Creating a Successful MVP: Should You Build Multiple Versions or Focus on One?

When you decide to launch an innovative product that has no analogs on the market, it is crucial to understand how to properly present it to its target audience. This applies not only to the marketing strategy but also to the design of the product, its functionality, and many other aspects that are important to be performed correctly when end users are not yet aware of its existence. One of the "least risky" approaches to understanding what the resulting solution should be is to develop a startup MVP. We will talk about how to implement the MVP for startups properly below.

Why Do Startups Often Fail?

Launching a startup is always an attempt to point a finger at the sky: the chances of its success depend on so many and beyond your control factors that to make it successful, you will have to go through a long and difficult road of ups and downs.

An instance of this would be the present statistical information generated in 2023, which asserts that half of all projects do not endure beyond their first five years. In general, these statistics indicate that even when choosing a proven business strategy, the project does not receive guarantees for its success. Indeed, if you launch your project "at the wrong time" or, for example, "for the wrong target audience", the chances of its success will drop dramatically. So how can you protect yourself from possible failures and not spend all the money you have on a deliberately unsuccessful solution? The answer is simple: run the MVP in startups first, test it with end users, and if they accept it, refine it.

Pros of Launching Multiple Versions

First, let’s consider the pros of launching several MVP versions.

More chances for success

Obviously, the more balls you throw, the more likely you are to end up in the net. The same rule applies to MVP development for startup: more attempts mean more chances of success. On the other hand, a thoughtless approach to creating different versions can result in you wasting both time and money, and this will be a significantly larger amount of resources than in the case of launching a single version.

In general, the approach to creating multiple versions of a product boils down to the fact that at the stage of market research, you determine the types of the target audience for which it may be of interest, and create a solution for each of these types, with its own nuances in design, features, market positioning, etc. As a result, after launching all versions, you can come to completely non-obvious conclusions about what your users were satisfied with/dissatisfied with and which of the target groups perceived your startup most positively.

Simultaneous testing

You also have a wonderful opportunity to simultaneously test features that are unique for each of the MVP versions of your startup. This allows you to avoid unnecessary time spent on something that usually takes a lot of time anyway (we mean testing a product on its target audience), which is critical for solutions that need to be launched as soon as possible.

Cons of Launching Multiple Versions

Now, we propose you take a look at the disadvantages of launching multiple MVPs for one solution.

Larger budget

The first drawback you will face in this case of MVP development is that it's much more expensive than developing a single version. At the same time, you must understand that some of the versions will be unsuccessful in the end, so all you get from their creation is insights about their rejection by the target audience. Therefore, before choosing the option of developing several versions, you will have to realize whether you have the necessary funds to conduct such “live testing”.

Need to hire several development teams

Of course, you can use the same team to consistently develop several versions of the MVP, but in this case, all the advantages of this approach are lost since you will not be able to save time, for which, in fact, everything was started.

Therefore, before implementing this idea, you will need to find as many startup development teams as you will create versions of the MVP. This can be a daunting task, both in terms of the hiring process and dealing with multiple independent teams simultaneously.

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Benefits of Launching Only One Version

Along with this, you should not be too afraid to launch just a single version of the MVP – many startups have followed this path and won. The fact is that launching an MVP is always about learning from your own mistakes, so to some extent, you will encounter them both when choosing the previous option and when choosing this one.

Therefore, let's look at the benefits of running a single basic version of your future product.

Cost savings

Running a single MVP is a great way to test your product live with its target audience without spending too much money on its development. As a result, you will gain an understanding of what should be optimized and move further in the right direction.

At the same time, given that you have only one attempt to "hit the bull's eye", you should be especially responsible in choosing the features for the MVP and its design since you will have to please several groups of your target audience at once. This can be quite a challenge, especially when it comes to solutions for mass use.

Only one team to work with

It is always easier to interact with one development team than with several contemporaneously. This will allow you to stay focused on your core business tasks that are not related to launching a startup and, at the same time, save you some nerve since you will not have to give your point of view to several teams at once.

Cons of Launching Only One Version

Finally, let’s consider the drawback of launching only one MVP.

Higher risks to fail

While a failed MVP launch should, in theory, be perceived as "an attempt to optimize your product and figure out exactly what you've done wrong", in reality, it can derail your motivation and, as importantly, the motivation of your investors. 

Thus, with each such failure, you will less and less believe in the success of your startup, and your investors will become less and less willing to allocate new funds for its further development. Therefore, before choosing this option – developing a single version of the MVP – consider how you can prepare yourself and your partners for possible failures. It is wise to do this at the MVP planning stage so that you can timely find ways to effectively solve this problem.

What Option Should You Choose?

In fact, there is no universal recommendation on "how to do better". However, as practice shows, if MVP startups are too "innovative", their owners probably have to make several attempts to test them on the target audience. Also, this approach allows you to reduce the time for testing, which is especially critical for products that need to be launched before a certain date. For example, this line of behavior was once followed by many startups aimed at solving user problems since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic: it was necessary to launch the project as soon as possible until an alternative product appeared on the market that the target audience accepted earlier.

And vice versa, if you decide to create a non-trivial solution for standard problems, one MVP will most likely be enough for you. However, we will tell you again: in the end, you will have to focus on your budget, time frames for a startup process implementation, and many other factors that will favor or, on the contrary, speak against this or that option – launching a single MVP or several at once.

Conclusion

You are in the right place if you are looking for a team that will guide you from defining your project requirements to its deployment and scaling. Our company has successfully launched more than a hundred projects, including startups while devoting more than 240 hours to consulting. Our team consists of both generalists and highly specialized experts who work on projects requiring compliance with certain industry standards. No matter how complex your business idea is, you can be sure that we will cope with its implementation. Contact us right now to discuss your MVP building in detail.