Last year, we wrote an article on how to choose between building an app or a web application. If you’ve made that decision by now, the next natural step is to plan your MVP. Here is our guide on how to do it the smart way.
What Exactly is an MVP?
Building an MVP is simply about stripping your big idea down to its absolute minimum. You remove all the extra "nice-to-have" features, take the core essence, and build a system based on just that. It should be a simple but fully functional version that solves your customer's main problem.
This means you have to kill your darlings.Choosing to leave out features that you personally think are brilliant can be a painful process, but it comes with a major advantage: you actually get a product out to the market very quickly.
Once the first version is live, you let a small group of real users test it. By gathering their feedback early on, you will quickly notice if you are on the right track. You save money, reduce risks, and can develop the product gradually. Instead of guessing what the market wants, you will know exactly where it is worth spending money in the next phase.
AI as a Tool in the Early Stages
To get started with your MVP, we now have tools that make the process a lot smoother. As we mentioned in our previous article (AI and Programming – How Modern Software Development is Changing), AI has become a natural part of a developer's daily routine, but it is also highly useful in the early ideation phase.
Before any code is even written, AI can help structure research, brainstorm features, or generate simple design mockups. This significantly shortens the step from a thought in your head to something you can actually look at and evaluate.
The Trap: When Fast Becomes Too Cheap
When experimenting with AI tools, it is easy to get the feeling that technology can solve everything on its own. And sure, if the person guiding the tool has the right technical expertise, you can achieve great results. But if you want to build a product that will last over time, just generating code that looks good on the surface isn’t enough.
If you let an AI code your MVP without human oversight, you rarely have control over the technical architecture or which tech stack is being used under the hood. It’s a bit like building a house without checking the blueprints – it might look nice when it’s freshly painted, but things get difficult when you notice the foundation is crooked.
Mio Nilsson, CEO and Developer at Plingot, explains why the human element is crucial:
"It’s quick to code a prototype with AI, but if your MVP becomes a success, you want to be able to build on it. AI often takes shortcuts and misses the bigger context, which quickly builds up a lot of technical debt. If the structure is a complete mess, you often end up having to throw everything away and start over. You need an experienced developer to set the foundation, ensuring the code is modular, secure, and ready to scale."
Plingot’s 3 Best Tips for Planning Your MVP
If you want to lay a solid foundation for your next digital project, here are three concrete tips:
- Focus on a single core feature. What is the absolute main purpose of your product? Focus on solving that specific problem really well first, and save the rest for version two.
- Listen to your customers – but keep your vision. Develop the product based on the feedback you get from your first users, but make sure it still aligns with your long-term business goals.
- Build modularly from day one. This applies to the code, the design, and the user interface (UX). If you think in ready-made "building blocks" from the start, it becomes much easier to add new features in the future without having to rewrite the whole system.
By planning smart, scaling down to the essentials, and setting the right technical foundation from the start, you can confidently turn your idea into a launch-ready product.
Got an idea you want to bounce? Let’s grab a coffee at Plingot, and we’ll help you set the framework for your MVP! Ta en kaffe med oss på Plingot så hjälper vi dig att sätta ramarna för din MVP!
