What is a Minimum Viable Product?
The main misconception of an MVP is to build smaller, cheaper, or limited versions of a product, however, that’s wrong. An MVP is about learning from your customers and testing your assumptions before you even begin to build your product.
1) “An MVP is not a Cheaper Product, It’s about Smart Learning”
Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur and the father of the Lean Startup movement, explains that the importance of an MVP is not necessarily to create a “cheaper version of your product,” but rather to test in the simplest form possible if you have a product that customers care about, and discover if it has a potential for business [1].
Steve Blank emphasizes that the main advantage of an MVP is to learn from your customers and test your own assumptions, without having to spend a lot of money or time building something users may not want or need.
I agree with Steve Blank’s definition of an MVP. I think Blank does a great job at clarifying that an MVP does not involve building the first version, or a cheaper version of your product, which may be the first thing that comes to mind when you are planning to do a startup. Instead, it is important to take a step back and learn as much as you can from your customers — their wants, needs, and pain points — and then using this learning phase as the template to guide your building process.
However, I think Blank’s definition could be improved by connecting the idea of the learning phase and talking to customers with the concept of value proposition. Benson Garner, in his article, “Don’t Build When You Build-Measure-Learn ” defines an MVP as, “an artifact or representation of a value proposition,” which goes beyond Blank’s simple clarification between building a cheaper product and learning through an MVP [2]. Garner’s explanation provides a clear connection to the idea of creating value for your customers which directly links to the role of Product Managers.
Links:
- 1. Check out Steve Blank’s explanation of an MVP here — “An MVP is not a Cheaper Product, It’s about Smart Learning” : https://steveblank.com/2013/07/22/an-mvp-is-not-a-cheaper-product-its-about-smart-learning/
- 2. For examples of MVPs click this link: http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2015/5/7/dont-build-when-you-build-measure-learn
2) What are the key differences between a Prototype and an MVP?
Prototype:
Definition: A prototype is a proof of concept, that is functional (lacks nice design and UI/UX) but not ready to launch to the market.
Purpose: It’s purpose is to see if a product or idea is feasible, and to show others that you are committed to building this in the near future. Additionally, a prototype can be enough to get some initial seed funding that you can use to build your MVP.
MVP
Definition: MVP is more than a proof of concept, it is the first version of your product and a basic model of your product that has a few key features you will test.
Purpose: An MVP’s purpose is to test your product and get it in the hands of your customers/group of users to collect as much feedback as possible.
3) Which comes first and why?
A prototype comes first, since you want to get validation on your idea/concept before you spend resources building an actual product that users may not find much value in.
Key differences:
MVP — is focused on showing your value proposition to your users, it demonstrates how your idea can be sustainable (business opportunity), it is a learning phase.
Prototypes — are build as fast as possible, it could be a simple sketch to mobile screens on paper. It is meant for smaller groups, goes through several progressions and iterations.
Links:
- MVP vs. Prototype Presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/harriken/lean-ux-workshop-makers-of-barcelona-mob-agile-bcn-meetup (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
- To learn more about how to choose between an MVP or a Prototype check this link: http://www.loftinspace.com.au/blog/mvps-and-prototypes.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
