You have a product idea but not the money to build it in full. What is a minimum viable product? It is the simplest working version that teaches you what real customers want, for the least effort.
An MVP is one practical tool inside the wider topic of what is innovation, which covers how new ideas turn into things people use.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Eric Ries’s quoted MVP definition | 2009 |
| Term first used (by Frank Robinson) | 2001 |
| The Lean Startup book published | 2011 |
| Forms an MVP can take | Prototype, mock-up, beta version, landing page |
The dates and forms above come from MIT Orbit and t2informatik. Figures and definitions can change, so check the sources before you rely on them.
Where the idea comes from
The best-known definition comes from Eric Ries, who described an MVP as “that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.” The MIT Orbit knowledgebase quotes it as his 2009 wording.
The phrase itself is a little older. t2informatik says Frank Robinson first used it in 2001, and that Ries later published the method in his book The Lean Startup in 2011.
Ries’s approach, known as lean startup, builds on the customer development work of Steve Blank. Wikipedia describes the goal of an MVP as testing fundamental business hypotheses and starting the learning process as quickly as possible.
What counts as a minimum viable product
ProductPlan describes an MVP as a product with enough features to attract early-adopter customers and validate a product idea. The Agile Alliance adds that it may be no more than a landing page, or a service that looks automated but is fully manual behind the scenes.
Depending on the industry, t2informatik says an MVP can take several forms:
- A prototype or mock-up
- A beta version
- A smoke test
- A business model canvas
- A landing page
A physical product can start as a prototype too, and a separate guide asks how does 3d printing work to show one route to making one.
What matters is that real people use it. The Agile Alliance notes that seeing what people actually do is much more reliable than asking people what they would do.
Why does “viable” matter as much as “minimum”?
The viable half of the name is easy to forget. ProductPlan says the product must let customers complete an entire task or project and provide a high-quality user experience.
In its words, an MVP cannot be a user interface with many half-built tools and features. IONOS makes a similar point: an MVP is more than a prototype, since its key features need to work.
The Agile Alliance lists a common pitfall: believing that an MVP is the smallest amount of functionality a team can deliver, without the added test of being sufficient to learn about the business viability of the product.
How to build one, step by step
ProductPlan outlines a simple path from idea to a launch-ready MVP:
- Make sure the planned MVP aligns with your business objectives.
- Identify the specific problems you want to solve for your user persona.
- Translate that limited functionality into a plan of development action.
When choosing which functionality to include, ProductPlan suggests weighing these factors:
- User research
- Competitive analysis
- How quickly you can iterate when feedback arrives
- The relative cost of each user story or epic
Once the product is out, the build-measure-learn loop takes over. IONOS describes it as building your product, measuring customer reactions and learning from them over the shortest possible intervals.
Teams that want input beyond their own customers can read about what is open innovation, which covers drawing on ideas from outside an organisation.
Real-world examples of MVPs
Well-known brands show how small a first version can be. ProductPlan and Wikipedia give these examples:
- Airbnb: the founders used their own apartment, a minimalist website and photos of the property, and found paying guests almost immediately.
- Foursquare: it started as a one-feature MVP offering only check-ins and gamification rewards, then added recommendations and city guides.
- Zappos: founder Nick Swinmurn wanted to test whether customers were ready and willing to buy shoes online, as Ries described it.
Each team tested one risky assumption before committing a large budget. That is the core of the method: learn first, then expand.
Notice that none of these first versions tried to show the whole vision. They showed just enough for real customers to react to.
Common mistakes to avoid
Most failures come from misreading the idea rather than from the idea itself. t2informatik points to several traps:
- Skipping customer feedback, which leaves a company developing products on assumptions and risking the wrong target market.
- Committing early to a final product, which contradicts the MVP idea.
- Taking the skateboard-to-car picture too literally, since customers who want a car will hardly give feedback on a skateboard.
The lesson is to keep the learning goal in view. IONOS says the aim is to learn what customers like and to give up on ideas when there is no need for the product.
Frequently asked questions
Is an MVP the same as a prototype?
Show answer
No. IONOS says an MVP is more than a prototype, because its key features need to work.
Does an MVP have to be software?
Show answer
No. t2informatik says it can apply to products, business ideas or services, and the Agile Alliance notes a service can be manual behind the scenes.
What is the main benefit of an MVP?
Show answer
You find out whether customers want the product before building all of it. As the Agile Alliance puts it, the sooner you learn, the less effort and expense you spend on a product that will not succeed.
How does an MVP differ from a minimal marketable product?
Show answer
Some sources separate the two. t2informatik describes the minimal marketable product as having the smallest range of functions that already benefits early adopters and can be sold, with the MVP as its forerunner in that reading.
