Ways to Find Your Minimum Viable Audience

Too many products go straight to the junkyard because their creators first came up with the product idea and then tried to find those who would buy it. We get it, your cool business idea could seem like a breakthrough, and you may feel the urge to start bringing it to life as soon as possible. But in reality, if you want to do things right, you have to act based on data instead of gut feelings and guesses. In this scenario, development should take place at a much later stage of the product lifecycle and be preceded by research, analysis, and other preparatory work.

The bottom line is that it's not about what you assume would be useful, it's about finding out what the target audience actually needs, what they're struggling with, and what you can do to help. By finding a select group of potential customers and gaining insight into their core needs, a product team is likelier to deliver effective solutions that will sell. And if you pause for a minute to think about what is at stake (we're talking wasted money, time, and other resources), cool-headed decision-making could quickly seem like the more obvious and safer path.

On this page, we'll introduce you to the minimum viable audience concept. We'll explain how to find MVA for your product and explore the business advantages of concentrating on a specific group, as this approach can let you connect with your ideal customers, obtain feedback, and lay a foundation for your product's on-point growth. 

What Is a Minimum Viable Audience?

A minimum viable audience (MVA) is a strategic business methodology that prioritizes the identification and targeting of the most narrowly defined audience, which will be able to sustain a product or service.

For example, multiple companies with digital products that are renowned today initially aimed at a minimum viable audience. For instance, Trello once targeted small teams and individuals needing a simple project management tool, while in the early days, Canva focused on non-designers seeking easy graphic design tools.

By engaging with the smallest, most defined group that's capable of supporting the product, directing their resources toward them, and focusing their efforts on serving this niche segment, product teams can foster deeper engagement and loyalty, and stimulate ongoing growth.

Importantly, it should all start with a problem, not a solution. The thing is that when you're building an MVP or a more full-fledged product version from the start, there's no room for the "chicken or the egg" paradox. If you want to raise the odds of your product becoming something big, the "egg" goes first, period.

Falling back on the previous example, Canva's team most likely figured out that too many non-designers were struggling to get the grasp of legacy graphic tools like Photoshop that had a ratther complicated learning curve for non-professionals. This was their niche, and such people formed the basis of their MVA.

In fact, rushing to develop something before you've confirmed that the problem exists and found a big enough target audience is among the most common and deadly MVP mistakes you'd like to avoid. We'll explain that in more detail next.

Why Is Finding a Minimum Viable Audience Important?

While the MVP benefits might be clear, what makes MVA allocation such an integral step? And what does it bring businesses?

If you think that absolutely anyone can make use of what you are offering, you're probably wrong. Building a product for "everyone" mass-market style might mean that you've overestimated the market size and are missing the mark big time, especially if you're making a digital product, app, SaaS solution, or something along these lines.

It might also mean that you have no clue who your target audience is. A lack of such knowledge will only lead to trouble with marketing, acquisition, and product expansion, as you'll be taking action based on unbacked guesses and product hypotheses.

What do successful product teams do? For starters, they understand that an MVA acknowledges that customers may differ significantly in importance. In the business world, rather than attempting to cater to a huge and diverse market, it is far more strategic to focus on a niche audience, serving it exceptionally in terms of quality and delivered value. 

By concentrating on a specific audience, companies can refine their outreach and product. Following a targeted approach definitely helps while developing marketing strategies that resonate. When they are laser-focused on a certain group, this lets you create a stronger connection with the intended audience and increase engagement. How? If people begin to see the product as a personalized solution to their problem, this can foster brand loyalty.

What else can targeting a distinct niche do for your MVP? A much more specific focus allows to carve out a niche in markets and discover segments that are often overlooked and whose needs aren't met. Certainly, this lets the product operate in less crowded spaces, minimizes competition, and draws it nearer to finding product-market fit.

It can contribute to smarter resource allocation as well. It optimizes processes and directs efforts and resources to the most impactful areas that matter most. This is essential during the MVP stage, as most projects aren't back with infinite resources, especially if the business or startup is in its early stages of development.

As a result, if the product team manages to cater to and meet the MVA's needs, this can position the company sturdily. A solid foundation can pave the way to smoother scaling as well as faster growth in the after MVP stages.

What Is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and Why Does It Matter?

Article by

Maria Arinkina

How to Find Your Minimum Viable Audience

Building a minimum viable audience takes effort. Here are some recommendations on how to find MVA effectively. 

Step 1: Pinpoint Your Core Audience

It's essential that proof of concept follows the ideation phase, as you mustn't skip straight to development. As we've mentioned, you should first find a problem and only then come up with a solution for it, as doing it the other way around will be like trying to fit a square block into a triangular space.

Prospering product teams are often innovators who don't aim for universal appeal and spread efforts. What's their strength? They concentrate on meeting the unique needs of a particular segment or specific demographic.

For instance, at the outset, Canva's team didn't try to appeal to everyone. They focused on a small niche audience of non-designers who were frustrated with the need to figure out complex design solutions like Corel, Photoshop, or Adobe. So they directed their attention to the creation of an easy-to-use design tool that'll be intuitive and let ordinary people make professional-looking designs. And they needed a small but loyal user base that truly enjoyed the offering, as it mattered more than having a million of those who just noticed the solution. This focus on passionate users made it possible for the tool to eventually grow to its success today.

To fuel your business or initiative, you should look for a targeted group that shares a mutual need or desire. They'll be the ones to represent your smallest viable market. Getting your hands on such findings at early project stages like the discovery phase can help kick the entire process off the right foot.

You must gain a comprehensive understanding of your customer segments, and yes, this will take a lot of time and effort. Who exactly are the people you're looking to help with your offering? You need a microniche. And the more focused your target audience is, the simpler it'll be to meet their needs and excel with it. For example, your product could be targeted not at all moms in the world, but at pregnant women from the USA who are in their last trimester. So, dig deep and study the:

• demographic profile (essentials like age, gender, geographic location, income levels);
• psychographics (from their interests and core values to decision-making, behavioral patterns, and levels of interest);
• pain points (which challenges or needs this group encounters).

Step 2: Formulate the Problem and Solution

Now that you have more details on your minimum viable segment of the audience, draft the product problem statement. Based on your findings, note which issues are in focus, who has them, why now is the time to solve the problem, and what you'll create to solve it.

Prominently, you have to decide what you'll do to delight your target audience, how exactly you'll cater to their needs, and what will let you stand out from the competitors. For example, if US women in their last trimester are your niche market and they face a common challenge of not being able to attend offline labor and maternity classes because they're far away from where they live or because they're afraid of going there due to the risk getting sick or catching the flu in a public space, an online platform with virtual birth preparation classes can be the answer. How will your solution bring value to this small group of individuals? Live and recorded sessions on childbirth education can be part of the MVP version that lets the audience discover the value of the offering. It may be later fitted with a Q&A chatbot where future mothers can ask questions, which could be the solution's strong suit.

Such findings and statements will shape the basics of your project. They'll guide further steps of the process like prototyping, messaging, and what to put on the MVP roadmap in general.

Step 3: Conduct Thorough Market Research

But even if you've confirmed that the problem exists and that it would be nice to provide a solution for it, you must also validate market demand. You need proof that there's a big enough market for your product to stand a chance and bring a return on investment.

This is why you should do in-depth market research to find out as much as you can about the industry and current trends. Studying the competitors or similar existing solutions is also integral, marking their strengths, applied strategies, and anything you can find out.

By defining all of this, you'll get a few steps closer to calculating market size realistically. At this point, you have to ensure that the size is substantial enough to support the business's objectives. For instance, are you sure that there are enough US-based mothers-to-be in their third trimester willing to download your app and purchase the guides or services it offers? If the audience is too narrow or small, your product won't have the necessary level of adoption to be profitable soon and in the long run.

How many passionate fans of your product should you aim for? There's no exact number, as for some teams (say, with an expensive product), 100 could be a good starting point, while for others it could be 1000. The size of your "minimum" depends on what you're going to build.

Step 4: Seek the Best Communication Channels

A well-defined MVA profile can surely aid product development, shaping the priorities based on specific client needs. But it can also make marketing initiatives more effective. To do so, you have to find the optimal channels of communication so you can reach out to the audience using what they prefer. Evaluate the platforms and determine where and when your audience is most active.

Once you know which digital channels like social media platforms or forums, means like email campaigns, and non-online channels should be used to interact with the audience, think about the content to share and tailor your messaging. Moreover, adjust the frequency and timing of your communication to come up with a schedule and reach the right people with maximum impact.

You can even use low-fidelity types of MVPs like landing pages to introduce early adopters to the product that's undergoing construction and start building a loyal following prior to launch. It could let you test the waters, engage a group of people who care about the problem in focus, and start collecting user details, warming up the audience for the upcoming release. 

Step 5: Set Up a Feedback Loop

Right at the earliest MVP stages, you'll be seeking feedback from your early adopters and target audience. You need meaningful insights throughout the entire lifecycle to improve the product, and the best way to get information is by asking for it first-hand. How? You can run surveys, use polls, or interviews to gain qualitative data from your MVA, or at least its most receptive part.

Step 6: Prepare for the Possible Challenges

Before the product team moves on to consequent steps that involve actual product development, you should be aware of and ready to overcome a few possible challenges. Here are several noteworthy points to keep in mind:

• minimum viable audience research isn't a one-time deal (gathering feedback and communicating with the target audience is a non-stop task since you should be aware of any changes in needs, trends, and so on);
• you have to be ready to adapt (sticking to the agile MVP approach is important as user preferences may change, and your offering must be flexible and able to change with it);
• you must still have expansion in view (while the MVA is an important focus, you should be open to looking for ways to gradually expand your offering, for instance, you can attempt to find an analogous niche market in another country, a closely-spaced demographic, or a broader market you can attempt at acquiring);
• competitors can be snapping at your heels (there's always a risk that a competing company can release something similar to your offering and try to lure your MVA away to their at times more established or well-known brand, so don't let them out of your sight in order to not lose your market share).

Final Thoughts on the Smallest Viable Audience

Casting a wide net isn't the answer. Reaching out to a mass audience won't help your product suffice either if you won't manage to distinguish your core audience.

Mind that finding customers for a product you came up with is not the goal, instead, your focus should be on developing a product that's tailored to cater to specific customer needs. And the smaller the audience in focus, the better.

Do your best to find the smallest group of potential buyers and a market that's big enough for your offering to survive. How "minimum" should the audience's number be? Well, that depends on what you're planning to build and how you're going to generate revenue.

However, the only way to find out whether development is worth a shot is by going through research and engaging with the target audience to get answers about their preferences. Once you understand their needs, it'll be easier to differentiate your offering from the competitors, excite people, and cultivate a loyal audience. You may even come to discover that its size isn't as small as you thought initially!

And if you're seeking assistance with building your minimum viable product, you can count on Upsilon's team of pros who can be with you the entire way. We can start with the discovery phase service to shape the work ahead and proceed with the MVP development service to create the solution. Feel free to reach out to us to discuss your needs.