An Intro to No-Code MVPs

Minimum viable products (MVPs) are an excellent way to test-drive your next great application idea. Here’s how no-code can help you rapidly build effective MVPs.

When you have a brilliant enterprise application idea, it’s tempting to dive right in and put your all into the project. Your heart is in the right place, but going straight from ideation to production to launch could lead to problems down the line. After the fact, you could realize a workflow isn’t designed properly or spot a missed opportunity to optimize a certain function. Worse, you might even find the market need for your application isn’t as strong as you anticipated.

To avoid application development disasters like these, it helps to do a few test runs. Minimum viable products (MVPs) are a critical part of the application development cycle, but it can be challenging to articulate what an MVP is and what it can offer your enterprise. In this article, we’ll go over the essentials.

What is a minimum viable product?

An MVP is a version of your final product or application that accomplishes its main goals but doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles. Tech teams design MVPs when they want to test and validate a business idea with real users before devoting time, resources, and energy to a new project. The main purposes of an MVP is to gather accurate user feedback, understand what resonates with users (and what doesn’t), build and release an application as quickly as possible, and minimize spending on apps that won’t succeed. 

Through these efforts, an MVP can save you valuable time and money while also providing actionable insights that help your app improve with each iteration. 

Many people conflate MVPs with prototypes, but the two differ in terms of scope and audience. Prototypes are typically very broad in scope—the idea is to put together many different prototypes to see what sticks. You might publicly release a prototype to generate some media buzz or crowdsource funds to support the project, but it’s not necessarily intended for your target audience. 

With MVPs, you’ve already found a business idea that sounds promising and you’re starting to run with it, meaning you’re putting more resources and manpower into its development. MVPs are meant to be shared with your target audience in order to demonstrate their value and gauge their reception. Unlike prototyping, MVPs enable you to zero in on a clearly defined and promising project.  

The MVP development journey

Follow these key four steps to develop your MVP:

1. Start with a clear concept: What purpose will my MVP serve? Who will this MVP attract? What are my competitors doing? Ask yourself these questions to help flesh out your MVP. It’s also a good practice to ensure your MVP aligns with your business objectives and KPIs. If there’s any uncertainty, go back to the drawing board.

2. Put the user first: MVPs are all about gathering information on your prospective users and their needs. Take time to get to know your customer and familiarize yourself with how they define value. Make sure your MVP is intuitive and easy to use, and don’t forget to collect all the quantitative data you can.

3. Launch with defined features in mind: By design, MVPs are narrower in scope. Make sure you include key features that will give you the most insight into end-user pain points.

4. Adjust and re-test in response to feedback: Gather as much data as you can, looking specifically for what’s missing and what’s performing well. Incorporate all feedback into subsequent MVPs for best results.

The number one pain point associated with developing MVPs comes from the name. Many development teams take the “minimum” part of “minimum viable product” too literally, choosing to build MVPs that deliver the smallest amount of functionality. Considering the goal of an MVP is to test only select features with users, this may not seem unusual. However, if you focus too much on doing the bare minimum, you could wind up with an MVP that doesn’t reveal much about the product’s business viability.

Building applications with code, even the most basic ones, makes for an incredibly complicated and time-consuming development process. Because of this, code-based MVPs only enable you to develop a small amount of functionality in time to debut.

If you build your MVP using code, you’re even more likely to fall into this trap. Building applications with code, even the most basic ones, makes for an incredibly complicated and time-consuming development process. Because of this, code-based MVPs only enable you to develop a small amount of functionality in time to debut. With no-code, there’s a better way.

How no-code can help

No-code platforms like Unqork are designed to help you quickly build complex, enterprise-grade MVPs. Drag-and-drop components, intuitive visual interfaces, and other built-in features make it easier than ever to develop a fully functional application in a matter of hours. 

With no-code you can accomplish more in less time, with less effort, and for lower costs. This prevents you from being held hostage by the “minimum” part of MVP. Unqork’s no-code platform enables you to easily develop a more substantive MVP, which in turn produces more actionable insights you can use for future iterations. Any changes you make in response to user feedback can be reflected immediately in the platform—no more revising wireframes or sending changes to an engineer, hoping the dozens of new code lines will have the desired effect. This shortens the time it takes to build and modify your MVP, helping you quickly bring a successful final product to market.   

Have two minutes? Watch our demo to see how easy it is to track changes and enhance collaboration between users.

When your MVP is ready for launch, Unqork makes it easy to track relevant user metrics using the platform’s built-in customizable performance dashboards. This helps you monitor engagement and continue gaining feedback even after your product has hit the market. Unqork’s centralized console simplifies these tasks and helps streamline the MVP development process from start to finish. Through no-code, Unqork lets you build the best possible MVP and create a successful final product.

Interested in more ways no-code drives app development? Schedule a personalized demo with one of our in-house experts. To stay updated on the latest in the no-code world, subscribe to the Unqork newsletter.