How to Build a Killer MVP App Step 1: Agile Development Methods and Divergent/Convergent Thinking – News Block

Over the past 15 years, Grio has collaborated with companies of all sizes to create hundreds of exceptional software solutions. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to building an app, we’ve found that starting your journey with your Minimum Value Product (MVP) is a great way to set yourself up for long-term success. In this blog series, we take our hard-earned wisdom and share Grio’s ten essential steps to building a killer MVP.

An MVP, or minimum viable product, is essentially the basic version of your app. Building an MVP, rather than a full app, allows you to test the viability of your product, engage investors, and go to market sooner—all while saving you time and money.

You can read all about the benefits of an MVP and why it’s imperative to your app’s success in our first post, How to Create a Killer MVP: An Introduction.

In this week’s blog post, we cover the first step to creating a killer MVP: agile development methods and divergent/convergent thinking, both of which are essential for optimal software development.

Agile development methodology

Agile software development is a continuous and iterative product development process. Product, design, and development teams work in parallel as the product evolves, adjusting and adapting as necessary.

It is an iterative and flexible approach to software development that emphasizes collaboration, customer feedback, and continuous improvement. The Agile methodology was created in response to the limitations of the traditional Waterfall model of software development, which was based on a linear sequence of phases, where each phase had to be completed before the next could begin.

The Agile approach to software development involves breaking a project into smaller, more manageable parts or iterations, often called sprints. Each sprint typically lasts one to four weeks and involves a cross-functional team of developers, testers, and other stakeholders working together to deliver an increment of working software.

The Agile methodology emphasizes communication and collaboration among team members, as well as with the customer or end user. This helps ensure that the product being developed meets customer needs and is of high quality. Agile teams also prioritize functional software over documentation and place a strong emphasis on adapting to change.

There are several frameworks for implementing Agile development, including Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP). Each framework has its own set of principles and practices that guide the development process, but all share the common goal of delivering customer value through iterative, collaborative, and flexible software development.

At Grio, our Agile methodology includes:

• Create a rollup of all features (for the MVP and perhaps beyond) in the form of “user stories”
• Choosing top-priority features to deploy on a weekly basis (aka “sprint”)
• Viable software delivery after each sprint
• Be open to adjusting the process based on what went well and what didn’t.

Some advantages of agile development include:

• Continuously improve the product development process.
• Provide transparency to project stakeholders
• Change course when and as needed (reprioritization)
• Get your product to market faster

Popular software that can help you adopt Agile into your MVP development process includes:

These tools will help you stay organized and manage all the tasks related to meeting your product goals.

divergent and convergent thinking

Product design should use both divergent and convergent thinking to create the best possible product:

• Divergent thinking: The creative process of generating original ideas and new possibilities
• convergent thinking: The process of refining original ideas into the best solution.

During the Discovery Phase, you will want to use both divergent and convergent thinking in structured exercises. In the divergent thinking process, encourage the team to come up with ideas that could make the product great to use. Nothing is off the table. Feasibility is not considered at this point. Casting a wide net can challenge basic assumptions about the product and what it should be. Divergent exercises have the potential to unlock innovative and novel features and approaches that might not otherwise have been introduced.

Once all the ideas are on the table, switch to convergent thinking to narrow them down. Focus only on what is essential and practical for an MVP. When prioritizing ideas, your team should focus on multiple factors, including implementation effort, cost, practicality, and utility. Their distilled ideas will be the list of core MVP features.

Building a Killer MVP: Next Steps

Once you’ve established your Agile development methodology and implemented convergent and divergent thinking practices during product design, it’s time for our next post, How to Build a Grio Killer MVP Step 2: User Discovery: Let user needs inspire epics.

In Step 2, we’ll explore how creating epics that put your users and their needs first will help you form a strong foundation for your future MVP.

If you missed other posts in this series, check out: