How to Define Your MVP’s Core Features: A Step-by-Step Guide for Startups

It’s no secret that many successful app startups launch as a minimum viable product (MVP). By focusing on the core features, you can minimize risks, conserve resources, and gather essential feedback to refine your idea.

But here’s the catch: determining what to include in an MVP isn’t as simple as it seems. Without a structured process, it’s easy to overcomplicate or miss the mark entirely. This guide walks you through the steps to define your MVP’s core features so you can bring your vision to life with clarity and confidence.

What Is an MVP and Why Does It Matter?

An MVP is the most basic version of your product, including only the essential features needed to solve a key problem and gather user feedback. Instead of aiming for perfection, you focus on launching quickly and learning from real users.

Benefits of the MVP Approach:

• Faster Time-to-Market: Focus on essentials to launch sooner.
• Resource Optimization: Avoid wasting time and money on features users don’t need.
• Data-Driven Iterations: Use user feedback to refine and expand your product.

Learn more about the advantages of an MVP →

5 Steps to Define Your MVP’s Core Features

1. Understand Your Target Audience and Problem

Identify the Primary Problem:

You’ve probably heard it said that if you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one. That’s certainly the case when it comes to your MVP. Successful MVPs solve a single clear, well-defined problem. 

Every aspect of the app must work together to address one primary issue. It will be hard to determine which MVP features to include if you can’t articulate the “why” behind your product’s existence. Before anything else, get clear on the challenge your app overcomes. 

Conduct Audience Research:

If you’re not careful, you might solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Audience research helps to confirm the existence of a perceived problem. It also offers other important insights about your intended users. A clear understanding of your users’ demographics, pain points, and needs should all inform the minimum viable features of your app. 

There are several ways to conduct audience research. Use tools and techniques like: 

• Surveys & Interviews: Speak directly with potential users to uncover pain points.
• Competitor Analysis: Analyze competitors' offerings to identify gaps or areas of improvement.
• Analyze User Behavior: If relevant, use data from previous product versions or market research.

Consistent with the lean development methodology, audience research can be simple and inexpensive. You don’t necessarily need to pay for survey software or market research to uncover helpful clues about your audience's wants and needs. Cost-effective tools like social media polls, direct outreach, and free industry reports can all be useful. 

Create User Personas:

Next, develop one to three user personas that represent your target users. Each persona should provide details about your target audience. Include demographic information, like age and profession, as well as goals and challenges. 

Personas transform the findings of your research efforts into an easy-to-reference tool to keep your team aligned. They’re a helpful reminder that you are building for real people, not statistics. While your user personas won’t portray every potential user, they’re very helpful for creating a user-centric product. 

2. Establish Your MVP Goals

Set Clear Objectives for the MVP:

An MVP is a stepping stone to a more polished product. Progress, however, can take many different forms. That’s why setting a goal for your MVP is critical. Possible objectives include:

• Validating product-market fit 
• Testing demand 
• Generating initial user feedback 
• Attracting early adopters 

Your decision of which objective to focus on translates directly to the minimal viable features included in your design. Launching an MVP to gain users, for example, will yield a very different result than one aiming to gather audience insights. The former might focus on a high-fidelity execution of an in-demand feature. However, an MVP designed to gather feedback might not even be an app, but perhaps a “fake door” MVP that teases functionality to gauge user interest.

Define Success Metrics:

An MVP should tell you whether your idea has merit and how to improve it. Setting key performance indicators (KPIs) before you launch makes the results of your MVP more actionable. Depending on your MVP, success could include: 

• Number of sign-ups: How many people indicated interest in this product or feature? 
• Feedback rate: To what extent are users offering input on their experience? 

• User retention: How many users remain engaged and for how long? 

Regardless of the KPIs you choose, they should be objective and measurable. Setting KPIs lays the groundwork for data-driven decisions about future iterations. Positive responses to some features may justify further refinement while low-performing features might be tossed out or replaced. 

Learn more about mobile app KPIs →

Focus on Problem-Solution Fit:

Ultimately, an MVP should address the problem it set out to solve. Your MVP offers an opportunity to examine whether your solution adequately addresses user pain points. If not, consider this a chance to iterate and improve your idea. 

3. Prioritize Core Features

Identify Essential Features for MVP:

Remember, restraint is key when it comes to an MVP. There might be a thousand ways to help a user achieve better fitness, for example, but an MVP for a fitness app should only include the minimum features necessary to accomplish a narrow goal. Focusing on a single key feature is often a great way to keep the MVP lean. This small scope is how some billion-dollar apps started. The Uber MVP, for example, was a simple cab booking feature for limited users in the San Francisco area.

Use the MoSCoW Framework:

To keep your MVP lean, try adopting the MoSCoW framework, a helpful tool for categorizing features. 

• Must-haves: Essential features that are required for basic functionality, like a login system or the app’s core purpose (like the ability to calculate for a calculator app).  
• Should-haves: Enhancement features that improve the MVP but aren’t critical, like profile settings and customization. 
• Could-haves: Nice-to-have features that can be postponed, such as advanced analytics. 
• Won’t-haves: Deliberately excluded features that would contribute to feature bloat, like complex integrations.

Segmenting possible features in this way can simplify the decision of which to prioritize and which to save for later. The MoSCoW framework also helps avoid scope creep in the development process. 

Consider User Flow Simplicity:

Even in something as simple as an MVP, user experience (UX) design shouldn’t be an afterthought. Aim for a streamlined, user-friendly experience by keeping intuitive navigation throughout your MVP. Instead of focusing your attention on unique or complex UI elements, focus on features that contribute to a seamless journey. Emphasizing clear onboarding in your design process, for example, helps create a product that offers immediate value to users.

4. Identify Non-Essential Features to Save Time and Resources

Define and Exclude 'Feature Bloat':

“Too many features” can complicate a user experience and distract from the MVP's central purpose or goal. Likewise, straying from a streamlined approach often delays time to market. Development efforts can quickly stretch beyond initial timelines when more features than necessary creep into the project. 

To avoid “feature bloat,” define exactly which features to avoid in your MVP. Referring back to the MoSCoW framework can be helpful. Ensure your entire team understands the importance of minimizing non-essential features and the benefits of simplicity for an MVP. 

Establish a Lean Feature Set:

If your MVP is successful, there will be time in the future to add complexity and improve aesthetics. Initially, however, it’s important to prioritize simplicity. Consider how to strip down advanced functionality to its essential parts. Instead of a highly customizable interface, for example, consider using a simple layout with easy navigation to suit all users. 

Tips for Identifying Unnecessary Features:

Once you’ve narrowed down your feature list, use these tips to see if there are additional areas to simplify. 

• Ask: Does each feature directly contribute to solving the primary problem? Eliminate features that don’t address that core goal. 
• Evaluate user feedback: Features with low user interest in initial testing may be deprioritized. The data already demonstrates that such features might not be worth further investment. 
• Consult with the development team: Some features might require more time or investment than others. Sync with your developers to gauge the impact of features on budget and timeline.

5. Validate Your Feature List

Conduct Early Testing:

While building an MVP is an important initial step, it’s not the first step in the iterative process. Before beginning development, consider other preliminary methods for validation. Tools like clickable prototypes, wireframes, demos, and interviews are all helpful ways to test the waters and provide some insights to inform your MVP. 

Learn More: Proof of Concept, Prototype, or MVP? Choosing the Right Step for Your Software Idea

Collect User Feedback:

You don’t have to wait to launch your MVP before you gather feedback on your intended feature list. You can validate your plan by gathering insights from users in your target audience on which features they might find most valuable or needed. At this point, and throughout the iterative process, user feedback is vital in refining the feature set. Encouraging honest thoughts from users offers a glimpse into the future and informs a prediction for how your product will perform.

Adjust Features as Needed:

Of course, feedback is only as helpful as how you apply it. Adapt your MVP features based on the input you receive. Nothing is set in stone. Features can be added, removed, or reprioritized at any point. The most successful apps remain nimble and responsive to user feedback before and after launching an MVP. 

Establish a Continuous Feedback Loop:

To encourage regular feedback collection, create systems that help you constantly improve your product. Throughout the MVP lifecycle and beyond, continuous feedback nurtures success. By soliciting regular user input, you’ll ensure your product stays aligned with changing user needs and evolves as users, the market, and any relevant trends do. 

Building a Lean MVP

From attracting funding to minimizing risk, there are so many reasons to embrace a lean MVP. A narrowly focused feature set helps businesses enjoy the benefits of an MVP to the fullest. 

Honing in on a set of core features requires several steps: understanding the audience, setting clear goals, prioritizing features, avoiding bloat, and seeking validation through feedback. A systematic progression through each step helps startups uncover the most pressing features and those that aren’t needed for the MVP phase.

Keep in mind that an MVP isn’t the final destination. Embrace flexibility and focus on delivering a product that effectively addresses the target problem. 

Looking for a development partner to guide you through the MVP process? We can help. Schedule a free consultation with the Designli team to get started. 

Explore Designli’s Mobile App Development Services → 

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