How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 10: Maintain and Enhance Phase- Valuing the Cycle of Continuous Improvement Throughout Your App’s Lifetime

Over the last 15 years, Grio has collaborated with companies of all sizes to create hundreds of exceptional software solutions. Though there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to building an app, we’ve discovered 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 are taking our hard-won wisdom and sharing Grio’s ten essential steps for building a killer MVP.

Throughout the last ten posts, we have helped you navigate the MVP development process, from initial conception to metric measurements. In our final post of this series, we will look toward the future, examining how maintenance and enhancement can guarantee the success of your MVP for years to come. 

Series Recap

An MVP, or minimal viable product, is a bare-bones version of your app. MVPs allow you to save time and money on development while testing the viability of your product, engaging investors and stakeholders, and going to market sooner. You can read all about the benefits of MVPs in our first post, Grio’s How to Build a Killer MVP: Introduction.

In our previous posts, we have also covered the first nine steps to building a killer MVP:

• Step 1: Agile Development Methods and Divergent/Convergent Thinking: Using Agile development methods and divergent and convergent thinking can help your team find and prioritize the best ideas for your MVP. 
• Step 2: User Discovery- Letting User Needs Inspire Epics: Building epics based on users and their needs will help you create a viable, successful MVP. 
• Step 3: Market Discovery Phase- Using Market Analysis to Gain Leverage Over the Competition: Conducting market analysis to identify the primary market and discover what sets your app apart from the competition.  
• Step 4: Planning Phase- Creating a Plan to Successfully Navigate Your Project Milestones: Using user stories, architecture, and conceptual designs to create a robust MVP development plan. 
• Step 5: Design Phase- Taking Your Product from Paper to Prototype: Maximizing your UI/UX to create a seamless user experience and polished look for your MVP.
• Step 6: Development Phase- Embracing Less Engineering and More Testing: Avoiding common Development Phase obstacles using Grio’s key strategies for success. 
• Step 7: Stabilization Phase- “Breaking” Your App So Your Users Don’t: Utilizing your test plan to find issues with your MVP so that your users don’t. 
• Step 8: Release Phase- Making Sure You Practice Before Your Public Performance: Releasing your MVP strategically to maximize its potential for success.
• Step 9: Measure Phase- Determining Your MVP’s Success Using Key Performance Metrics: Using common metrics, such as active users, client acquisition cost, paying users, client lifetime value, and churn rate, to effectively measure the success of your MVP.

Below, we introduce Step 10: Maintain and Enhance Phase- Valuing the Cycle of Continuous Improvement Throughout Your App’s Lifetime.

Embracing the Cycle of Continuous Improvements 

This phase really begins at the same time as the Release Phase and should progress in parallel. Once your app is in the hands of users, you will begin receiving their feedback on crashes and problem areas.

In general, it’s important to monitor three main components during this phase: 

User Support

As users encounter errors or bugs within the app, it’s important to have a way for them to provide feedback so you can address the issues. User support systems, such as Zendesk, allow users to provide feedback and provide assistance with your app. 

Monitoring and Maintenance 

You don’t want to just rely on user feedback to understand the functionality of your app. You will also want to monitor the status of your app so that you can fix any issues that may occur and ensure your app continues to work as expected. 

Continually monitoring analytics data for your app can also help you identify user behavior and make informed decisions about how to improve the user experience. 

Luckily, maintaining your app doesn’t need to be a full-time job. You can use system monitoring tools, such as Crashlytics and New Relic, to ensure your app is functioning correctly. 

Enhancement

Once you’ve received the feedback from your users and from your own monitoring efforts, then it’s time to make enhancements. Enhancements are where you incorporate user feedback and add improvements for a better user experience.  

The maintenance and enhancement of your app never ends. Whether fixing bugs, updating for new versions of the OS, supporting new devices, or reprioritizing those user stories that did not make the initial MVP cut list, maintenance and enhancement should be ongoing throughout the lifetime of your app. 

The Grio MVP Blueprint

If you’ve made it through our ten-part series, congratulations!

At this point, whether you’re a startup looking to build your first MVP, or an enterprise building your next product, we understand that the process can be exceptionally daunting, requiring a tremendous amount of work and expertise. But don’t worry, we’ve built hundreds of apps across dozens of industries and we’d love to help you with yours!

If you have any questions, need guidance on anything you’ve read in this series, or want help with something else entirely, you’re welcome to contact us or book a free MVP consultation with our MVP experts. Or, if you’re ready to collaborate and turn your brilliant idea into a killer app, we offer a unique end-to-end MVP design and delivery plan called the Grio MVP Blueprint, which includes:

• Discovery and design thinking workshops, up to four 2-hour working sessions to define the MVP product
• Necessary collaboration tools, such as a product glossary, recording of all workshops, miro board, etc.
• Epics and user stories to describe all the features and functionality of the end product and how they translate to user value
• Prioritized list of required features
• Diagram and description of the recommended high-level architecture
• Plan for the team and other resources required to execute
• Initial conceptual design for the app
• Graphical timeline representation from inception to launch
• And an initial budget based on the MVP’s required features, tech stack, resources, design, timeline, and importantly, your budget.

Let’s build something exceptional together.

Learn more about Grio’s end-to-end app design and delivery plan, the MVP Blueprint.

If you’ve missed any of our prior articles in this series here’s a complete list:

• How to Build a Killer MVP: Introduction
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 1: Agile Development Methods and Divergent/Convergent Thinking
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 2: User Discovery – Letting User Needs Inspire Epics
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 3: Market Discovery – Using Market Analysis to Gain Leverage Over the Competition
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 4: Planning Phase- Creating a Plan to Successfully Navigate Your Project Milestones
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 5: Design Phase- Taking Your Product from Paper to Prototype
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 6: Development Phase- Embracing Less Engineering and More Testing
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 7: “Breaking” Your App So Your Users Don’t
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 8: Release Phase- Making Sure You Practice Before Your Public Performance
• How to Build a Killer MVP App, Step 9: Measure Phase- Determining Your MVP’s Success Using Key Performance Metrics