Lack of understanding of the strategic importance of MVP testing is not the only problem encountered when developing a project. Sometimes we observe a completely opposite situation: the client wants to implement a significant part of the planned features or sometimes all of them. This approach completely violates the very essence of MVP and often leads to:
- a significant delay in time-to-market;
- doubling the work by changing the additional features that didn't meet the expectations;
- running out of budget faster and not meeting your targets
Any application claiming to be an MVP should be first of all lightweight and fast in development,
so a 2-3 months period should sound reasonable. If the team feels that this time will not be enough to implement the intended functionality, then a good decision would be to revise the priorities or MVP's terms of reference.
Another indicator of project overload can be
excessively large tasks. Basically, we recommended spending no more than 3-4 days to complete an average task. In some particular cases, this number can rise up to 8-10 business days. If you have more and more such "particular cases" in your schedule, then it is time to think about breaking them down into smaller pieces, or, if this is not possible, then raise the question of the need to perform this particular task for MVP creation.
Here's another good way: answer the question of
how many tasks you need to complete so that the goal of building an MVP is achieved. If there is no exact answer and in general it is rather difficult to formulate it, then it's the first sign of trouble. Optimized MVPs must always stay focused. Without a precise objective, you won't be able to realize when you've crossed the line and begun overstuffing your MVP with features.
Make sure you genuinely know which features are created to meet the needs of your key user group. Before you start building an MVP, you should have a really good understanding of who your key end-users are. The very rationale behind creating an MVP is that it should allow you to verify your key assumptions with a certain client group, as opposed to
trying to cater to the needs of all potential clients. In case you widen your target audience too much you immediately get into a trap of adding excessive features.