Product Exploration and Testing: Using Agile to Test New Products

If you’re a startup, then you know that creating a successful product is no easy task. It takes time, effort, and lots of hard work. But before you can even start working on your product, you need to do some initial discovery and exploration. Meaning you may need to figure out what your customers want and need and determine which features are the most important to them. After completing this initial research, you can start developing your product.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to product development, there are a few tips that can help make the process smoother and more successful. Using Agile and Lean MVP development methods can help you get your product to market faster and more successfully. We’ve curated advice from top experts in the field, so read on to learn more!

What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

An MVP is a lean startup method to develop your software product’s absolute minimum viable version. An MVP allows you to get out into the world to start getting feedback from customers on what might need changing or improving before you invest more time and resources into developing the product.

The main benefit is letting real users test your products, seeing how they can incorporate them into their daily routine instead of just releasing an unfinished product early. Allowing others to test your product will enable you to make essential changes early on before wasting time building things nobody wants.

MVP was developed by Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, to help startup ventures spend less time building products nobody wants. Just imagine if Facebook had spent years creating their product only to learn that users hated it. That would have been tragic.

For mobile apps, an MVP is generally just the foundation for the application, consisting of the main screens and key functionalities necessary for a basic level of usability. The application often includes core features such as logging in or signing up, adding your first contact, payment details, and more.

Having an MVP for a mobile app is essential because there are no advanced features available yet, so you can’t get too far without running into some serious roadblocks. It also allows you to start looking at data on how people use what you have so far to make adjustments before diving head-first into development.

What is Agile?

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development, published in 2001 and its 12 Principles, provides the foundation for Agile software development. An umbrella term for a collection of frameworks and practices based on the outlined values and principles.

One of the main differences between Agile and other software development methods is emphasizing people engaged in the process. Solutions develop due to collaboration among self-organizing cross-functional teams that employ appropriate strategies in their specific situations.

In the Agile sense, having a “team” is defined as a small group of individuals assigned to the same project or effort, who are nearly all full-time workers. Having a team is vital because Agile is all about increasing development speed. Having a team with this level of transparency and accountability also helps move projects forward in all aspects, not just programming.

Creating teams also helps create accountability. Jeff Sutherland’s Version: “The most important principle in Scrum” is that the development team with both product ownership and development authority must be one, single, multi-skilled, cross-functional team.

In general, most Agile teams prefer an incremental approach; in an Agile setting, this implies that each successive version of the product is usable and improves on the previous one by providing user-perceivable features.

This type of development aims to quickly build different iterations (or slices) of the product and collect feedback about each one. At the end of each iteration, you can assess if your current direction is working or not based on user feedback and then make changes accordingly.

This development framework has proven successful for Agile software programmers and product developers alike. It’s fast, flexible, and highly iterative. Successive versions are built on top of the preceding version’s foundation, with most changes made to each subsequent version by adding new features or deleting needless ones—essentially anything that keeps you from providing the maximum value feasible in a simple way.

How do MVPs fit into Agile Product Development?

MVPs fit into Agile Product Development due to strategic alignment. As is the intent of developing an MVP, Agile is all about delivering working software frequently with rapid iterations. You can utilize this by releasing an early version of your product with only the core features necessary to start seeing how it’s used (the minimum viable product).

Suppose you’ve taken an incremental approach to development. In that case, you’re able to release updates more frequently, allowing you to get feedback from users before investing any more time into the project.

What are the benefits of using Agile / Lean Product Development?

There are many benefits to using Agile methodology or Lean product development for your startup, mainly because it can be applied to any business. It just makes sense to release an MVP first so you can start gathering feedback on whether or not your idea solves a problem people have before sinking tons of time and money into developing something nobody wants.

Another benefit of Agile or Lean development is quickly changing direction if things aren’t progressing as planned. Part of the reason why this method works so well is that it’s designed around trying new ideas quickly, measuring their success, and either doubling down on them or moving onto another concept entirely.

Since many people are talking about this approach nowadays, here are some examples of well-known successful products that utilized MVPs or some Agile / Lean Methodology:

– Twitter launched as a simple tool to share status updates, but they also envisioned a future where people could exchange short messages. By releasing the bare-bones version first, they started seeing how their users incorporated it into their daily lives. Considering this information, they learned how to expand the product over time into what we now know today as one of the most influential social media platforms ever created.

– Dropbox was first released as a minimum viable product back in 2007 and initially only provided file synchronization functionality which allowed you, users, to quickly access data on multiple devices without needing to email files back and forth. But this simple idea quickly caught on, and today Dropbox is one of the most popular file-sharing solutions around.

– Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian created Reddit as a class project while attending the University of Virginia. To keep their idea under wraps, they started building it as an online forum for a fictional company which allowed them to develop something without being bogged down by the risk of someone stealing their concept.

Once ready, Reddit was launched with fundamental functionality and kept things simple enough so that users could quickly figure out how everything worked. The result? Reddit has grown into a powerhouse internet community with over 542 million monthly users.

Agile Software Development & MVP – How do they Work Together?

MVPs are only part of the equation, especially when you have a highly innovative product or are developing something new. Agile software development combined with an MVP approach can be compelling, but it also requires a lot of discipline and patience. If you’re not ready for that type of commitment, perhaps waiting until your idea is more fleshed out would make sense.

Before even thinking about putting together an MVP, you should first identify your goals as an organization and how the short-term will benefit the long term. Then make sure you have enough resources to support this new product development methodology (e.g., hiring/firing people, changing or expanding scope, etc.).

Once you’ve got things sorted out, it’s time to identify the problem your product will solve and for whom. What specific goals do they have? What makes them tick? Start writing down all of their problems, wants, needs and desires. Getting to the bottom of your users’ most significant inconveniences is a critical step that often gets overlooked because people want to jump into development as quickly as possible without thinking it through.

Finally, once you’ve identified your target market and how they will benefit from your product, it’s time to build the actual MVP itself. Agile development means that you plan out milestones within specific time-frames (e.g., six months) vs. having a long, drawn-out timeline that takes 2+ years before getting any proof of concept in front of users (which could fail).

Agile software development can use various methodologies such as Scrum, eXtreme Programming, Kanban, or Waterfall in agile software development. Still, the critical thing is understanding how you want to work together when developing an MVP.

Maybe this means taking turns doing design, coding, or testing, or it might mean that people switch off between working on different aspects. There’s no right or wrong way to go about this so long as you reach your goal promptly and can iterate quickly should any problems occur.

Multiple user feedback and testing rounds are essential parts of agile software development. It provides valuable information that can help guide future iterations, updates, and changes if needed. Remember: The faster your idea improves, the more likely it will be successful – even if it means breaking things down into smaller parts to understand better how they work (e.g., launching an MVP first before adding additional features later).

Here are 5 Agile and Lean Tips for Developing Your Product.

1. Keep It Concise and Focused

Concise means that you should solely build what is necessary to accomplish your goal of validating your idea. The best way to do this is by focusing on the core value you want the da to deliver and abstracting everything else away. However, finding the core value of your product doesn’t necessarily mean you need to make it ugly; it simply means you don’t add anything until it’s necessary.

While some people might be put off by a stripped-down version of an app or a website, remember that you can improve upon it later on down the road. Just think about Facebook: when they first launched in 2004, their MVP was just a bare-bones website with a list of college students who could join.

Then suddenly, a few months later, it exploded and became the phenomenon that we know today. Remember, you can always add more complex features later on, but to get started, all you need is the core value of your product.

2. Keep It Simple

In addition to keeping things concise and focused, keep your MVP simple so that people immediately understand how it works and what they need to do to use it. People don’t want to spend hours learning how to use a new app or website; they want something intuitive and easy-to-use. Make sure every screen has only one purpose and provides a concrete action for users to take. This way, they can accomplish their goal without any confusion or guesswork on their end.

3. Build a Low-Fidelity Prototype

For your MVP to be successful, it needs to look and feel like an actual product, even if it isn’t finished yet. In other words, you need to create a low-fidelity prototype—a basic version of the app or website with certain key features that will give people an idea of what they can expect from the final product.

The most important thing is that you show them something that demonstrates enough future benefit so that they’re willing to provide their feedback and help improve upon it.

Once again, remember not to overdo it because clutter only adds confusion and makes things more difficult for users. So instead of spending time adding unnecessary bells and whistles to your product, concentrate on the core value you want it to deliver.

4. Get Feedback Early and Often

The more feedback you can get from users, the better. You need to constantly seek out their thoughts and opinions about what’s working and what isn’t to make changes accordingly. That way, you’ll be able to create a detailed picture of how people are using your product so that it evolves appropriately.

Remember, the goal of an MVP is not just about releasing an unfinished product; it’s also about learning through iterative development, which means making lots of changes based on user feedback over time. This feedback will allow you to release successive versions of your MVP until it finally becomes polished enough for the mainstream.

5. Always Be Prepared to Pivot

No matter how carefully you plan your MVP and collect user feedback, you’ll eventually face some obstacles that require a change in direction. Pivoting or taking a 180-degree pivot on your idea is entirely normal—in fact, it happens all the time. Just make sure you’re always happy to adjust the course if things aren’t working out exactly as planned.

There’s no such thing as a perfect product; every app and website requires constant improvement and development until it finally achieves mainstream success. So don’t worry: pivoting isn’t an indication that your idea has failed; it just means that you need to change course and retrace your steps to get back on track.

The process of product development is time-consuming and challenging to get right. The best way to go about it is by iterating on a minimal viable product, anything from an app or website with the core value in place to something as simple as a checklist that has only one purpose for users. Your MVP should also ideally have a low-fidelity prototype.

Hence, people know what they’ll be getting when you release your finished version—all while gathering feedback early and often (ideally every couple of weeks), so you’re constantly evolving based on user input. Remember: if things aren’t working out exactly as planned, don’t panic; pivot until you find success!

Suppose you are a startup interested in taking in the information in this article and doing something similar but don’t know where to start. In that case, Maccelerator has endless resources to gear your company up for testing before the vital developmental phases occur. Stay focussed and prepared with our hand-picked advisors and couches to keep you on track!

Visit https://maccelerator.la/en/online-accelerator-program/ to learn more about our startup programs and other helpful resources.