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On MVPs and smallification

Spoiler: MVP is not a smaller version of your final product.

Bruno Pešec
Bruno Pešec
1 min read
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.

Lean StartupEntrepreneurshipInnovation

Bruno Pešec

I help business leaders innovate profitably at scale.

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