MVP – Minimum Viable Product – Your Most Valuable Player The Minimum Viable Product or MVP is integral to LEAN development. It is the best way to clarify what should be taken to market. That is helpful when it comes to explaining the new product to potential customers. It is also an important step in ensuring that the basic value proposition is understood. If customers indicate they would be interested but only if certain features were added, that’s a positive signal because additional features can always be added. Additional features are just that. We’re interested in testing to see if the basic product concept and initial value proposition resonates. We’re also interested in understanding what assumptions we’ve made in concluding that the product will actually meet a need and whether potential customers agree with our thoughts on what constitutes the value proposition. The MVP gets to the guts of the issue as to whether the core features are of interest, and which of the basic underlying attributes of the offering may need to be rethought:
- Were we right in our assessment of the kinds of customers that would be interested?
- Do potential customers agree with us in terms of the problem to be solved and whether
- the product will actually help to solve it?
- What have we assumed that was on the mark, and which assumptions were not?
- What changes should be considered?
When MVP’s are presented, there are three possible outcomes – a high level of agreement, a partial level of agreement and a clear indication that we missed the mark. Not every potential customer will agree with the basic value proposition. It’s important to set some response criteria to assess whether there is enough support to move forward or not.
If you found this information helpful, please read the full Position Paper from Upturn Consulting: Starting Out LEAN