SaaS(Software as a service) startup aims to solve genuine public problems, and starting a SaaS startup involves many crucial decision-makings to achieve the desired goals. One of the many challenges for a SaaS startup making the right choice of opting whether to go with a Minumum Viable Product(MVP) or opt for complete product development is the primary one. Let us check and discuss the benefits and options one can consider when choosing the best of the two when starting a company that focuses on SaaS product development.
Minimum Viable Product(MVP)
Product purpose
Businesses develop MVPs to deliver the product’s core functionality and find the value proportion with minimal features and resources. This process validates the product idea, and its execution aligns with the user requirements. Gathering feedback from the early adopters helps refine the idea if needed and adds suggestions to meet user expectations of the product.
Quicker release
SaaS MVP usually takes less time, resources, and capital than full product development. Getting ready with the MVP and deploying it into the market allows businesses to reach more users and gather valuable user feedback to derive insights early on and work on improving the application to deliver services effectively.
Risk mitigation
Most of the product success is entirely in the hands of customers, and investing significant resources and capital in a product that is unsure about customer satisfaction involves the risk of losing time and money. SaaS MVP development is handy when introducing a new product and taking consistent feedback. User validation can help you iterate the development process by making informed decisions before starting an entire product development cycle.
Iterative Development
As MVPs take lesser time and resources, the primary objective is to perform iterative development based on user feedback and suggestions for every version release. Focusing on the core features and functionalities, an MVP can serve users with primary features and allows businesses to collect valuable insights to refine the product goals and features. Observing the user engagement with the MVP, we can understand what features users find the most valuable and what needs a revisit, thus prioritizing the development accordingly.
Limited functionality
The limited functionality of the MVPs validates the users’ assumptions, engaging with the essential features of the complete product. Listing all the product features, MVPs accommodate core functionalities one after the other, and every iteration gives opinions about the users’ assumptions, which helps us revisit the product preferences and prioritize or shuffle the list for the next release.
Early user acquisition
Launching an MVP allows businesses to start serving audiences and acquire early adopters. This procedure will ensure the businesses build a user base and establish a brand presence immediately, offering the right business solutions. The early response by the users will generate buzz around the product, which in turn helps businesses attract investors and secure significant funding.
Full Product Development
A Complete Solution
Complete product development takes time to develop a fully functional application that enables users to utilize the app to its full potential, unveiling all the features and functionalities. Allows users to explore every functionality, making it a complete solution to the problem statement available in the market.
Competitive Advantage
A fully functional product gives businesses a competitive advantage over developing mvp. Users exploring fully developed products will experience a complete and differentiated solution than that of MVPs or early-stage development products, whose further development relies entirely on user feedback of applications developed so far.
More market reach
A fully functional product caters to a more comprehensive range of audience and their preferences, allowing businesses to target broader market segments. As the number of audiences using the application increases, it brings diverse insights that help businesses to adopt customer-seeking changes for the next application version.
Resource intensive
Complete product development needs more time and effort of many resources when compared to MVP development. The team involves many areas to develop for the next release; businesses must hire resources with expertise in different fields, such as planning, design, implementation, testing, deployment, and post-sales maintenance.
Validating Product
MVPs only validate the core concept of the product idea; complete product development allows businesses for additional market validation. Providing more features to the users in the applications allows the development team to gather more feedback from a more extensive user base which draws deeper insights into the user preferences, market trends, and suggestions for the product features.
Investor Appeal
A fully functional SaaS application will impress investors as it demonstrates all the product features and is a market-ready solution. The product acts as a marketer unveiling its full potential to attract more prominent investors for funding and opportunities to expand product reach.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or Full Product Development
Choosing between the minimum viable product or complete product development depends upon various factors. Starting a SaaS startup includes many focus areas, like resource availability, analyzing the competitive landscape, and addressing project objectives. Market research helps calculate the finances, risks, and time to market. MVPs are helpful for applications entirely new to the market, and the company is still determining the project’s success. At the same time, FPD helps launch a product that will add more value to the users than the products in use. Your project objectives ultimately decide which approach to follow for better product development, lowering the risks, and launching a great SaaS product into the market.
