The rapid rise of the software-development industry over the past decade has brought with it a number of new techniques, methodologies, and processes that have all changed the way startups and software-development companies approach building web and mobile applications.
The combination of high startup-failure rates and the extremely challenging startup market means that maximizing funds, optimizing time, reducing risk, and gathering vital customer feedback has never been so important.
Traditional IT and software-development approaches focus on solving problems for a defined audience. In the startup industry, knowing if your product will solve a problem or if it will captivate your target audience is hard to gauge without a working application.
Startups that follow traditional methods of developing software spend months planning, designing, and building an application without truly knowing if there is a market for it.
This significantly increases the risk of instant project failure. A large part of a startup’s success is based on its ability to test its target market, validate ideas, and showcase the business’s potential.
As a result, a number of new methods have emerged to help software developers plan, build, and release early working applications.
One of the most common forms of a working application is a minimum viable product, or MVP, which has become a pillar of business success and an important way to discover unknown customer and market data.