Types of MVPs: A Deep Dive into Different Approaches for Minimum Viable Product Development

The goal of an MVP (minimum viable product) is to validate a product idea quickly and to find out if people are willing to pay for your product. 

But how can you predict whether your solution will succeed and deliver a positive return on investment?

It’s rational to validate the idea with minimal time, money, and effort before developing a full-featured product. Thus lowering the risk of overinvestment. 

This is the reason why many experienced entrepreneurs solemnly swear to an MVP development approach.

Using MVP Development to Minimize Failure Risks

There’s no guarantee that any product idea will succeed but by starting with an MVP, you minimize the risk of investing heavily in a product that might not be a hit.

According to CB Insights research, the main reason why startups fail is because there is no market need for their product. 

source: CB Insights

The MVP development approach provides the best way to mitigate this risk by starting a small set of features and improving the product based on customer feedback. 

Which Type of MVP is Right for You?

There are many types of MVPs designed to fit different budgets and objectives. 

This guide will provide an in-depth understanding of the MVP concept and help you identify the type that best aligns with your specific goals.

Each type serves a specific purpose and strategy for validating your product idea, and understanding these options can help you choose the best approach for your own development process. 

MVP Feature Prioritization

Before picking an MVP type, we highly recommend running your product idea through one of the feature prioritization frameworks for your idea.

Evaluating each feature against the goal of your MVP will help you determine which features are essential and which can be postponed for future development. 

Most popular feature prioritization frameworks:

• RICE Framework
• MoSCoW Method
• Value vs. Complexity Matrix
• Kano Model
• Story Mapping

This process will help you set clear priorities, making it much easier to choose the MVP type that best suits your needs.

Low-Fidelity vs. High-Fidelity MVP

Broadly speaking, all MVPs fall into two categories: low-fidelity and high-fidelity. 

Low-fidelity

Low-fidelity MVPs are simple and easy to develop. The goal of developing a low-fidelity MVP is to analyze the customer challenges and check if there is a demand for your product. 

They're usually used to validate an idea before any significant investment.  

High-fidelity

High-fidelity MVPs are complex and require more resources for development. 

They are ideal when you have a well-defined target audience and a clear problem to solve.

The goal of developing a high-fidelity MVP is to get initial users to use it, and then make further iterations based on the customer's feedback. 

The core of the high-fidelity MVP iteration process is the build-measure-learn loop.
 

Source: RubyGarage 

This development strategy allows your team to validate (or invalidate) product assumptions and learn how your target users react and experience your product's core functionality.

Low-Fidelity vs. High-Fidelity MVP

Types of MVPs

The “The Fake Door” MVP

Technically, the "Fake Door" MVP isn't truly an MVP. 

It's more of an idea-testing strategy. This is because there is no actual app, product, or service for users to interact with.

The “The Fake Door” MVP is usually a website or a landing page, made as if the product was real and fully functional. 

Once a visitor is convinced and wants to try the product, they are met with a "coming soon" or "work-in-progress" notice. 

Source: five.agency

The goal of a fake door MVP is validation without implementation. 

It helps you assess market interest before investing time and resources into developing an actual product.

A positive response from potential users can indicate demand for your app, signaling that it’s time to begin development.

“The Fake Door” MVP is also called an “audience building MVP” because it helps you build an actual audience of customers. 

How It Works

Create a webpage, landing page, or ad that promotes a product or feature that doesn't exist.

When users click on it, they’re redirected to a page where they learn that the product isn’t yet available, but they can sign up for updates or be notified when it launches.

Benefits

• Building a landing page or ad campaign is way less expensive than developing the actual product or feature.
• You get instant feedback on whether there’s enough interest in a product or feature before investing in it.

Drawbacks

• If not communicated properly, users may feel deceived, which can damage their perception of your product.
• While you validate demand, you don’t get feedback on actual product features or design.

Ideal for

• Testing ideas or features before committing to full development.
• Quickly gauging interest in a product or feature with minimal investment.
   

Here is a great example of a "fake door" MVP from Buffer - the most popular tool for social media management tool. 

Landing page

The landing page MVP is similar to the "Fake Door" MVP in the fact that the actual product doesn't exist yet. 

However, they differ in the way that the landing page invites users to join the waiting list, clearly communicating that the product is not yet ready to be used. 

This way you can validate the market and ready pool of initial users when you launch your app. 

How It Works

You create a simple website or landing page that highlights the core benefits of your product.

The page might include a short description, product visuals, and an email signup form or pre-order button.

After launching the page, you analyze user behavior. For example, how many people signed up, how many clicked through, and whether they were interested in learning more or purchasing.

Benefits

• It's very cost-effective. Building a landing page requires little time and minimal resources, especially with website builders like WordPress or Wix.
• Ideal for market demand validation, in case you get a high number of sign-ups or pre-orders indicating strong market interest.

Drawbacks

• You can test only the concept, and not user behavior or product features.
• Doesn’t validate the product’s functionality. The landing page doesn’t provide real feedback on usability or the core features of the product.

Ideal for

• Testing initial interest in a product before development begins.
• Gaining a sense of whether people are willing to pay for the product before you build it.

Below is an example of a landing page MVP from taskmatix.

Source: apexure

Email campaign

An email campaign MVP is another variation of the fake door method. 

But instead of using landing pages it's based on, you guessed it, email.

This MVP involves sending a promotional email to potential users, informing them about your app, its features, and benefits.

The goal is to assess interest in your app before you begin development.

This approach offers many of the same benefits as the fake door MVP and landing page MVP, with some added advantages. 

For example, sending emails is quicker than creating a landing page.

Users on your email list tend to be more engaged than random visitors, often resulting in better feedback than what you'd get from a landing page.

Additionally, with proper segmentation, you can target specific groups more precisely.

For instance, sending an email about a guitar app to a list of guitar enthusiasts will provide more relevant insights.

However, to use an email campaign MVP effectively, you need an existing mailing list. This makes it less suitable for startups without users and more ideal for established companies looking to launch a new feature or app.

Benefits

• Relatively cheap and quick to implement.
• Targets a specific, relevant audience.
• Enables direct interaction with each customer.

Drawbacks

• Requires an existing email list of target users.
• Email campaigns often have low conversion rates, which can affect the results.
• Works best when combined with a landing page MVP or other methods as a follow-up step.

Ideal for

• To validate your value proposition with an existing customer base.
• To assess whether your customers are interested in a new feature or product.

Below is an example from Marketing Examples email MVP. 

Source: codica

Marketing campaign

The marketing campaign MVP utilizes all the free and paid digital marketing methods available today. 

The goal of marketing campaign MVP is to validate the idea by approaching broad audiences. 

It's one of the best ways to get an answer to the most important question: "Will my product sell?".

On top of that it allows you to test different types of tone, messaging, and general branding and discover what appeals most effectively to your target audience.

Additionally, social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram allow you to target specific demographics, helping you reach your audience more effectively.

Google Ads enables you to display ads for searches related to your MVP or the problem it aims to address.

In essence, you start by focusing on a marketing campaign instead of building an MVP.  

Benefits

• Helps identify which aspects of your product resonate most with customers.
• Offers flexibility in targeting specific demographics and audience parameters.
• Ideal for conducting split tests and gathering detailed marketing insights.

Drawbacks

• Requires expertise in marketing analytics.
• Running comprehensive ad campaigns may require a financial investment.
• Provides limited exposure, it's best used for testing ideas and understanding your target market.

Ideal for

• When exploring your target audience and understanding the preferences of potential customers.

Single-feature MVP

When we're talking about types of MVPs, single feature MVP comes the closest to the traditional meaning of MVP.

Single-feature MVP is a product that's made to solve the single most prominent problem of your target audience. 

Instead of creating a product with multiple features, you build and launch only the most critical element that addresses the primary user pain point.

This allows you to validate the idea and market need for such a solution.

It is less expensive and time-consuming than creating a fully-featured solution. 

While it solves a specific problem for customers, it needs to perform exceptionally well. 

This will serve as your product's first introduction to the market, and how users experience it will shape your product's reputation over time.

How it works

You identify the one feature that addresses the primary need of your target audience and build only that feature.

For instance, if you are building a fitness app, you might focus on creating a single feature like tracking workouts or calorie counting.

The idea is to concentrate all your resources on perfecting one single feature that delivers core value to the users.

Benefits

• By limiting the scope to just one feature, you can launch much faster.
• It will be easier to test, refine, and improve a single feature rather than a full-fledged product.
• Your users will give direct feedback on the core value of your product.

Drawbacks

• The single feature doesn't provide a full product experience that might cause user dissatisfaction or confusion.
• The users may expect more, so that should be communicated well and transparently that the product is still a work in progress.

Ideal for

• The product is at an early stage of development where the main purpose is to validate one particular concept or feature.
• Startups want to focus on doing one thing that solves a major user problem.

Uber is a perfect example of a single-feature MVP, in the beginning, Uber used to offer users to get a ride from point A to point B.

source: AppInstitute

Pre-order MVP

The Pre-order MVP is mostly based on crowdfunding.

Where a large number of individuals order a product before it is developed. 

A pre-order MVP is usually done through a marketing campaign. 

The goal of the marketing campaign is to invite interested users to purchase your product in advance.

It's usually done through crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe.

A great example of a crowdfunded pre-order MVP is the card game Exploding Kittens. 

Here is the Exploding Kittens' promotional video from Kickstarted:

The idea of selling the product before even starting sounds great but it carries certain risks.

For example, you need to ensure that the end product's quality and usability meet the expectations of customers who have already invested in your project.

How It Works

You create a landing page or a crowdfunding campaign showcasing your product and offer it at a discounted rate or with special perks for early backers.

For example, customers place pre-orders, providing both validation of interest and funding for the production of the actual product.

The pre-order model can be applied to both physical and digital products.

Benefits

• Pre-orders allow you to get immediate validation since they're a direct indicator of demand for your product.
• The money raised from pre-orders can be used to finance further product development or manufacturing.
• You’ll build a loyal group of early adopters who are invested in your product from the start.

Drawbacks

• Pre-order customers are putting faith in a product that hasn’t been built yet, which can be risky.
• You need a solid marketing strategy to drive pre-orders and create excitement around your product.

Ideal for

• Validating demand for physical products or products with longer development timelines.
• Generating funds upfront to continue product development.

Concierge MVP

The Concierge MVP is one of the most hands-on MVP approaches. 

Instead of building a fully automated product, you deliver the service manually to your users. 

It allows you to test your core product idea without the need for complex technology. 

The "concierge" approach is particularly useful when your product involves a service or requires customization.

But, make sure your manual services are going to be 100% reflected in the actual product.

How It Works

In the Concierge MVP, you create a basic version of the service where every part of the product experience is delivered manually.

For instance, if you are creating an app to help people plan their meals, you could manually create meal plans for customers and provide personalized recommendations.

Your users interact with a highly personalized service, but the back-end operations are done manually, often behind the scenes by you or your team.

Benefits

• Since you aren’t building full-scale systems or infrastructure, this MVP can be set up quickly and with minimal investment.
• You directly interact with users, so you can gather deep insights into their pain points, preferences, and needs.
• This approach allows you to make quick changes to your service or product as you receive feedback.

Drawbacks

• Since every user interaction is done manually, it can quickly become overwhelming as the customer base grows.
• The concierge model isn’t designed for large-scale businesses without considerable automation.

Ideal for

• Services where personalization is key (e.g., consulting, meal planning, travel planning).
• Validating an idea before automating or scaling it.

A perfect example of a concierge MVP is an AirBnb. In the beginning, the founders of Airbnb were renting a bad in their own apartment and their website was targeting the attendees of an upcoming design conference. 

Wizard of Oz MVP

The Wizard of Oz MVP is a more sophisticated version of the Concierge MVP.

In this approach, your users interact with what seems like a fully automated system, but in reality, there is a human behind the scenes handling the work.

This is useful when you want to simulate a product experience before fully developing it.

Unlike Concierge MVP, users do not know about it.

Here is a great video that perfectly illustrates how wizard of oz MVP works:

How It Works

You build a simple interface or website that allows users to interact with your product or service as if it’s fully automated.

However, instead of the product operating automatically, there’s a person behind the scenes manually performing tasks (e.g., fulfilling requests, providing information, etc.).

Over time, you can observe how users engage with the product and decide which features should be automated for the final version.

Benefits

• You can observe how users engage with a fully functioning interface, even though the back-end is manual.
• You can quickly test different features and see which ones users engage with most.
• It allows you to save money on full-scale automation or product development while still testing the core idea.

Drawbacks

• Like the Concierge MVP, the Wizard of Oz approach isn’t scalable in the long term because it requires significant manual input.
• The fully developed MVP should fully resemble the service from when it was executed by humans.

Ideal for

• Complex products or services that require significant back-end functionality but don’t need full automation initially.
• Testing customer behavior and interactions with a service before automating it.

Conclusion

Choosing the right type of MVP depends on your business model, product complexity, resources, and the stage you're in. 

By selecting the right approach, you can save time, money, and effort while gathering valuable user insights that can help shape your final product.