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5 Companies That Nailed Their MVPs

This article is more than 9 years old.

MVP = Minimum Viable Product

The book, Nail It Then Scale It, (NISI Institute, June 2011) written by Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom, is an excellent guide to avoiding the common entrepreneurial pitfall of creating a product that is very exciting, but only in the eyes of the inventor. “Nail the customers’ pain,” the authors advise. “Nail the solution customers are willing to pay for, and avoid the traps of conventional wisdom that lead most entrepreneurs to failure.” I highly recommend this read for anyone contemplating the creation and launch of any new product, service or company. Another indispensable book for the would-be successful entrepreneur is The Lean Startup by Eric Ries (Crown Business, September 2011). In this work, Ries popularizes the concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which has enough value to entice people to pay for it, retains early adopters, and provides a feedback loop to guide future development.The value of both books is embodied in the common-sense practice of getting early and critical information from customers—before spending years and millions developing something that nobody will buy. Here are the stories of five companies that listened to their target markets and nailed their MVPs.

1.  Long before Tessemae’s became a best-selling brand of salad dressings and condiments at Safeway, Costco and Whole Foods, CEO Greg Vetter faced the moment of truth all successful entrepreneurs must deal with: getting that initial product into the hands of that first potential buyer. In this case, it was the buyer for Whole Foods, so the stakes were high and Vetter didn’t have packaging, labeling, bottling or manufacturing set up yet. He did, however, have an appointment with the buyer for Whole Foods. So he did what any entrepreneur would do—he put together his Minimum Viable Product, which in this case was a Tupperware container with some of his mother’s homemade Lemon Garlic salad dressing. That audition got Vetter a chance to launch his salad dressing at an opening of a new Whole Foods store, where he sold a record-breaking 55 cases. The rest is history.

2.  Veerlon’s online and mobile app helps salon and barber shop owners by setting and tracking appointments, sending reminders to clients to reduce no-shows, and keeping records of client preferences. Its product package also includes an instant web-site to each client to help with social media promotion.  Fran Melo, founder of Veerlon, understands how hard it is for business owners to do everything needed to succeed. “Most of us have already been wrong more often than we could count and building something based on our own opinion and not on customer validation is almost like trying to invent the parachute as you fall from an airplane. The chances of your getting it right before hitting the ground are very low.” With nearly half of all hairdressers, barbers and cosmetologists in the United States being self-employed[i], there was a need for a turn-key app that automates appointment and reminders at a low price-point. Having these modern business necessities provided in a single app really is a game changer for small salon owners.

3.  Advanced Events helps companies maximize the ROI of conferences, trade show appearances, company retreats and other engagements. How? Tracing the ROI of marketing dollars. This can be one of the most challenging tasks of any business.  “We solved a pain point both for our clients and our industry,” says Rachel Nielsen, principal partner at Advanced Events. “Organizations were often left wondering about the ROI on their largest marketing budget line item. We solved this problem by developing a diagnostic tool (called “Alignment Advantage”) used up front to align stakeholders with the desired outcome. We talk results first, then hold the event and process accountable to the outcome.” It is still difficult to measure the ROI of such events in percentages, but by planning the event with strategy and goals in mind, the money spent is targeted at certain outcomes and not wasted on unintended, even detrimental, consequences.

4.  If you want to know whether your product solves a problem for your customers, you need feedback from your customers telling you what you got right and what needs improvement. This truism is embraced by Method, a design firm that treats each job as a search for a set of solutions and opportunities for consumers. Employing a combination of deep, holistic design with lean user experience, Method pursues an MVP design quickly to get it into the hands of consumers. According to Method’s Laura Mosca, “Having a framework for rapid decision-making coupled with getting a product into customers’ hands as quickly as possible allows us to evaluate if our plan is accurate, and is an enormously powerful way to design. It gives us speed coupled with strategic discipline, without getting too stuck in our heads or getting too tactical.” The valuable responses they get from end-users allow the design to be revised and refined with accuracy and precision, instead of guessing.

5.  Tango Card launched its latest MVP, called “Rewards Genius,” in early 2014 and so far about 100 enterprise companies have used it. “Rewards Genius is a web-based employee or customer reward platform for sending digital gift cards in real-time,” explains Scotty Greenburg of Tango Card. Tango Card recognized that implementation of elaborate rewards programs was costly, and the alternative of buying bulk gift cards to distribute by hand or mail was inefficient, untimely and generic. So, its MVP is customized with company branding at no charge, takes only minutes to send, and in the case of employee rewards, maintains a database of rewarded behavior in report form for its clients. The only cost is the face value of the gift card.  Perhaps there is more that Rewards Genius could do, but the services provided meet the requirements of “minimum viable product.”

Whatever your product or service, make sure you get something in front of your customers early in your development cycle so you can get the feedback you need to nail it before you try to scale it, through the use of your minimum viable product.   [i] http://www.sbdcnet.org/small-business-research-reports/beauty-salon-2014

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