5 Benefits of Outsourcing MVP Development [2020 Guide]
You've had an innovative idea for a startup, and you want to build an MVP to validate your market and put a user-centric product in the hands of your users as quickly as possible. There's just one problem: you lack the technical skills to build an MVP.
Outsourcing your MVP to an experienced company with a proven track record can be a beneficial option for a non-technical founder.
In this article, I’ll give you a run down of the five key benefits of outsourcing MVP development to a software company, compared to hiring an in-house team of developers.
1. Reduced Costs
Hiring a team of developers is a significant financial commitment to take on, especially if you’re based in an area where the average salary is high, London or San Francisco for example.
Outsourcing your MVP development can significantly reduce your development cost, without compromising your MVP’s code quality.
2. Reduced Time-to-Market
As well as a high financial cost, finding and hiring the right team of developers can take a lot of time and work.
You’ll need to:
- Advertise the job position
- Interview potential candidates
- Find a developer with both:
- The right technical skills for your MVP requirements
- The right soft skills to fit your startup’s culture
- On board them and allow time for team cohesion.
The hours needed to achieve this goal for an entire development team will quickly add up.
Outsourcing your MVP development will speed up this process. Firstly, it’s quicker to find one agency than it is to find multiple developers for a team. This is time you can spend moving forward with your MVP, increasing your time-to-market.
Secondly, when outsourcing to an agency you are getting a fully-fledged team that work with each other on a daily basis - with a Project Manager they know. The agency will have all the necessary tools for an effective workflow - because they are already using it.
Many startups fail due to a long time to market. Either because a competitor arrives to market before you or you simply burn through your budget and run out of money.
3. Shorter Commitment
When it comes to your MVP app development, you need the best; but you don’t necessarily need it all the time. Your development needs will change over time.
Outsourcing to a software development agency allows you to bring in developers as and when you need it, which is considerably cheaper compared hiring a full-time development team.
There is another factor to consider when we talk about commitment as it relates to outsourcing. Even if you build the perfect development team on paper, there’s no guarantee they will be effective in reality.
While the same can be said for outsourcing to an agency, it’s a lot easier to assess the relationship by committing to a short sprint. If you’re not happy with the results, its a lot easier to end the collaboration there, versus having to fire someone from an in-house development team.
4. An Experienced Team at Your Fingertips
A software company with a proven track record will have helped build hundreds of MVPs across several industries.
Thanks to their experience, they can provide you with valuable insights from product to tech that can help you build a better MVP.
This technical knowledge, twinned with tour business vision and industry expertise, can be a great asset to your company.
5. An Ongoing Relationship
Let’s say you’ve successfully launched your MVP, and you’re ready to move onto the next step of your business – iterating your product. Many companies will offer a dedicated team for just that purpose – where part of their team commits, full-time, to your startup.
This can be a great option for your startup for many reasons. Firstly, you can still benefit from the wealth of experience and expertise a top quality agency has to offer.
Secondly, as they’ve already developed your MVP they’re aligned with your business vision and goals, which means you can iterate quicker than starting again with a team that needs to learn those essential factors.
Thirdly, it allows you to continue developing your product while searching for your in-house development team.
Many companies will also help you with that search. Again, their experience and expertise can help you with this. As I mentioned, they already know your product and business inside out. Meaning they can help you refine your search to the candidates that fit your requirements, in terms of both hard and soft skills.
Most agencies that offer this last service will also provide a handover service. So, when you have your perfect in-house team ready to go, the agency can get them up-to-speed on the inner workings of your product.
Wrapping Up
Many entrepreneurs have misconceptions when it comes to outsourcing MVP development. While it carries it’s own set of risks, it can be a great option to quickly develop an MVP without committing your whole budget to development costs.
You just have to be careful and choose the right agency for your MVP’s needs.
Choose wisely and you’ll not just gain a technical executioner. You’ll gain a team with experience and expertise who’ve worked together on multiple projects across several industries.
