On MVPs and smallification

Have you heard of minimum viable products (MVPs)?

The term has been bastardized in a multitude of directions, declared dead and alive, and reimagined in a number of ways.

But mostly, it has been missunderstood.

So let's go back to the basics.

The purpose of an MVP is to test a specific assumption or hypothesis laid out in your lean experiment.

It is a learning tool that's supposed to be cheap, small, and fast.

You are supposed to go through as many MVPs as needed in order to develop a value proposition that resonates with your targeted customer segment and sells well.

MVP is not a:

• one-off activity, or
• a smaller version of your final product.

Quite the contrary, an MVP usually has constrained:

• functionality,
• operations, and
• targeted customer needs.

Coupled with a clearly defined learning goal, above constraints enable you to develop the smallest possible test that can produce trustworthy insight.

And that's how you increase the likelihood of your own success.