As part of the CivicTech fellowship, CivicHive hosted a product development training, encouraging fellows to design solutions focused on making a meaningful impact in their communities. Led by Joseph Agunbiade, co-founder of BudgIT and founder of Univelcity.
Agunbiade, drawing on over 15 years of experience in product development and data management, guided fellows through the essentials of creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and navigating the journey from an initial idea to a tool with real community impact.
Product Development Goals: Creating Impactful Solutions
The primary objective of the class was to offer fellows a clear understanding of MVPs, what they represent, how to define them, and their role in the product life cycle. The facilitator described product development as the process of creating a product from an idea through design, development, and market introduction.
It involves transforming an idea into a single tangible product that meets the needs of users. Product development is crucial in fostering innovation and creating community driven solutions. By understanding the needs and challenges of the community, product developers can create solutions that address these specific issues and have a meaningful impact.
Breaking Down the Product Development Process: Steps to MVP
A minimum viable product, or MVP, is the simplest version of a product that can be released to the market. Its purpose is to test assumptions, validate the product with real users and reduce risk associated with development. It allows for early feedback and learning, enabling product developers to make informed decisions moving forward. He highlighted the following steps in creating a MVP:
- Identify a Core Problem to Address
The first step in developing an MVP is identifying a single pain point that resonates with users. Focusing on a primary issue allows the MVP to offer a distinct value, making it easier to capture initial users’ interest and create market momentum.
- Adopt an Agile Development Approach
Fellows were encouraged to adopt agile principles, capturing user needs in straightforward terms and organizing tasks into manageable steps. This agile methodology promotes flexibility, enabling teams to prioritize and test important features. He emphasized breaking down larger problems into core features, then selecting the most impactful one to introduce to the market first.
- Establish a Community of Early Testers
This involves releasing an MVP and inviting real users to engage and provide feedback. This initial input is important as it validates assumptions, refines strategies, and helps mitigate development risks. Feedback at this stage allows product teams to adjust their approach based on user needs and insights.
- Stay Solution-Oriented
Product development often reveals insights that challenge initial assumptions. The class emphasized on the importance of maintaining a solution-focused mindset, ready to adapt as the product evolves. Staying committed to addressing real-world issues ensures that products make a lasting impact.
The MVP Cycle: Building, Measuring, and Learning
Drawing from Eric Ries’s Lean Startup methodology, the facilitator outlined the MVP cycle in four steps: build, measure, learn, and iterate. After creating the MVP, developers should evaluate its success using validated learning and gather insights from actual usage to guide subsequent versions. This iterative cycle of feedback and improvement moves the product closer to its ultimate vision.
For non-technical founders, he recommended partnering with a technical co-founder instead of outsourcing development, which is often costly for startups. This collaboration allows founders to test ideas efficiently, ensuring the product remains adaptable to changing user demands.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Product Development
The facilitator advised against the temptation to rush into launching a product without thorough market validation. A good way to test an idea’s viability is to check if similar solutions already exist as this indicates a proven demand. Jumping into product development without sufficient research often leads to failure, especially when developers assume they know the audience’s needs without consulting them.
He illustrated these points with success stories from CivicHive fellows, such as Headfort Foundation and Gavel, whose initiatives began as simple concepts and grew to become vital tools in the community. Real-world examples like BudgIT and Ushahidi also highlighted the importance of MVPs in CivicTech, showing that the first version of a product is only a rough draft that communicates the vision and hypothesis to users.
Conclusion
It was emphasized during the class that Ideas rarely come fully formed; instead, they evolve through validation, testing, and refinement. By focusing on community impact, civic-tech entrepreneurs can ensure their products are grounded in real needs and equipped to make meaningful contributions.
An MVP is not just a product, it’s a dynamic learning tool that adapts to serve its users more effectively. Embracing this iterative process enables developers to create not just solutions but pathways to sustainable, scalable change.