The Corona crisis hit everyone very hard, but it is not always bad stuff coming out of bad situations. Often times, it’s actually on quite the contrary, you just realize it late in the process… Here is our story about this realization for our MVP’s (minimum viable product).
The fashion- and lifestyle industry was extraordinarily hit hard during the Corona crisis due to a sudden forced lock-down. This made brands and shops find themselves in a situation where the could not sell their products and drive revenue to pay rent and pay employees. At the same time, they also had booming stock with the newest trends and styles that consumers could not buy and which would soon not be relevant anymore. Distributors and shops whom normally buy these relevant styles and trends stopped buying from the brands, as the knew they could not sell them, as the lock-down continued throughout the spring period.
How we went from idea to MVP, and then to the finished product, in a few days
We realized that we had to do something to help out our brands and shops. Hence, our first idea was to create the concept of dropshipping and implement it to shops. We all know the concept of dropshipping from a B2C perspective, but is has not been implemented from a B2B perspective. So, with the idea of creating something that was working from a B2C perspective and implement it in a B2B context we started the ideation process and how to test this idea with a MVP.
Once we had the idea ready, a B2B dropshipping concept, making it possible for shops and distributors to buy directly through our B2B shop only once an end-consumer had bought it. In this way, the issues of large unsold stock was solved and at the same time we minimized the interaction between people so that the risk of getting Corona would be lower. The idea was there and it only to us 4 days to create the MVP. After a short beta test we scaled out the B2B dropshipping possibility to all our clients and the MVP is to this very day actually still the live product.
Don’t be afraid of shipping a MVP if it is tested and ready for go-live
Why should you be afraid of shipping a MVP if you have finished the testing and the users like it? This was our idea, so after approximately one week, we had end-users able to use this product. Also, being able to move this fast and being so agile, we was able to move on and try to build a new product, which we aimed to solve more issues related to Corona but also based on a general demand in the market – Virtual showrooms!
How we went from idea to MVP to final product and large deals in weeks… The demand in the market for a virtual showroom and digital lookbook was further supported by the sudden Corona lock-down situation. Due to restrictions, close-down etc. brands, shops, distributors and the entire value chain of the fashion- and lifestyle industry was changed with a blink of an eye. Brands could not sent out sales agents to show their new collections, styles and trends and hence no one could buy them. Also, the large and famous fashion shows and fairs could not take place due to the limitations of the amount of people allowed to gather at venues. So, a digital solution where brands could show their existing and new collections to the rest of the world was essential for their business.
Our ‘Traede virtual showroom’ product went from idea to product in a few weeks
Once we had the basic concept we started ideation on our new virtual showroom product. Our developers started developing a MVP, which we then could sent out as a beta test for a couple of selected clients. The concept was spot on, our clients loved it and the virtual showroom solution immediately created a large demand making it a top priority to for us to finish the product as fast as possible. This was now possible as we had just finished another product very fast, directly from idea to MVP, and our developers could now focus on the shipment of the new virtual showroom product.
Our new ‘MVP-to-finished-product’ work methodology
How going from MVP to a finished product in a few days has affected our business and development work process. We have realized that we can ship products much faster than first expected. We are not afraid of launching a product even though it is ONLY or STILL a MVP. Why would we be afraid of this when the MVP is actually a fully tested and fully functioning product, right? Then it is actually a finished product just waiting for shipment. We have saved time and eventually money, and our developers can quickly move on to a new project.
