The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing MVP Development: What You Need to Know

Building an MVP is one of the popular strategies for startups to launch their ideas to market. CB insights research says that 35% of startups fail due to a lack of market demand. Most startups struggle in analyzing their target audience hence it's important to invest in the initial discovery phase. Outsourcing MVP can help you to have a clear vision and align with your business goals.

MVP development is key to shaping your product. You will know how your product will look, feel, and function when you create a minimum viable product. It will be the basic version, offer functionality, and allow your users to use it.

You can answer the chances of success when you invest in MVP solutions. There are various reasons why mobile apps fail. Here is a chart that showcases the top reasons.

Many others aren’t sure if they should adopt the MVP route. This article discusses the pros and cons of MVP outsourcing to help you how to hire MVP expert. So, let’s dive into the world of MVP.

What is MVP Development?

The MVP or minimum viable product development is the process of creating a product with basic minimum features. It signals the interest of the users in the product. It also ensures a strong base of early adopters and a defined product roadmap.

You will get to release your product idea into the market before your competition. It gives you a slight edge that will help you evolve, scale, grow, and transform.

You can even test the product idea and see if people are willing to invest in it in the long run. These things will help you build a customer base, and retention strategy and increase conversions.

MVP vs Prototype: What is the difference?

Is MVP different from prototype development? Would you consider them differently when working on your upcoming software idea?

MVP is a fully functional product with minimum features. On the other hand, the prototype is a simulated software solution created to help understand the product's usability. Here are some core differences between the Prototype and MVP.

Pros and Cons of MVP Development

Let’s look at all the reasons why you need to invest in MVP development for your product idea.

Advantages of MVP Development

Here are all the reasons why you should go with MVP development for your next business idea.

#1. Faster Time-to-Market

When you have an interesting idea, the itch to go into the market before others is on the high. You may want to check if users would be interested and how they react to this idea. You are excited to know if people would love the idea and what feedback they are likely to share.

If you try to build an entire product, it may take a long while. However, with MVP development, you can translate your idea into a product and launch it into the market. This ensures your product is ready for the market before anyone else can consider it.

#2. Affordable Method

Think of delivering a product for iOS, Android and other platforms after building all the complex features. You would have invested a lot of resources, time and even effort into creating the application. What happens when people fail to accept your product after release? It will lead to failure and a lot of losses.

On the other hand, you can create an MVP using low-code or no-code tools. You don’t need resources or active participation in the development. You can build for multiple platforms and release them simultaneously.

A single MVP gives you enough material to gain feedback, access the market and learn from users. It is one of the most cost-effective ways of translating your idea into a product and learning from users.

#3. Easy to Pivot

A business idea that doesn’t meet the customer’s requirements may need to pivot. Had you built a complete product and considered pivoting, it can be time and resource-consuming. However, it is easier in your pockets and minds if you are working on pivoting after the MVP development. You would be able to sail the sea successfully.

If your idea doesn’t require the current roadmap or path, you can easily move it in another direction. This is why you should opt for MVP development before going full-fledged with product development.

#4. Incorporate Feedbacks Easily

If you are working with MVP development, you would notice that it is easier to incorporate the feedback into your system. You can easily acknowledge the customer’s demands, add it to your product and build it with great flexibility.

The software team would know what the customers need and offer the appropriate solutions. This will enhance your speed and accuracy in terms of delivering quality solutions.

#5. Bolster Relationships

When you are working with customers directly, you are able to build a stronger bond with them. MVP allows you to be in direct contact with customers, build stronger relationships and grow faster.

It gives your business a better understanding of what your customer needs, stay connected to them and offers the right solutions.

Disadvantages of MVP Development

There is a flip side to MVP development. Here are all the things that suggest MVP development can be tedious for the team.

#1. Feedback and Revisions

As soon as you receive feedback from the customers, you need to revise the product. You will be continuously reworking the product based on the suggestions from the customers. This would be a time-consuming affair. At the same time, you need to stay vigilant about the customer’s expectations and offer valid solutions.

#2. Create MVP Properly

If you want feedback from the customers, you need to ensure you develop the MVP properly. This would include checking for all sorts of issues and defining the target early on.

You need to define the entire work scope. It will also ensure you haven’t missed much while creating the MVP roadmap for the product.

Why Outsource MVP Development?

While it is feasible to build MVP in-house using several tools, you might want to consider outsourcing it. Here are a few reasons why outsourcing is a good idea.

#1. Skilled Team

One of the basic advantages of outsourcing is the accessibility to a skilled team. You would have someone who understands MVP development, the ideal roadmap, and the perfect strategies on your team. They would use the apt tools and technologies to construct the MVP from your app idea.

They can easily connect the dots to build a viable product that can be extended and scaled to the next level.

#2. Faster Development

With a non-tech background and loads of no-code tools, you can obviously create a good MVP for your business. however, it can take a few hours from your business. it can also slow down the development as your sole focus is not MVP. However, if you outsource the development, you will notice that the launch time is accelerated.

If you were to launch after a month, they would help launch the same product within 10 days. This acceleration can help you move into the market before anyone else.

#3. Low Development Cost

When you build an MVP before the product, you keep the costs low. They would use minimum time and basic features to release the application. This means your cost of development would go down substantially. If you notice an increase in early adopters, you can consider a good return for the low cost.

#4. Better Technical Understanding

By outsourcing to the MVP development team, you will notice that they are proficient with the latest technologies and services. this helps them enable your MVP in the right direction.

If they are stuck with some feature or facing error situations, they can easily debug and identify the problem. their technical knowledge can get them out of any situation, and lead to less waste of time.

#5. Allows you to Focus on Business

You can relax and focus on your other important activities because outsourcing agencies take all extra responsibilities. Especially if you are a startup, you can spend enough time making strategies, marketing, networking, and more.

Outsourcing MVP saves you from spending unnecessary effort and time on other technical things that are time-consuming and draining.

#6. Long-Term Partnership

This also creates the possibility of working for a long time on the project. If the MVP developed is running successfully in the market, you can continue to work with the same outsourcing partner and grow your app with additional features and functions.

In addition, they can also help you to complete multiple projects in the pipeline to meet the deadlines one by one.

Pros of Outsourcing MVP Development

The MVP will give you proper market insights, help you learn about the audience, and prepare the app for success. Most businesses have successfully turned towards MVP to build their software applications. Below are the pros of why you should outsource MVPs.

#1. Access to Specialists

Isn’t it great if startups can easily access the experts at an affordable cost? Using offshore MVP development services helps to connect with a reputed team of experts who have experience and knowledge in specific technologies or domains. They each have specific experience related to the type of project and this usually leads to better design, development as well as problem-solving.

Hence the deepest knowledge on the subject can improve MVP quality and fulfill market requirements and user expectations.

#2. Technical Consultation

As a startup, having the right guidance and technical consultation is important to proceed in the right direction. An outsourcing partner can provide technical consultation as part of their services. This gives you opinions from the experts about technologies, frameworks, and methods for your MVP.

This way, technical consultants allow you to refine your concept for a product, find early challenges, and hear out suggestions that fall in line with business goals. This also helps in decision-making and prevents costly mistakes in app-making.

#3. Quick TurnAround

You can quickly get started with your project without wasting time building internal teams, onboarding processes, and other things. Outsourcing companies are experienced and it takes less effort to make MVP hence they deliver MVP faster and help you reach the market quicker. This fast deployment is important in highly competitive markets where speed represents a huge benefit.

#4. Partnership

Outsourcing MVP development ensures partnership in the project because you both work closely towards the success of the app development. The outsourcing partner offers useful insights, feedback, and all the support and investment throughout the development process.

This strong partnership can also open a door for long-term collaboration to support and enhance your product as it evolves.

#5. Reduce Administrative Workloads

When there is a lot of work burden and distraction, it gets difficult to focus on core activities. Outsourcing MVP development is the perfect choice because you don't need to manage extra admin tasks like recruiting, payroll, and HR-related issues.

Outsourcing agencies handle all these additional responsibilities and help to achieve greater efficiency and productivity.

#6. Risk Sharing and Liability

You can't afford to take risks when you are a startup as it can damage your business reputation and sink your boat before it sails in the development industry. Outsourcing reduces various risks of development and takes a lot of pressure off you. They are responsible for completing the job on deadline and within budget as mentioned in their original agreement with you. 

In case issues happen, outsourcing companies can deal with it and help you to reduce financial and operational dangers for your business. With such a risk-sharing system available, they share critical areas while giving you peace of mind!

#7. Cost-Saving

Outsourcing MVP is undoubtedly affordable for startups and small businesses as it helps to save you multiple development costs. You don't need to invest in tools, resources, infrastructure, and other operations. Hence you get high-quality work at low labor costs.

#8. Scalability and flexibility

In-house teams are usually occupied with other crucial tasks hence you don't expect them to always be available and get the client’s urgent changes done. But outsourcing offers scalability and flexibility both, you can easily scale the development process, developers, designers, and resources only when you need it. Hence you only pay for what you use.

Cons of Outsourcing MVP Development

Every development framework comes with pros and cons, but you can still manage to handle the cons and carry out the MVP project efficiently. Below are some of the common minuses of outsourcing MVP development.

#1. Time Zones and Cultural Differences

MVP agencies work globally across the world, hence there can be cultural and time-zone differences. It can also affect the languages and communication barrier due it different languages.

Imagine you have discovered a fault in-app at midnight at 2 am and due to the time-zone difference, you can't get an instant response and have to wait for an outsourcing partner to be available the next day.

These irregularities affect work styles and expectations, and lead to misaligned priorities that slow down the development process.

#2. Difficulty in the Integration of Outsourced Components

In outsourcing, different teams from different regions work together, but when it's about integrating different components from different locations, it can be problematic. Due to the lack of communication. Also, in-house and outsourced teams follow different coding standards hence it can cause differences and compatibility issues.

#3. Limited Customization and Adaptability

MVP can be easily customized when it is a startup and you are developing everything from scratch but apart from startups, it offers limited customization because making quick changes and feature upgradation may not always be fast as it might require other outsourcing partners' format requests, and additional costs.

#4. Delay and Misalignment of Priorities

If you choose to outsource MVPs, you need to accept that you are not only their client, they may have other high-priority projects to handle. This could cause delays and misalignment in priorities during peak working hours or when you need urgent changes in product design or features. This can be a hectic feeling depending on someone and waiting for approval.

#5. Security Concerns

You may need to share sensitive information that is important for project development. As a startup, intellectual property and data are very important things hence you must ensure that your outsourcing partner follows strong security measures to prevent data breaches, unauthorized access, and misuse of information.

Violation of data breaches and security terms can cause you financial loss and damage to your reputation.

#6. Community Challenges

Outsourced teams are not part of the organization as in-house teams are. This can cause some misunderstanding as they can't understand the project, clients, and organization goals as in-house teams understand.

Here, you need to put more effort into explaining everything from basics about the company, goals, projects, and what the client expects from the project.

When to Consider Outsourcing MVP Development? 

Confused about when you should consider outsourcing MVP development? Well, below we have listed the top four situations when you should outsource MVP.

#1. Startup Budget Constraints

If you are a startup and finances are tight, outsourcing MVP development makes sense. As a startup, investing in setting up an in-house development team, office space, computer hardware, resources, staff wages and more is not a feasible option at all.

Outsourcing allows you to gain access to experienced professionals at a fraction of the price, particularly if your partner is located in an area with lower labor costs. In this way, it is easier for your limited funds to be used effectively and not wasted on non-essential activities (that are of no use anymore). Your budget is used solely for activities that promise growth.

#2. Need for Specialized Skills

If your MVP development requires specialized skills or the use of technologies, you must find a reputed outsourcing partner who is experienced in relevant technologies or frameworks and fulfills your needs.

This will save your cost and time from spending on in-house training and resources purchase if any because outsourcing experts can directly start work on advanced methodologies due to their experience and skills.

#3. Tight Deadlines

Logically, no in-house corporate employee is sitting free as everyone is occupied with some or other tasks. Outsourcing MVP is the best option to get the simplest version of the app in a short time and launch early in the market. These external teams are experienced and can manage to meet your tight deadlines with fast development and rapid iterations.

#4. Early-Stage Startups

The beginning of a startup business is always tough as it needs so much management, strategy planning, marketing, development, and more. During this time, due to limited resources, you may experience a shortage due to the sharing of resources and rush in development.

Handing over the technical roles and important stuff to outsourcing agencies takes away half of the burden. This way, you can focus on other crucial competencies and grow your business as you want.

Tips to Outsource MVP Software Development

It is very important to plan MVP outsourcing in a more defined way to attain success. Here, we will look at a few tips that should help outsource your project.

#1. Define the Scope

While this is elementary, it is important to reiterate this bit. By adding the scope properly, you can enhance the learning of the developers. This would help them realize the things they have to build for the application.

You should also define what is part of the scope and what’s not while writing it down.

#2. Experts for the Job

One of the biggest considerations while outsourcing is hiring the right people. You should always look at experts in the profession to help you with the job. You should consider hiring people proficient with MVP development, the technologies used and other aspects before you go ahead and outsource.

#3. Budget of the Project

This might again seem elementary. However, how many times have you overspent because your budget and scope didn’t match? This is a rudimentary mistake that you should avoid. Make sure to estimate the costs properly.

It is equally important to ensure you have an estimate for all scope-related elements. Don’t leave out even a bit of the scope for later.

#4. Resource Availability

Whether it is the IDE, the cloud services or people, you may not have them. However, the companies or teams that work towards MVP development would have the infrastructure and resources. This can help accelerate development.

If you plan to develop the MVP in-house, you would end up spending a lot of time and money. You must hire the resources and plan for the infrastructure. This can be avoided when you are working with the MVP development teams.

#5. Compliances

As you would be sharing a lot of heavy data with the team, it is important to maintain compliance. You should ensure there are sufficient protocols that determine the data privacy and other policies important for the data exchange. You should also sign bonds and other documents before you begin sharing the data.

#6. Communication Protocol

There should be a well-defined protocol on how the people within the team would communicate with the clients. It would help you resolve all the bottlenecks in time and ensure that the roles are established. Having a single point of contact and perfect channels for communication can enable your business.

Successful Startups Outsourced MVP

Below are successful startups that have outsourced MVP and thrive their business online.

#1. Alibaba

Alibaba is a popular name in the e-commerce industry which has now grown globally and expanded massively. The founder of Alibaba is Jack Ma who started this business by outsourcing MVP at the initial stage to one US firm due to a shortage of developers. This helped him focus on core business activities and make a great entry into the e-commerce market.

#2. Slack

Slack is no new name if you work remotely or freelance on a daily basis. It is one of the famous tools used for communication in the outsourcing industry. Slack outsourced its design part to a company named Metalab.

A user interface and effortless communication tools were the MVP's primary concerns. Slack was able to quickly produce a refined product by using outside expertise, attracting initial users and investors. The success of the MVP allowed Slack to improve its product based on input from its customers, making it one of the top contenders in this domain.

#3. Google

You will shocked to hear that Google has more than 90k in-house employees, but still, this top company chose to outsource some part of its development. Google outsourced backend things at the beginning including their search engine algorithms. The Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to make a better search engine without sacrificing anything hence they chose outsourcing to develop of necessary modules within a short time span.

This helped Google to develop a search engine that went on to win users while improving it day by day.

#4. Airbnb

Airbnb is a popular online booking website where people can list their houses for rent, and they aimed to improve its functionality in terms of making it more reliable and user-friendly to both guests and hosts regardless of where they were located.

So initially, Airbnb outsourced the MVP development to external designers and developers. They outsourced to increase the launch on time, test market conditions as well as get suggestions from their clients.

Conclusion

MVP development should be your first step to product creation. Without an MVP you shouldn’t venture into the product development zone as it can add to costs. Consider the above pros and cons of MVP software architecture before outsourcing your project to an agency whether it's worth the cost or not.

The MVP will give you an idea of how people react to the app idea, their needs, and the product roadmap. It is ideal to outsource your MVP development to a professional so that you get a faster launch and an engaging app.

Expert App Devs is a leading MVP development company. We help businesses gain feedback, scale the product and grow organically. Connect with our team for an interactive and intuitive MVP development.

FAQs

#1. What are the Main Benefits of Outsourcing MVP Development?

✅Outsourcing MVP development has many benefits because it helps to leverage experienced developers without hiring in-house teams. Below are the main benefits of outsourcing MVP development:

• It helps to reduce development costs.
• You get access to specialized expertise at an affordable cost.
• faster time to market means reaching more potential audiences.
• It provides flexibility, as teams can scale up or down based on project needs.

Additionally, external developers may hold experience across various industries, hence it can be a plus point to get fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to the project.

#2. How can I Ensure Quality when Outsourcing MVP Development?

✅The quality of your app depends on the outsourcing partner you choose for your project. Make sure you are choosing a reputable MVP outsourcing partner who has a proven track record and experience in the development industry. Other than this, defining the clear requirement is equally important to get the expected product. You should keep in touch with the development team and stay updated about the development process. Also thoroughly test the MVP version to ensure it delivers the best user experience.

#3. What are the Potential Risks of Outsourcing MVP Development?

✅Outsourcing MVP development comes with many cons too, which are communication barriers, time-zone differences, lack of control over the project, security concerts, quality issues, and more. The severity of risk depends on the outsourcing partner you choose. If the outsourcing company is not reputed and well-vetted, you may face confidentiality issues, misalignment in the project expectations, delays in work, and many other problems.

This will eventually raise your cost with more rework and leave your user unsatisfied.

#4. When is it Better to Keep MVP Development In-House rather than Outsourcing?

✅If the app development needs detailed domain knowledge, specific resources, and strict integration with existing systems and intellectual property, it's better to get MVP development done by in-house teams. This will help to work on the project with close collaboration and make the frequent changes more quickly hence this will make sure you are aligned with project goals and have great control over a project to deliver better results.

#5. How do I Choose the Right Outsourcing Partner for MVP Development?

✅Choosing the right outsourcing partner is the key to successful app development. Below are some important things you can follow to select the best outsourcing partner for MVP development.

• Evaluate their experience, expertise, and portfolio to understand their proficiency in MVP development.
• Check how well they understand your industry and project requirements.
• Analyze the various pricing models they offer.
• Read reviews or testimonials from previous clients to know about their experience and technical skills.

Other than this, cultural compatibility, the ability to meet deadlines, and deliver quality work, communication, and many other factors are important to consider before you choose the right outsourcing partner.