How To Build An MVP As A Non-Tech Founder

Ideas are the currency of today.

There are so many genius minds with marvelous ideas that can solve some of the grimmest problems we face today, yet one question befalls upon all these great minds.

“How will I implement this idea without the required technical expertise?”

Several successful non-tech founders have built very successful tech-enabled businesses without developing a complete product from the start, such as Stitchbox, Coffee Meets Bagle, and others.

Building an MVP is one of the most crucial stages for any startup or enterprise. Creating a product with great attention to detail while being mindful of time, resources, and user needs is an achievement.

Tech founders, having been in the field for quite some time, know the ins and outs of creating an MVP or a software product.

Non-tech founders will likely face hiccups due to their lack of technical expertise.

This blog will cover some of the basics of building an MVP as non-tech founders and understanding what goes into creating a great end product.

Let’s get right into it!

TOC:

• Introduction
• What is an MVP?
• How To Get A Headstart With Creating An MVP?
• Outsource Your MVP Development
• Conclusion

What Is An MVP?

A minimum viable product, or MVP, is a product with enough features to entice early adopters and verify a product concept early in the product development cycle. In industries like software, an MVP can assist the product team in receiving customer input as soon as possible in order to iterate and enhance the product.

How To Get A Headstart With Creating An MVP?

• Sketch User Stories: Because an MVP is a simplified version of your product, you must prioritize features and determine the necessary ones. You can accomplish this by creating user stories. Make a list of the tasks you want consumers to do with your product. It is now time to rank these tasks. Assign labels such as “must-have”, “should have”, and “can have” to them to reflect the importance of features. They represent the minimal number of features required to offer your MVP a distinctive and well-designed user experience that assists users in efficiently solving their problems.
• Run A Feature Test: If you’re still unsure whether a feature should be included in your MVP, consider this: Can I launch my product without this functionality? Respond from the user’s point of view. Will the user be able to address their problem if you launch without that feature? If you answered yes, move it to the bottom of the list. If the answer is no, consider the resources needed to implement that feature and whether it fits within your timeframe and budget.
• Follow The Cake Model: Brandon Schauer’s cake model provides two distinct models for product development through time. Starting with a dry cake is one technique to plan a new product. Filling and icing are added as the process progresses. However, if you consider the customer’s point of view for a second, you will see that this paradigm is problematic. The truth is that a cake without filling or icing is unappealing. Almost anyone could make a cake like that. Take this approach with your MVP and eyeball what suits your product the most.
• Build A Community: It makes no sense to spend money on marketing when you can start establishing a community of committed users for free. Start by creating a landing page to redirect users to your website, grow your traction using blogs and guest blogs, and finally resort to as many audio-visual methods of promotion as possible to hype up your MVP.

Outsourcing Your MVP Development

Despite the above steps, creating an MVP can be a tad bit overwhelming and very much so for a non-tech founder. This is why we’d recommend completely outsourcing the process. Here are some good reasons for it:

1. Reduction in Cost: Although working with an in-house team comes with a great many benefits, you shouldn’t disregard the potential cost savings of outsourcing as compared to building an in-house team. For example, Netsmartz focuses on assisting startups and enterprises to expedite their development cycles and offer quality codebases. This method is effective for startups that are sponsored or bootstrapped and are seeking individual developers or full teams.
2. A Second Viewpoint: MVP development teams have a thorough understanding of what works and what doesn’t in the actual world. They can give you more information about how to improve your idea or what the original product needs because they have expertise in producing thousands of ready-to-launch MVPs.

• Your expectations from them are sound
• The scope is flexible in terms of maintenance or scaling
• Talent and requirements are on-demand and easily reduced or increased

3. Faster Time-to-market: You can implement their suggestions and get a competitive edge before your competitors have finished hiring for key development positions. The secret to stealing the show is to deliver your MVP quickly enough to meet consumer demand.

• You can iterate pretty quickly.
• Your work and prudence are pretty evident when you start going for seed rounds and funding.

4. Reduced Attrition Costs: Great developers are hard to come by. Less so are talented and driven ones. Outsourcing your MVP development enables you to realise your ideas, comprehend user input, and advance your development without fear of losing out on developers.

Conclusion

Creating an MVP is like crossing a mountain on your way to building a successful startup or a product. Once you have crossed this mountain, the following steps will only be a walk in the park.