The Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is fundamental to agile and Lean development.

It arises from the need to validate ideas and assumptions about a product or a new feature before investing a significant amount of time, effort and money in its full development.

Often, we have an idea that we believe will be a resounding success, but the market reality may be different.

The MVP acts as a quick experiment to test key hypotheses about customer needs and business viability, allowing you to learn and adjust direction based on real data rather than assumptions.

Concept and Purpose of the MVP: Validating Hypotheses

An MVP is the simplest possible version of a product that still allows you to deliver some core value to early adopters and, in return, collect the maximum amount of validated learning about them with the least amount of effort.

It is not an incomplete or low-quality product, but one with the minimum number of features necessary to test a fundamental hypothesis.

Its primary purpose is not to generate massive revenue immediately, but to validate whether the core idea of the product resonates with the market and whether customers find value in the proposed solution.

It is a tool to reduce the uncertainty and risk inherent in innovation.

"Fake it till you make it" Examples and Strategies.

To build an MVP quickly, the strategy of "faking" certain functionality that would be complex or costly to fully automate from the start is often used.

Manual Example: If a marketplace is created that requires a complex matching algorithm, the MVP could perform that matching manually behind the scenes while validating whether there is demand for the service.

The same applies to services that will eventually be automated but start with human intervention.

Faking a Party: In two-sided platforms (e.g., workers and employers), the initial supply or demand can be artificially generated to attract the other side and validate interest.

Limited Functional Prototype: The sometimes cited (though not literal) example of the skateboard evolving into a car illustrates the idea of starting with something simple that solves the basic need (transportation) before adding complexity. A more realistic example is a concept car before mass production.

New Features: For an existing product, such as Amazon considering drone delivery, the MVP might be to manually operate a few drones to validate demand and feasibility before building out the entire automated infrastructure.

It is important to manage customer expectations when launching MVPs of new features (e.g., label them as "beta").

MVP vs. Prototype: Key Differences

It is crucial to distinguish between an MVP and a prototype, as they are often confused.

Prototype: An early representation of an idea used to learn, explore designs or test usability internally or with users in a controlled environment.

It can be low fidelity (paper sketches, wireframes) or high fidelity (interactive mockups created with tools such as Sketch or Balsamiq).

Prototypes do not usu