How to evaluate a Minimum Viable Product

I´m sure you’ve probably heard about Minimum Viable Products by now. There are many articles out there, including this one, that discuss what minimum viable products are and how to build them. 

Would you like to how to evaluate a minimum viable product? It’s not as difficult as it may sound. Read on to find out how to evaluate a minimum viable product.

Why is evaluating a Minimum Viable Product important?

Whether you’re the one building the minimum viable product, or you’re someone looking to invest in one, it’s important to know why evaluating them is important. After all, why would a product that isn’t finished be a great way to verify whether or not a product is viable?

The thing is, a Minimum Viable Product isn’t an “unfinished” product. Instead, it’s a way to verify that the final iteration is a success. For the company testing the product, it’s important to know if investing the time and resources into a product is worth it. 

There’s nothing worse than spending months trying to find an investor, only to have your idea flop. As an investor, you don’t want the products you take a chance on to lose your money in the long run. 

Taking the time to really make sure a product is not only viable but also sustainable is crucial in any business relationship. Now that you know why evaluation is important. Let’s look at ways to do so.

3 ways to evaluate a minimum viable product

Now that we know why evaluation of a Minimum Viable Product is important, here’s three different ways to determine whether or not a product is viable.

1. Emails

Sending emails to customers, or looking at the statistics of emails received, is a helpful way to determine the viability of a product or service. For example, as the company creating the Minimum Viable Product, taking the time to write up an engaging email about the product, with links to a landing page, is a simple and effective way to determine whether or not there’s interest in the product. 

Looking at the email metrics, and sharing them with potential investors, allows you to know if there is interest in the product and what may, or may not, be driving people to click on the links. If there’s interest in the links, there’s interest in the product.

2. A/B testing

To build off of emails, you can use A/B testing (subjecting different groups of people to one of two versions of the same email or product) to further verify what works, or what doesn’t. 

In emails, this may mean you change the subject of the email, or even some of the email itself, to determine what excites potential customers more. If you’re doing separate iterations of the product itself, this is a great way to gain specific insight into why something works or not. 

If the prices or two high or the way to sign up is confusing, making minor changes to the product can help hone in on what you should do with the final product. For investors, this means you can get a better understanding of the life cycle of the product. 

3. Customer interviews and/or feedback

If you have the time and resources to individually interview customers and organizing the feedback into easily understandable feedback, then this is the best way to determine if a product is worth investing in. 

Asking customers explicitly what they liked and disliked about your product means you’ll have concrete proof for your decision. If customers aren’t loving the product, it’s time to revise your idea or pass on investing. If they’re raving about the product, then you should strike while the iron’s hot. Regardless, you don’t want to invest in a product too early or pass on one that someone else will scoop up.

Where to go from here?

After verifying that a Minimum Viable Product is worth investing in, the next step is to look for people to invest in your product. Or, if you’re looking to invest in a product, you need to look for those that are looking for someone to back them. 

Sure, you could go around and scope out each relationship individually, but that takes up more of your valuable time. Instead, why not check out Finnovating, the site that can help link companies with investors to help solve the world’s problems?

The Finnovating platform can help you connect with all types of investment opportunities by bringing you directly into the FinTech ecosystem. The Marketplace is like Amazon, but for investors. In one click they take care of offering the best rated suppliers adapted to your company so that you can scale and grow with them.