Effective steps and important reminders for launching a minimally viable product (MVP) for your SaaS application, without overinvestment in the wrong resources.

1. Efficient & effective SaaS MVP
development.
A guide by Married2Growth.

2. Efficient SaaS minimally viable product
(MVP) development takes imagination,
discipline, process
and—above all—customer feedback.

3. User feedback on actual software is incredibly valuable.
The sooner you can get that feedback, the better.
The more SaaS MVP development you do without
user feedback—the more you’ll have to redo later.

4. Here are some simple tips for cutting
through the delays and distractions that
may arise as you prepare your MVP for
alpha-testing and release.

5. 1. Don’t waste time.
Rapidly iterating your MVP based on user
feedback is critical to getting to something you
can release as a public or invitation-based alpha.
If your rapid iteration phase extends too long
because of retooling an MVP that was too deep,
you are likely to cost yourself time-to-market
(and revenue).
The goal should always be to reduce your time-
to-revenue, contain your engineering budget,
and improve your customer retention.
Do this by sticking to a tight MVP and getting
faster feedback from actual users.

6. 2. Listen carefully.
The challenge that comes with seeking user feedback is
learning which bits to discard, and which bits to iterate back
into the product.
The more cycles you can execute, the faster you can get to
something that’s feature-complete for alpha.
But how do you decide what is “feature-complete”?
Listen very closely to what your customers say, without blindly
doing everything they ask.
Carefully consider their words, and look for the commonalties,
patterns and repetition in the feedback you get.
When problems with enough critical mass arise—cycle
through solutions and put them back into the product before
entering into another round of feedback.

7. 3. Keep it simple.
It’s not uncommon when designing your MVP to feel
tempted to develop it to the point of looking nearly finished.
This can be unnecessary—and here’s why:
The most critical feedback to get back quickly is function and
user experience (UX). The user interface (UI) investment you
make before your basic value prop and UX are validated with
users is a premature waste of time and money.
You can field a functional MVP far faster with off-the-shelf,
prototype-standard UI (that still looks good) and then apply
your amazing, differentiated design after your rapid iteration.
However, it’s a good idea to shorten your overall dev cycle by
running your UI work in parallel with your MVP.
Just don’t co-mingle the two.
You can design and mock your UI system outside of your
MVP and then merge it in when you’re feature stable.
This process is much quicker and more efficient.

8. 4. Keep the customer
in mind.
It’s important not to lose sight of the customer’s needs when
developing your MVP.
Too often you’ll see MVPs that feel by and for the engineer or
CEO, and as a result have failed to meet the basic needs of the
intended audience.
While it can be resource-consuming to ensure your MVP has a
user experience that aligns with target expectations, it is critical
to getting valuable feedback—and is well-worth the time and
effort.
You’ll know immediately if you’ve succeeded in this or not
because the customer will either get it right away, or they won’t.
Unfortunately, if they don’t find it discoverable, you may have a
long road ahead to retool things enough to make it approachable
to them. This is another great reason to keep things moving and
get feedback fast.

9. Keep it simple, agile and user-focused.
Rapid iteration based on user feedback is critical to launching
fast and with a solid market fit.

10. Follow these simple steps to develop your own
efficient and effective user-friendly MVP today.
You can do it.

11. Inspired by…
Want more?
These slides were inspired by “SaaS MVP Development Process Management” on the Married2Growth blog.
Visit us for more stuff like this!

12. Thank you!
We hope this was helpful, and we’d love to hear from you!
info@married2growth.com

13. THE BUSINESS OF SaaS