If you want to succeed in bringing your first electronic product to market, you have to learn from others’ mistakes. One of the most common of them is the development of a highly complex product with numerous features and functions. Instead of wasting time and costs on a complex product, experts recommend simplifying it as much as possible. In order to do so, you should focus on the key functions and features of your product, thus making it more affordable in manufacturing.
What is MVP?
MVP – the Minimum Viable Product – is one of the most useful tools for product simplification. It is especially important when you launch a new product and want to find out whether it is actually needed by your potential customers. MVP development lies in the creation of a product with minimum features and amount of effort with further getting feedback from customers about it. After that, you can use feedback to develop a more complex product on the basis of the simplest one.
How to use MVP in hardware?
Although MVP is commonly used in software development, you can also use it in hardware. Here are the main steps of the application of MVP in hardware design.
1. Determine the features of your product
The first step of MVP is to limit the list of functions and features of your electronic product to a minimum. Again, be selective, and don’t be afraid to cross out extra features. Keep in mind that each of them requires costs and time for its development. Even the smallest detail can cost you thousands of dollars. There is a simple way to limit the features to the optimal set: list every feature you want to add, rank them by cost and complexity, and prioritize in accordance with the assumed customers’ needs.
2. Plan your budget
It is necessary to estimate the cost needed for the development of every feature you selected. By doing so, you will be able to determine the cost of the whole product. Keep in mind that the manufacturing cost will influence the price of your product. So, again, limit the manufacturing costs and develop those features you believe will add the highest profit margins to your product.
3. Cross out the unnecessary
After you created a rank of features by cost and complexity, you can cross out those features that are most complex, costly, and unnecessary. Such features cannot be designed in terms of MVP. Instead, focus on those features that are affordable for you in product development, especially those with high customer priority. In other words, your MVP should be based on inexpensive features that are easy to develop.
4. Bring MVP to market as soon as possible
The basic idea of MVP is to create a simple product with minimum effort to test its marketability as soon as possible. So, save your time and bring MVP to market to get customers’ feedback. There are different ways to learn customers’ needs using MVP. For example, use sales data or a questionnaire about your product and the goals of customers that want to use it. As mentioned above, you can consider this information for the future version of your product. You can either add new features, exclude some existing ones or even decide to develop a totally different electronic product.
Follow these tips and recommendations, and you will successfully use MVP in your electronic hardware product development. However, if you want professional help in this process, you should hire electronic developers.
