creating a group of early customers who love what you do.
Single Feature MVP
It is important to realize that you cannot be everything for everybody ,and thus you should not just build various features your customers might be requesting. It is important you find that one key feature that brings the most value to customers, and the single feature MVP is about testing that. If you cannot test all your assumptions, build several MVPs that each have one feature and do not build one MVP with multiple features.
For example, in Facebook's early days, you could only make a profile and connect with people. There was no newsfeed, no groups and no integrated apps.
(Smith, 2016; Blagojevic, 2013)
Examples of different MVP’s in action
10 Innovative Approaches to Creating a Minimum Viable Product (Farnworth, 2015): https://www.copyblogger.com/minimum-viable-product-ideas/
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References:
Blagojevic, V. (2013). The Ultimate Guide to Minimum Viable Products. Available at: https://scalexl.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-minimum-viable-products/ [Accessed 12 January 2018]
Farnworth, D. (2015). 10 Innovative Approaches to Creating a Minimum Viable Product. Available at: https://www.copyblogger.com/minimum-viable-product-ideas/ [Accessed 11 January 2018]
Smith, C. (2016). 8 types of MVP Experiments. Available at: https://medium.com/@carolinekyungae/8-types-of-mvp-experiments-90f9070e145 [Accessed 12 January 2018]
