We have heard so many times that time flies. Well, an innovation of the minimum awesome product has proved it in actual terms. What customers need was important till yesterday, but what attracts the customer and what retains the customer for a long time is more important today. Isn’t it? That’s why minimum viable products are not enough anymore. Because how quickly market changes is hard to assume, especially in this digital era where every product from necessity to luxury items are available online in looms. So, in that case, giving an awesome experience is more than necessary, despite giving just minimally viable products.
So, if you want to hold your customers for a long period, keep reading this article. It explains topics such as what is the minimum awesome product and how and why you should develop the MAP instead of MVP.
Owning a start-up, it can take months or sometimes years to develop a new product or service. MVP (Minimum viable product) concept, however, popularized by Eric Ries, is an easy to go approach for every business and start-up. Develop just essential features and workflows for product development to satisfy early customers – that is the idea of MVP. Now imagine, you spent months and years in product creation and when you test it among selected users, only to know that your product is not capable of retaining your customer. No, I don’t want to scare you. But this is the reality of so many new entrants in the market which you must not ignore.
Does it mean the MVP has died? No, it has not. Minimum viable product, of course, helps you to consider the needs of the customer, but as we mentioned, MVP is just not enough. Because life has meaning beyond needs. Therefore, the minimum awesome product (MAP) had to come into existence.
What is the Minimum Awesome Product?
The minimum awesome product (MAP) is the concept utilized in the lean development methodology and is specifically to test product hypothesis in the company background.
To be more precise, the MAP is basically MVP with an awesome effect. The product that has been created with minimal functionalities referring to MVP, but also provides excellent elements that make customers say, ‘Awesome!’ That’s a MAP for you.
When you look at the larger definition, MAP is definitely beyond just releasing products with only enough user-friendliness. It tends to deliver something more comfortable than normal familiarity. Whether I had to quote the MAP in simplified words, MAP is an extension of MVP, and a manner of preventing MVP from being too ‘minimal.’
Does it mean MAP is just another process level of MVP? Or is it entirely replacing MVP? Well, that completely depends on you. For better understanding, let us guide you through the steps of how to create a MAP so you can provide your clients with an amazing interface.
For a better understanding of the two concepts here is a representation bifurcating them.
How to Build the Minimum Awesome Product?
Certainly, there are two ways to build a product (MAP) for your business.
1 – Convert Existing MVP into MAP
If you have developed MVP in the form of an application, a landing page/homepage, or a video for your business in the first place, you can still convert it into MAP by adding lots of unique alternatives. Only if those options make your MAP > MVP. For example, if your MVP is X, your MAP has to be more than X or better be 2X in terms of quality excellence.
So, how can you convert MVP into MAP?
- Add a catchy UX / UI design to your existing mobile application for a better user experience.
Add a chatbot software system or create a chat application, like Facebook Messenger, Slack, LinkedIn, etc.
Make sure your application is user friendly so that people don’t have to put a lot of effort to access it.
Add an awesome effect in the form of unique features with the help of the Internet of Things (IoT) – don’t go extreme though – minimal is still the key.
Integrate security functions into the application.
Make sure to meet the expectations of users.
Provide information with the help of social media i.e, newsletter, images, post, email voices, text messages, ads, etc.
Remember, if your alternative options are not that ‘Awesome’, your MAP is still MVP.
2 – Build MAP From Scratch
If you are yet to build any product, you can kick start your business by building a new product MAP from scratch and build a platform to sustain your business. For it, follow these below- mentioned simple steps.
Step 1. Know Your Audience
It is the first step in creating a product MAP towards your business direction. To be informed of the needs of business and customers, you need to carry out numerous analyses. What will you analyze, though?
Know the preferences of your valued clients and what they need from you.
Investigate if the market where you intend to manufacture similar products already exists.
Watch out for your competitors.
But, is it really possible to analyze all of these things without one survey? Yes. There are a variety of resources on the market that can help you evaluate your rival’s website and phone applications, and help you gain insights into their site traffic and search engine. This typically includes – traffic sources sight, website or application rating, consumer location, social media engagements, and other information on the internet.
Step 2. Have an Idea
You need to address a ton of questions after you understand your audience, like,
What’s your goal right now?
Will it help consumers create a better future for themselves? If yes, how?
Will your MAP make a difference for the company? If so, how?
How will consumers be able to access your MAP?
What will be the cost?
Address all of these concerns and you’ll get clear app ideas to develop the minimum awesome product that can help you endure your company sector.
Step 3. Select Design Process and User Flow
Convenience – that’s what you and the designer need to hold in mind when choosing the app interface and design processes. So, once you get an idea, look at the application from the beginning to the final step from customers’ perspectives. Analyzing the perspective of your clients will help you choose a suitable design method. Precisely, to define the main user flow you should first define process stages and it is very simple as you just need to keep in mind the primary vision and keep focusing on basic tasks.
Step 4. Decide MAP Features
The most critical step that can make or break your MAP. So, make sure to list out all the features that are reasonably worthy to draw the consumers and give them an awesome user experience, and not just those features you want to incorporate because you feel like having. It also helps assist in business process automation as you integrate features and systems for repetitive tasks. But, the minimum approach still needs to be followed, so choose minimum features that provide the minimum viable experience (MVE).
When you create a list, prioritize and categorize each feature, according to the needs of users. Then, you can define the scope of each feature to check whether it is awesome or not. If this ties in with customers’ needs and preferences, build a MAP proto-type and test how it operates. If it doesn’t, make a new list and follow through again.
Step 5. Build, Measure, and Improve
Now, it’s time to take action. After you’ve completed all of the research, question and answer, templates, and designs, you can start to develop the MAP app for business. Because that’s what we all focused on, right? But is it the end? No. When you are completed developing your MAP application, it needs to be measured. The quality control engineer needs to perform the test process – to ensure the accuracy of the product iteration before the release. If the quality assurance experts consider the output is good enough to market it, then your MAP will be ready for Alpha and Beta testing.
What are Alpha testing and Beta testing?
Alpha testing is a product test for a limited group. You can consider a limited group as friends, family, relatives, etc.
Beta testing is a real-world evaluation of a product. Your MAP is ready for Beta testing after the product completes Alpha testing successfully.
If any issue occurs while conducting the test or if it doesn’t pass the test successfully, you can always improve the MAP based on the requirements. But, do not stop after the improvement. Test it again. That’s the rule to succeed.
If you’d like to read more interesting blogs make sure to check out our other content on 7th Dev's Blogs.
We are waiting to hear your outstanding product idea at SeventhDev.com