Building a successful startup is an arduous task that requires one to be well versed. Oftentimes, I meet founders and seasoned businessmen who overlook valuable components that lead to the success of startups. The components are vital in determining the operational success and longevity of startups. They include;
1. User Experience.
2.Your MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
3. The scrappy founder mentality.
User Experience.
Unfortunately, UI/UX is one of the customary misunderstood topics among founders in Africa. Most founders mistakenly think that UI/UX equates to the apps’ flashy screen designs. Having a good UX simply means that the customer needs and finds your product usable. You can have a well designed app that doesn’t help a user achieve what they want. Good UX revolves around user goals. Therefore, investing one’s time and resources to comprehend your users and their desired ends is the place to start. Moreover, making your app light, available on all platforms, and easy to onboard positively adds on UX. Good design is also part of good UX, but that should not be mistaken for User Experience.
MVPs and how to approach MVP building.
We have all been told that to get to market as fast as possible, we need to build a minimum viable product. But how should we do it? An MVP is a broken-down version of the product that works from end-to-end and allows building teams to learn as much as possible while building the product.
As an example, let’s say we are a mobility startup that enables seamless access from point A to point B. In this regard, our goal is to build the most sustainable fleet of EVs. With tight timelines, we start working on an MVP, keeping in mind key concerns. What should the MVP entail? Should we start by building small units of a whole EV? Should work on an electric motor engine system come first, followed by work on the navigation and subsequent parts to tail? And while we work on this small standalone parts, do we ship them to clients to get their feedback? I can imagine shipping a motor engine system to a client for them to test it out and envision how they will do it. All options considered, the preference for an MVP is that we take an existing car that runs on fuel and convert it to use an electric engine we developed inhouse and ship it out. Now that is something that a user can test and give his or her feedback on.
Most founders understand that the whole concept of an MVP is slicing a huge product into thin workable slices, and releasing small parts during the building cycle. However, most of them neglect the fact that these thin slices should be actively end-to-end. If it’s an app, break it down feature based as opposed to screen based or department based. Focus on releasing small parts of the app that your clients can test and give feedback.
Be the scrappy founder.
I recently watched a talk by YC founders Micheal Siebel and Dalton Cladwell titled: Do things that don’t scale. Being a scrappy founder means doing the lowest and most frowned upon jobs in your startup. If you have a food delivery startup, deliver the food yourself and interact with the first customers. If you have a gig-matching platform, try to dod the first few gigs yourself. If you are building a marketplace for vendors who sell African home decor, try and sell the African home decor items on the marketplace yourself. Walk the talk. Identify and do the jobs within your startup that will help you learn and purify your value proposition.
All in all, building a successful startup requires that you always learn At Hai Interactive, we help startups design and build products that matter to their customers. Pass by and check us out. Happy building
