Building a MVP requires a significant amount of research and frequent iteration to finalize the design. In the chapter on “Designing your MVP,” the various elements were discussed that can be adapted to define the MVP. We also reviewed different strategies for prioritizing the features of an MVP. Now is the time to pull together all the functional points and ideas you and your team have chosen and begin planning how to build your MVP.
Choose Features
Based on your research, deliberation with your team on different ideas, and the data collected from surveys and early user stories, you should be able to define a specific set of diverse features for your MVP. As we have seen, selecting features can be tricky, but the impact of your selected features must be measurable for the customer as well as against your business goals. If you need help selecting the feature for your MVP, I offer a free MVP template that will help you get started.
A customer must be able to understand the pros and cons of your app and realize that it’s satisfying a genuine need or want, provides benefits of some sort, or produces a productivity increase. While building the MVP, all features should be considered. An MVP is not merely a set of features; rather it is a product for the user and therefore must be, above all, user-centred.
However, choosing a feature is complicated by the fact that a business target also needs to be achieved—and the risk is usually high. You must consider the risk of other competitors, meet the customer’s expectations, and achieve the goals on budget and on time. Considering time, budget, and business goals, only a few features will be possible. Keep in mind the following statement while selecting features.
“The minimum viable product is that product which has just those features
(and no more) that allows you to ship a product that resonates with early adopters;
some of whom will pay you money or give you feedback.”
On this basis, select features after considering these criteria:
1. Identify potential features based on user stories
2. Test the market with a minimum number of features
3. Prioritize features according to the response of the market
Build the User Interface
Technology has made many things easier than ever before. Quickly marketing a new app is easily obtainable and attaining nearly immediate feedback is affordable. The User Interface (UI) is your connection with your users. A well-designed UI enables the developer to interact with the client while at the same time receiving feedback, which of course assists in future decision making. The advancement in HTML language, CSS and many others is fundamental to the development of the UI. The purpose of a properly designed UI is of course to interact with the customer and develop a positive relationship with him or her and to understand the user’s experience as a guide to further improvement. In other words, the UI creates the user experience (UX), which defines the appearance of the device, the response time and the presentation of available content. Changes can be made to the UI once the UX has been fully understood.
It’s best to create your design in Adobe XD, Marvel, or something similar first. The ease of making changes allows you to fine tune the layout and application flow before sending it to a designer.
Databases
Databases store your applications data. They provide an essential role in protecting, storing and providing data to the application as required. The Bubble platform comes with a built-in database, but you can also use a more advanced database like MySQL, Postgres, or SQL Server with the Bubble SQL Connector API plugin.
Workflows
A workflow is an approach to define, implement, and automate business operations. In this approach, the information, tasks, and documents are transferred from one person to another for further action. In business marketing strategy, workflows can help avoid errors because of this action. A workflow helps in identifying unnecessary tasks, assists in managing details, improves communication and provides better customer service. The workflow technique should be optimized while developing an MVP.
Workflows provide the “functionality” of your application in Bubble. For example, you can drag and drop numerous types of events to stitch together the workflow when a user signs up for your app.
API Calls
The Application Programming Interface (API) of an MVP provides product management and serves as a channel of exchange between two communicating applications. An API call offers a specific action that performs different tasks. For example:
APIs are one of the most complicated features in Bubble, and the one I get the most calls about. Though the IT community as a whole has made strides in standardizing the API language, there is still a large number of nuances regarding the implementation of them.
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