How to Nail MVP Design with UX Design Principles that Work

Lean UX Design is a way of thinking about product creation, guided by certain principles that have produced some of the world’s most influential and successful products. Spotify, for example, was built using the Lean UX Design methodology.

The following are seven guidelines that will help you create better software based on UX Design principles, infused throughout the Lean UX Design philosophy.

• Focus on the actual user needs

  There’s a core concept in modern product development that guides most successful product creation efforts: There is more innovation out in the world than in your meeting rooms.

  In other words, consumers know what frustrates them, and the next big idea for a successful product lies in addressing their frustrations and solving their problems. Build a product with your customers in mind, and design your core features (and every subsequent set of features you introduce) around their needs.

  Of course, drawing a line between what we think the user needs and what the user actually needs can be challenging. We may think we’ve figured out what the user wants, but it later turns out to be something else entirely. Hence, you should start by challenging your assumptions about user needs.

  One efficient approach is to focus on their pain points. That’s where research plays a crucial role. Here’s how you can approach the research:

  • Ask yourself what problem your target customers are facing and how you can solve it
  • Check out the existing apps and see which problems they fail to solve
  • Talk to people who are going to use your product. They know better what they need

  For example: Suppose you’re thinking of creating a to-do list app. Now, instead of automatically assuming you need to create an app for to-do lists, determine the customers’ major problems. Perhaps, it’s forgetting something important or wasting mental energy keeping track of things.

  Once you have the answer, you can devise an effective solution for their problem. To ensure your solution works, test it with real people. This way, you can put your time, effort, and money into a product that works for your customers.

• Do a few things, but do them well

  In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what’s important to them.

  — Austin Kleon

  The crux of an MVP lies in this statement: An MVP is a probe for feedback on your vision. A probe is defined as an attempt to discover information by asking a lot of questions. And that makes sense in the case of an MVP.

  When building a probe, the major challenge is to strike a balance between speed of delivery and quality of execution. Entrepreneurs face the common challenge of distilling their vision, narrowing an abundance of ideas down to just a few. To achieve this goal, learn to say “no.”

  List things you will not do during the MVP Development Process. It helps streamline the design process as everyone will have a clear idea of what resides in the product’s core. In this way, you can make better decisions and not take your eye off the target. Agreeing on a specific UX design process for product development can be a great way to make smarter and quicker decisions.

  Feature prioritization in MVP is the act of evaluating which features to focus on building, and there are a number of feature prioritization techniques that can help you choose where to spend your time and resources.

  One excellent feature prioritization tool is the feature prioritization matrix, which involves creating a chart that categorizes features according to two key factors: Impact and Risk. Risk, in software development describes the challenges you may face along with the resources required to develop a feature.

  Ideally, you should focus on creating features with the highest impact but minimal risk. Of course, if your core feature set is high-risk but so impactful that it defines your product, then you have no choice but to create it.

  
• Consider both your findings and the users’ needs

  To create an MVP, most designers start with a list of features and product needs. While that’s not a bad place to start, you should also be mindful of what customers want from your product.

  Knowing what customers want is not difficult. You can conduct interviews, surveys, and brainstorming sessions. Discussion forums and platforms like Quora and Reddit are also great places to start. Once you have enough ideas, compile them into a list and narrow down which ideas are technically feasible. Then, based on this information, you can start building your MVP.

  Note: While listing the features customers want in your product, make sure the list doesn’t just include good ideas. Sometimes, bad ideas can also lead to innovative solutions.

• Keep it simple

  “Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

  — Albert Einstein

  A Minimum Viable Product acts as a “waste-reduction tool,” but often, startups mistake an MVP for quick, sloppy design and shift their focus away from a user-centric approach. One vital factor that gets sacrificed in this approach is visual design.

  Visual design starts to play a role in the first phase of MVP Development: idea validation. In this stage, an entrepreneur attempts to validate a business idea before proceeding.

  As noted by Buffer’s founder Joel Gascoigne, one way to do this is to use a simple yet interactive and visually pleasing landing page that asks users to leave details if they’re interested in the value proposition. Rather than launching a product he hadn’t validated, he used a simple, aesthetic landing page to learn what users thought.

  The design doesn’t need to be stunning, with cutting-edge visual effects. Instead, the design of a Minimum Viable Product should stand on the basic principles of visual design: Unity, balance, hierarchy, proportion, emphasis, and contrast.

  A design that meets all these requirements helps the user understand the product easily, achieving a good first impression and building trust.

• Make your MVP usable

  Both Lean UX and MVP development encourage building usable products. As such, you should ensure that your product’s MVP solves real customer needs.

  Start with listing features that solve users’ most critical pain points. Also, avoid stuffing too many features into your MVP. It should only focus on features you think will have the highest ROI. You will iterate in the future based on user feedback and behavior, assuming you validate your idea.

• Stop thinking about the final product

  Thinking about the final product can be tempting. However, the downside is that it can limit innovation and creativity.

  Instead of thinking outside the box, designers may go in with preconceived notions or approaches that save time. This leads to a subpar MVP and a low-quality product. So, stop thinking about the final product and let your creativity run wild. That way, you can work toward an innovative product that offers users what they want.

• Always welcome feedback

  Good user research is key to designing a great User Experience. Designing without good user research is like building a house without solid foundations. Your design will soon start to crumble and eventually fall apart.

  — Neil Turner

  All the best practices linked to Lean UX (measuring and validating a product) and Agile MVP development (fast, iterative delivery) serve two main purposes.

  The first goal is to validate or invalidate a hypothesis (i.e., a potential solution for the market). The second goal is to gather feedback on your product so you can improve it with each iteration. That’s why MVP testing is so vital. It helps you evaluate user behavior and determine what they’re looking for in your solution.

  To maximize the benefits of gathering feedback, follow these tips:

  • Test your prototypes on the right people
  • Be neutral when presenting your ideas
  • Ask the right questions
  • Let the user contribute ideas

  All this data from your early adopters will help you validate your idea and create a powerful product, improving each iteration to serve your customer base.