The MVP

This experiment is called the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The MVP is an important concept that is a departure from the traditional big bang approach of building out a polished product and then taking it to the market. It represents the minimal set of features and functionality that would need to be built in a product in order to test market viability and maximize validate learning.

The MVP and its subsequent iterations are initially designed to test two things: whether customers will value your product, and how easily your product will expand.

Of course, the hard part often is deciding how minimal you need to be. The initial tests can be simple landing pages, interactive wireframes, or functional prototypes. The key is to create an MVP that tests the validity of the hypotheses you created in your BMC.

For instance, a landing page that promotes a nonexistent product is an inexpensive way to dip your toe in the water. It can test whether your target audience is interested in the solution and value proposition you developed in your BMC. You can also measure word-of-mouth referrals on a prototype, for example, to see how scalable your solution is.

When asked how minimal is minimal, Eric Ries once responded, More minimal than you think. But this can be a challenge for many development teams who care about putting out polished work. If they feel that the product is incomplete, they will hesitate to put it out for review and testing.

The underlying fear is the fear of criticism or rejection, and is a natural human reaction. The important thing to recognize is that there will be criticism and rejection, and that is just part of the journey.

Understanding which criticism and feedback to act upon matters if you want to improve. Invariably, putting a minimal version of your product out in the market may lead to critical feedback about areas which you may have chosen not to pay attention to. This is where a balanced, pragmatic approach is important. You may choose to disregard feedback in these areas, since it was a deliberate choice that you made.

However, the MVP was released for a reason: to gain information about certain questions you had, and to see if you are on the right track towards developing a product your customers will want to, and be able to, use. It is important to focus on feedback in the areas you care about to surface surprises and data that will lead to the next round of tests.

As we will see in the future chapters, focusing on feedback is the key to effectively implementing the Build-Measure-Learn cycle. Each new iteration will provide you with more feedback, which can then be used to test and improve future releases.