Launching a minimum viable product for your biotech startup

For anyone launching a startup, whether in biotech, healthcare, or any other life science industry, going to market with a minimum viable product (MVP) might be a reasonable route to take. What is a minimum viable product? It’s exactly what it sounds like. A “minimum” product is one that has minimal functionality. A “viable” product that works as it should and functions well. A minimum viable product is a balance of both. It isn’t packed with bells and whistles, but it gets the core job done and provides the foundation for user testing which can be the differentiator between a failed product and a great one.

Let’s look into the advantages of launching a minimum viable product for your biotechnology startup.

Early Feedback Speeds Up the Development Process

MVPs are no different than any aspect of your business or life. You make hypotheses and then test them for validity, and you repeat this process until you’ve come to an optimal solution. As a life science startup, you’re developing drugs, therapies, and treatments that change lives. With such complex projects, you must rigorously put your projects and products through this process.

Startups and product teams are often very close to the projects they’re working on, so close that it can be easy to think that everyone in the world will fall in love with the product they build. Unfortunately, many founders and teams end up disappointed when they find out their product falls short of fulfilling users’ needs.

The sooner you get your product into the hands of the people using the product, the sooner you can test and learn from their feedback. Coming to realize what needs to be fixed earlier in the process ultimately will save you money and help to launch a better, more useful product more quickly.

Early user testing will also uncover what features users wish they had, which features you thought would be useful but actually aren’t unexpected road bumps, and where users are experiencing friction with your product.

Our team of expert software developers begins the discovery process with rigorous interviews and workshops with the founding team and users, to make sure we’re truly understanding the problem that needs to be solved and the best way to get there.

Save Resources and Launch

Another benefit to launching with an MVP is that early user testing allows you to identify features, flows, or functionalities that aren’t benefitting the user or holding back the product early. It’s much easier to adjust your product roadmap when you recognize these issues at an early stage rather than after the product is fully launched. At the point when you’ve already released a product, you’ve already invested a large amount of capital and resources. The more invested, the harder it becomes to turn back.

Minimum viable products, by nature, are not as fully built out as their counterparts. Meaning, you don’t have to pour as many resources into building them. Typically you can launch an MVP in a few months rather than fully committing to a product that can take a year or more to build.

Get to Product Market Fit Quicker

As an entrepreneur, you’ll almost always face the problem of not having enough capital, especially if you’re a venture-backed biotech startup. Since you’re constantly running against time and money, you want to get your product into the market as quickly and efficiently as possible. While you might be excited to go full steam ahead, starting with an MVP can help you get there more quickly.

For example, understanding what your intended user wants will allow you to skip right to the point and avoid wasting time on building products that aren’t relevant to anyone. By looping users in early, opportunities to build a better product will present themselves.

As a founder, you might get a serious case of FOMO while building your product because you feel like you’re missing out on the action as the market rapidly evolves. To save yourself from this, lock in the features that truly differentiate your product and get them into the hands of users. By doing this, you’re able to help your customers earlier than a competitor might. Then, begin optimizing and adding new features and functionalities as needed.

Partner with SciMed to Launch Your Minimum Viable Product

SciMed is here to partner with you at any stage of the development process. Typically we begin working with biotechnology startups at the earliest stages to strategize and concept what exactly it is we’re trying to build. We create an in-depth product roadmap and then get to building. We test early and often, constantly learning and sharing information across teams. We can help take your idea from a concept to an MVP to a fully feature-rich product that changes lives, while you invest only in the features you need at the time you truly need them. Ready to launch a product? Get in touch with us here.