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# On MVPs and smallification
- URL: https://www.pesec.no/on-mvps-and-smallification/
- Published: 2021-07-12T07:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2021-07-12T07:00:00.000Z
- Description: Spoiler: MVP is not a smaller version of your final product.
- Author: Bruno Pešec
- Tags: Lean Startup, Entrepreneurship, Innovation

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](https://www.pesec.no/step-by-step-guide-for-designing-lean-experiments/).

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](https://www.pesec.no/what-do-you-need-to-learn/), 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.