Subject areaRevenue and sales
An MVP (minimum viable product) is the simplest version of a product that lets you learn something from real customers with the least effort.
Frank Robinson introduced the term in 2001, and Steve Blank and Eric Ries made it famous, Ries making it the first step of the Lean Startup loop.
The key word is «minimum», and it is also the most misunderstood: an MVP exists to test an assumption, so it can be a page, a demo video, a service delivered by hand before it is automated. In marketing and sales the MVP is often an offer: you propose it to a few customers before building it, and their answer tells you whether to build it.
Source: Eric Ries, The Lean Startup, 2011.
An example
A chemical company is weighing a consumption-analysis service for its industrial customers. The MVP is a spreadsheet filled in by hand by a technician for a few customers: if they use it and ask for it again, the software gets built.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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