In product development, the minimum viable product is a strategy used for fast and quantitative
market testing of a product or product feature. The term was coined by Frank Robinson and
popularized by Eric Ries for web applications. It may also involve carrying out market analysis
beforehand.
Description A minimum viable product has just those core
features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more. The product is typically deployed
to a subset of possible customers, such as early adopters that are thought to be more
forgiving, more likely to give feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from an early
prototype or marketing information. It is a strategy targeted at avoiding building products
that customers do not want, that seeks to maximize the information learned about the
customer per dollar spent. "The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which
allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with
the least effort." The definition's use of the words maximum and minimum means it is
decidedly not formulaic. It requires judgment to figure out, for any given context, what
MVP makes sense. An MVP is not a minimal product, it is a strategy
and process directed toward making and selling a product to customers. It is an iterative
process of idea generation, prototyping, presentation, data collection, analysis and learning. One
seeks to minimize the total time spent on an iteration. The process is iterated until
a desirable product/market fit is obtained, or until the product is deemed to be non-viable.
Steve Blank typically refers to Minimum Viable Product as Minimum Feature Set.
Purposes Be able to test a product hypothesis with
minimal resources Accelerate learning
Reduce wasted engineering hours Get the product to early customers as soon
as possible Requirements
Results from a Minimum Viable Product Test can indicate that the product should not be
built, then it is a real test and Minimum Viable Product
Notable Quotes Steve Blank: "You’re selling the vision
and delivering the minimum feature set to visionaries not everyone".
Techniques A minimum viable product may be a prototype,
an entire product, or a sub-set of product. For Products
(smoke test) The canonical MVP strategy for a web application is to create a mock website
for the product and purchase online advertising to direct traffic to the site. The mock website
may consist of a marketing landing page with a link for more information or purchase. The
link is not connected to a purchasing system, instead clicks are recorded and measure customer
interest. Real life examples can be found online on a daily basis.
For Services ("concierge test") Commonly used for services
where there are attempts to charge a customer for manually performing the service without
any product development. For example, an online radio service plays music based on individual
taste. One could test pricing on the customer by sitting physically next to the customer
and manually building a playlist based on the customer’s prior music selection and
apparent emotional or physical reactions to the music. One can test willingness to pay
for this concierge service directly. Willingness to pay for such a personal service would provide
grounds that the mentioned customer is willing to pay for a less personal online music service.
For Features (deploy first, code later) A link to a new
feature in a web application may be provided in a prominent location on an existing website.
The feature is not implemented, rather an apology, mock-up, or marketing page is provided.
Clicks of the link are recorded and provide an indication as to the demand for the feature
in the customer base. Differentiation
Releasing and assessing the impact of a minimum viable product is a market testing strategy
that is used to screen product ideas soon after their generation. It is facilitated
by Rapid Application Development tools and languages common to web application development.
The MVP differs from the conventional market testing strategy of investing time and money
early to implement a product before testing it in the market. The MVP is intended to ensure
that the market wants the product before a large time and monetary investment is made.
The MVP differs from the open source methodology of release early, release often that listens
to users, letting them define the features and future of the product. The MVP starts
with a product vision, which is maintained throughout the product life cycle, although
it is adapted based on the explicit and implicit feedback from potential future customers of
the product. The MVP is a strategy that may be used as
a part of Steven Blank's customer development methodology that focuses on continual product
iteration and refinement based on customer feedback. Additionally, the presentation of
non-existing products and features may be refined using web-based statistical hypothesis
testing, such as A/B testing. The general method of deploy first, code later
is akin to the agile program code testing methodology called test-driven development
where unit tests are written before and fail until the code is written.
Business Model Canvas The Business Model Canvas is used to map out
the major components and activities for a company starting out. The Minimum Viable Product
can be designed by using selected components of the Business Model Canvas:
Customers Value Proposition
Channels Relationship
Emerging Applications Concepts from Minimum Viable Product are applied
in other aspects of startups and organizations. Minimum Viable Co-Founder
Finding other people to create a Minimum Viable Product is a common challenge for new companies
and startups. The concept of Minimum Viable Co-Founder is based on looking for a co-founder
with the following attributes: Trust
Exceptional at building or selling Company commitment
Personally likable Productivity
Reasonable Rational
Realistic Minimum Viable Team
Founders with an early-stage company are faced with the same challenge of building a team
with minimal people and cost. The process starts by listing out the basic functions
of a particular company and then stripping down to the abstract job activities and skills
that the company must have in order to operate. See also
The Cathedral and the Bazaar Startup company
Customer Development Steven Gary Blank
Eric Ries Lean startup
Product/market fit Minimum marketable feature
References ^ W. S. Junk, "The Dynamic Balance Between
Cost, Schedule, Features, and Quality in Software Development Projects", Computer Science Dept.,
University of Idaho, SEPM-001, April 2000. ^ Eric Ries, March 23, 2009, Venture Hacks
interview: "What is the minimum viable product?", Lessons Learned
^ Ries, Eric. "Minimum Viable Product: a guide". ^ Radoff, Jon, "Minimum Viable Product Rant,"
May 4, 2010, http:radoff.com201004 ^ a b Blank, Steve. "Perfection By Subtraction
– The Minimum Feature Set". ^ "Cheat Sheet: Minimum Viable Product".
^ Ries, Eric. "Lessons Learned: Minimum Viable Product: A Guide, Lessons Learned". Archived
from the original on January 28, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
^ Kromer, Tristan. "The Four Parts of a Minimal Viable Product".
^ Shah, Darmesh. "Choosing A Minimally Viable Co-Founder".
^ O'Donnell, Charlie. "Minimum Viable Team". External links
MVPs - an introduction, handy summary of MVP techniques, Paper, October 2013
How to create a minimum viable product?, Techcrunch, Emre Sokullu, July 13, 2012
Minimum viable product and the importance of experimentation in technology startups,
Technology Innovation Management Review, Dobrila Rancic Moogk, March, 2012
What is the minimum viable product?, Venture Hacks: Advice for entrepreneurs, March 23,
2009 Minimum Viable Product: a guide, Lessons Learned,
Eric Ries, August 3, 2009 Approaching a Minimum Viable Product, Three
Rivers Institute: Thoughts on Programming, Kent Beck, August 7, 2009
10 examples of minimum viable products, Venture Hacks: Advice for entrepreneurs, October 27,
2009 Minimum Viable Product revisited – the MVP
Curve?, Methodologist, January 12, 2010 The Bootstrapper's Guide to Launching New
Products Inc. Oct 1, 2009 Minimum Viable Product SyncDev 2008
Smoke test sample Quora Thread on MVP, December, 2013
[1] Quora: What are the best examples of Minimum Viable Product released by a Lean Startup?
How To Think About Minimum Viable Products, And The Path To Passion At Startup Festival
TechCrunch, July 2013