MVP For Fun And Profit

If you can measure user reactions, you can build an MVP. "Minimum Viable Product," or MVP, is a phrase from Eric Reis and his Lean Startup book. An MVP is a product or product improvement that it is just functional enough to test customer reaction. At the same time that you test your product, you can also test your business model and your ability to attract customers. The MVP can be as simple as an advertisement. You could advertise a product to see if people want it before you invest too much time developing it. You build the simplest product, or product change, that you can test for a measurable result.

It's a brilliant idea. It speeds up your product development, and it prevents you from wasting time.

However, in my opinion, MVP is really two ideas. There are two ways to improve your product. You can innovate, and you can optimize.

  • You innovate when you give the customer something he didn't know he needed, or could get. Your creativity and ability to deliver go beyond the imagination of other market participants.
  • After you innovate, you start to optimize. You incrementally improve your product and take it from useful, to good, to great. You can spend a lot of time making thousands of optimizations.

There are two related types of MVP, which I will call Mvp and mVP.

The MINIMUM viable product or product change is an optimization. You make small changes until you get measurable results. You reverse changes quickly if they aren't well received. You don't worry much about the impact of these tests on your reputation or other risks. You make changes frequently and don't worry about timing. It's all about execution. If you are working on optimization, just do it, and pay attention to the measurements.

The minimum VIABLE PRODUCT is an innovation. You have to produce a complete product to show what is possible. It needs to be a good product.

Early roadmaps should be built around the minimum VIABLE PRODUCT. A minimum VIABLE PRODUCT takes a lot longer to produce than a MINIMUM viable product, and it requires thoughtfulness and constant risk management. Designing a minimum VIABLE PRODUCT is an art. You will need to work hard to understand the essence of your product, and get to early releases that truly are VIABLE and MINIMUM. If you design by committee, you will miss the essence of the innovation, and miss on VIABLE. If you follow your instincts, you will usually overbuild and miss on MINIMUM.