Building innovation and generating growth through Minimum Viable Products

A head of Go To Market in a large multinational said to me once that they are not mature enough to be agile enough, which confused me because start-ups would say the opposite, they are able to be agile because they are not mature enough. I think what he probably meant is that they are too established in their traditional approaches. It is human nature to avoid any errors being made rather than seizing opportunities(Liedtka, 2018), which in essence hampers innovation and agility.

Most organisations apply a standard and known methodology to ‘help’ innovate, for example, using design thinking which is fast becoming a social technology that includes prototyping to ‘force’ and coaches the team into being creative in a structured way. The problem with this is, ideas and solutions can be narrowed by the organisation’s own internal contexts and large enterprises are sometimes disconnected from the end customer or various parts of the customer’s value chain. By using a process of agile development through MVP products institutionalising innovation, however, how many MVP products can an established organisation afford to build in-house especially if there are competing ideas from different stakeholders within the organisation?

In addition to that, traditional research methods like surveys no longer offer a fast or reliable way to validate the customer appeal of a new offering. Experience has shown that a better alternative is to develop a workable minimum viable product (MVP) (Dreischmeier et al., 2020).

MVPs drive out amazing client insights and result in a superior product, especially when using human-centred design (Kaur) which is often the starting point of several African MVPs. These entrepreneurs solve for a tangible need starting at a place where they are close enough to the end-user of the tech being developed.

In fact, the application of MVP is a priority in our current dynamic environment, with fluctuating economies and a global pandemic, it helps an organisation establish and retail its value without the high risk of large-scale change. Performance pressures will only continue to mount and with them the need for more frequent and fundamental change by enterprises(Jacob Bruun-Jensen, J., and Hagel, J). Finding a way to incorporate the benefits of entrepreneurial settings that operate at a high level of product and service innovation must be considered.

Experiments with new solutions through MVPs reduce all stakeholders’ fear of change, but it means more than that, it is actually an opportunity to transition an organisation into a growth-minded organisation and should be recognised as a valid and faster avenue for revenue generation. This means that using MVP as a form of design thinking. It is a revenue-generating, lower risk, change inducing solve for incorporating innovation into the organisation.

There are substantial advantages in jumping the conceptualisation or ideation phase by considering MVPs over internal prototypes. This is especially because research shows that early adopters and the early majority (pragmatic, risk-averse yet open-minded) form up to 50% of the tech user market population (Luh, 2000). Of course, the quality of the screening processes is critical; i.e. employment of an appropriate, effective idea screening system, particularly in early stages can greatly improve and enhance the end results as a whole. In fact, it has been proven to result in 41% success rate versus a 7% rate if you are not equipped to do the screening or understand the MVP process and landscape(Luh, 2000).

If you need a diverse input and realistic understanding of end customers expressed needs from those that are already immersed in those environments, contact us. We ask you the right questions and facilitate the establishment of an innovation pipeline into your organisation without overwhelming you with ideas but still allowing you to be immersed in the process of creating new channels of growth.  email info@rervconsulting.co.za