What it is
The minimum working version of a product: only what is impossible to launch without. It tests the idea on real customers in weeks rather than months and grows from their feedback.
How we use it
The studio's own products started as MVPs: the VPN service with a bot, the player, the laser tag system. We suggest the same to clients: launch small, measure, extend.
Where an MVP helps a business
- The idea has not been tested yet, and investing in the "full version" straight away is scary.
- You have to launch by a date, and not everything planned will be ready by then.
- It is unclear which features customers really need and which only look good on paper.
How we use it
That is how both the studio's own products and client projects started:
- Manual payment instead of acquiring. In the subscription-sales bot the customer sends a receipt screenshot and an admin approves it with a button. No payment system has to be connected to start selling.
- Plans without payment. UNLOCK does not accept payments yet: plans are assigned manually with an invitation code. Even so, the service runs in production and onboards clients.
- One task, one file. Version 1.0.0 of the birthday bot keeps everything in a single SQLite file, and its limitations are honestly listed: the name and date cannot be edited after adding, and there are no migrations.
- A player grown in releases. OshaPlay evolves release by release: by version 0.10.0, fake detection, playlists and an audiobook section had grown around the direct DAC output, the audiobooks arriving in 0.10.0 itself.
We offer clients the same: launch small, measure, expand. The scope of the first version is discussed in the free audit.
What happens without one
- Months of development without feedback. The product comes out big and expensive, and then it turns out half the features are not needed.
- The whole deadline is missed. Instead of a working part by the date, there is nothing.
When you do not need it
If the task is clear in full and there is nothing to test, such as moving a site to a new CMS with the same pages, there is no point in splitting it into an MVP and "later". And an MVP is no excuse to skimp on security: passwords, backups and access rights are done from the start.