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How to prioritize features for your MVP?

Prioritizing MVP features and obtaining a proof-of-concept should have been included in evaluating client demand from the beginning. A CB Insights analysis found that 42% of new businesses fail because they incorrectly assess the market’s needs. According to current statistics, the sad reality is that roughly 90% of startups fail due to this.

The choice of MVP software development features significantly impacts achieving entrepreneurial goals. How are the features for your MVP defined? Determining which ones will be included in a trial software release is essential because you can’t have all of them. The following sections will explain how to classify and order MVP software development features and summarize the techniques used to prioritize product features. Keep on reading to learn more!

What is feature prioritization?

Before we start, we need to define a minimal viable product (MVP) in case you are unfamiliar with MVP software development. A minimum viable product (MVP) is a crude and unfinished version of a product created to test market acceptance and attract funding from investors. The feature set of an MVP should unequivocally demonstrate its distinct benefits to users to make the right impression on stakeholders and consumers. Companies can save tons of money and time by MVP software development and testing it first. 

MVP feature prioritization models

The experts at cloud consulting services employ various techniques and strategies to categorize features, but no universally accepted system exists. The best practices for prioritizing product features are shown below.

Feature Priority MatrixThis simple and straightforward tool aids in helping you decide which features to prioritize for your app. The factors along which the features are graded on the matrix’s two axes include

  • Resource Intensity: How resource-intensive does it seem that this feature will be implemented?
  • Impact: How useful it is to your clients and how significant it is from a commercial standpoint.
  • Risk: The potential difficulty of putting this feature into use.

Place your MVP features into the following four categories:

  • Must-haves: The functions that are the least dangerous and absolutely vital.
  • Can-be-done: The less significant changes that might be made in later MVP versions.
  • Nice-to-haves: Although not very significant, these features distinguish your goods from the competition. According to the cloud consulting services experts, they should be added to the following version because the expenses and dangers of their development make them unsuitable for MVP software development.
  • Time wastage: It includes both high-risk and low-impact elements.

After the initial MVP release, when you have user feedback, you may reevaluate the features and categorize them differently.

  1. Feature Buckets

Cloud consulting services experts employ another categorization method when deciding how to prioritize software features. The features are divided into three primary types, which are referred to as “buckets”:

  • Customer requests: Users expressly requested features, such as a recording option in video chat software.
  • Metric movers: These functions will improve the KPIs of your apps, such as user engagement, client satisfaction, and revenue. The most valuable features will be in this bucket; thus, it needs to be adequately stocked as per the experts at various cloud consulting services.
  • Delights: These are small yet appealing elements like unique stickers or emoticons.
  1. Moscow Matrix

This methodology is typically employed to rank attributes’ importance for an MVP. It divides the product aspects into logical divisions in the same way as the models mentioned above:

  • Must-haves: These are the key characteristics of your product that essentially make it work. Your app wouldn’t function without these features, or its absence would jeopardize its security.
  • Should-haves: These functions are less crucial but are nevertheless very significant. Even though your MVP software development will function without them, you shouldn’t exclude them.
  • Could-haves: The early product version might do without these adorable tiny extras, but they give your MVP a unique personality.
  • Not this time: These are the features that you absolutely know won’t be included in your MVP software development but that you want to have in the finished product of your app.
  1. Kano model

The user-centered strategy for ranking product features on a minimum viable product. The characteristics it establishes for the MVP feature list include

  • Threshold features are those that guarantee your app’s functionality and are most commonly anticipated by consumers.
  • Performance: As per the experts at various cloud consulting services, these characteristics will significantly improve user experience.
  • Excitement: The features are designed to create excitement by being unexpected by consumers.
  1. Relative Weighting Prioritization

This strategy combines the two earlier techniques to determine the worth of any specific MVP feature. Since the value is calculated mathematically, the MVP software development team can quickly determine how crucial each feature is. This approach also considers the consequences of leaving out a specific feature. More specifically, the elements considered include

  • Benefit: The advantages that would result from implementing this feature.
  • Penalty: The consequences of failing to implement it.
  • Cost – The price tag associated with creating this feature.
  • Risk: Potential difficulties that its progress may present.

However, this method’s application needs active participation from the development team and the client. The equation to determine the value of features is (Penalty score + Benefit score) / (Risk score + Cost score). 

To conclude

Although the variety of strategies may be overwhelming, you can employ some of them to be effective, as per the experts at various cloud consulting services. Make your end users a priority no matter which approaches you go with because their approval will determine the success of your MVP software development. Make sure your assessment of MVP features is balanced, and engage a variety of people in your product discovery team to give you a wider perspective. You may still have a lot of questions, for sure. We at VoxturrLabs are prepared to lend you a hand.