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.