If you work in product management, product development or just in technology or software at all, you’ve probably heard of the term ‘MVP’ or Minimum Viable Product. Everyone is using it these days. In this talk I'll explain what an MVP is, why I have a love and hate relationship with it, and how to apply it to your product development.

1. Why I love and
hate MVPs
— Andy Birds

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I love the underlying idea
of an MVP, but I hate the
confusion and
miscommunication it
causes...

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The term Minimum Viable
Product, MVP for short, is
one of the most misused
and abused concepts in
product development.

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Since the first use of the
term in 2001, the MVP
concept has spread
quickly and has become
part of
technology-business
lexicon

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The term itself was coined by Frank
Robinson but was made popular by
two influential names in product
design – Steve Blank, a
serial-entrepreneur and academic,
and Eric Ries, the pioneer of the
Lean Startup movement.

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2001 2003 2011 2012 2012
2010

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I used the
term
incorrectly
until June
2016
I first heard
the term
MVP in
June 2013
I realised I
had been
using it
incorrectly
December
2014

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There are subtle yet
important differences
between people's
understanding...

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Definition 1:
Frank Robinson, co-founder and president of
SyncDev, introduced the term Minimum
Viable Product (MVP) in 2001. An MVP is the
result of product development and customer
development executed in parallel, what he
calls “synchronous development.” Describes
the need for a smallest successful release.
http://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-product/

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Outcomes over
Outputs
https://blog.crisp.se/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/20130820-What-is-Agile.pdf

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The MVP is the sweet spot
between return on
investment (ROI) and risk,
which correlates directly
to effort and time to
market.

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https://www.syncdev.com/minimum-viable-product/

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“Think big for the long-term but
small for the short-term. Think big
enough that the first product is a
sound launching pad for it and its
next generation and the roadmap
that follows, but not so small that
you leave room for a competitor to
get the jump on you.”
— Frank Robinson

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Incremental delivery of thin slices of value
Delivering early and often
DO
DON’T

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Delivery
Track
Discovery
Track
EXPERIMENT
LEARN
MEASURE
DISCOVERY HYPOTHESIS
BUILD
LEARN
MEASURE
BUILD HYPOTHESIS
OBSERVATION
Dual Track Delivery

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“There is nothing so
useless as doing efficiently
that which should not be
done at all.”
— Peter Drucker

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Definition 1 =
smallest successful release
that maximises ROI

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Minimum Marketable Product
(MMP)
https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/minimum-viable-product-and-minimal-marketable-product/

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Definition 2:
“The Minimum Viable Product
(MVP) is that version of a new
product which allows a team to
collect the maximum amount of
validated learning about
customers with the least effort”
— Eric Ries

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“[The] biggest risk [is] making
something that no one wants […]
Not launching is painful, but not
learning is fatal […] Put something
in users hands, [it] doesn’t have to
be code, and get real feedback [as
soon as possible.]”
— Drew Houston, Dropbox CEO

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The Three Lenses of Innovation by IDEO

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Build
Measure
Learn Desirable
Viable
Feasible

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An MVP it is not necessarily
the smallest product
imaginable; it is simply the
fastest way to get through
the Build-Measure-Learn
feedback loop with the
minimum amount of effort.

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Lean startup favors:
experimentation over elaborate planning,
customer feedback over intuition,
and iterative design over traditional “big design up
front” development.

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Building MVPs is an
effective way to minimise
the TOTAL time through
the loop.

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“The real measure
of success is the
number of
experiments that
can be crowded
into 24 hours.”
— Thomas A.
Edison
Re-define success

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An MVP reduces costs and
risk if the hypothesis fails,
for example, due to
incorrect assumptions.

32. Would you rather know that something is
going to fail sooner or wait until you’ve
spent several months or years and
thousands or millions of pounds of
investment?

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Deliver
value
quicker

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Learning vehicle for a
fundamental business
hypotheses — an idea

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Definition 2 =
next best experiment
(smallest thing you could
make or do to test your
hypothesis)

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Definition 3:
People who use the term
MVP and don’t know who
Frank Robinson or Eric
Ries are — first rubbish
release

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In many companies and organisations
the term is used to describe the first
version of a product released to the
end customers. This “version one
release MVP” usually contains as little
functionality and features as is
possible without making the end
customers too upset, disappointed or
unwilling to pay.

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Most of the time the first
shippable version of the
product should not be
called the MVP...

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“If you don’t intend to learn
from the MVP, it is not an
MVP it is simply a release”
— Jimmy Janlén

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https://gary.mcad.am/youre-doing-mvp-wrong
❏ Scope negotiation
❏ Just a single MVP
❏ Phrases like “beta” and “alpha”, or “phase 1, 2, n…”
❏ No validation, no data
Signs of MVP Abuse

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Definition 3 =
First rubbish release
AVOID!!!!!
Do not call the first
release an MVP

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So which definition should
we use?... 1 or 2?...

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“MVP is that unique product that
maximizes return
on risk for both the vendor and the
customer”
— Frank Robinson

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“MVP is a concise summary of the
smallest possible group of features
that will work as a stand-alone
product while still solving at least
the “core” problem and
demonstrating the product’s value.”
— Steve Blank

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“Minimum Viable Product is that
version of a new product which
allows a team to collect the
maximum amount of validated
learning about customers with the
least effort.”
— Eric Ries

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From the “Gurus”
1. A tool to manage risk and maximise return on
investment for new products – Frank
Robinson
2. A tool to accelerate time-to-market by
targeting the least demanding customers
first – Steve Blank
3. A tool to maximise learning from customers
in high-uncertainty markets – Eric Ries

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Whole point of a MVP is to
show value enough to
attract early adopters and
collect feedback.

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MVP is a tool for
generating maximum
customer learning in the
shortest possible time.

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Good MVP Practises
❏ Continuous feedback loops, of build,
measure and learn;
❏ Data-driven
❏ A way to test a hypothesis

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If minimal means quickly,
and if viable means solving
the problem or meeting a
customer need (even in a
poor way), then both
definitions are useful.

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Your product development process
should include both the smallest
successful releases, and the next
best experiment that help you
identify them.

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Customer need
Improvement Opportunity
Market Opportunity
Hypothesis
Prioritise
Test & Learn
MVP
Build
Prioritise
Evolve
Feedback
DISCOVER DEFINE DELIVER
Explore Scale
Next best experiment
Smallest successful release

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If you use the term
MVP be super clear
what you mean.

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Minimum Testable
Unit/Product/Experiment

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https://blog.crisp.se/2016/01/25/henrikkniberg/making-sense-of-mvp

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The Truth Curve by Giff Constable

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''Ideas are cheap,
execution is everything.''
— Chris Sacca, Investor in
Twitter & Uber.

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Jeff Patton’s revised illustration of the Truth Curve

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Build the simplest product that
you can test to see if the
product should have been built
in the first place.
The objective of testing
experiments is to determine
whether or not development
should move forward or be
abandoned.

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The MVP strategy is an ideal design
approach for startup enterprises
though it is also often employed
within established corporations on
designs that may be considered
high-risk from investment or capital
standpoints.

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Maximise the
learning per £
spent

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“Should it be built?”
instead of
“Can it be built?”

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What is the riskiest assumption?
What is the smallest experiment
required to test it?

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You can view
the MVP as a
risk reduction
tool

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You’ll need to be deliberate
about exposing risks,
assumptions, and
questions and then
identifying fast ways to
learn and test them.

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Use experiments to avoid wasting money

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LEAN HYPOTHESIS
WE BELIEVE THAT [ target user ]
HAS A PROBLEM [ doing thing ]
WE CAN HELP THEM WITH [ our solution ]
WE’LL KNOW WE’RE RIGHT IF [ change in metric ].

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Experimentation process
1. Select the biggest
risk/assumption
2. Decide how to
address it
3. Collect the data
4. Analyse results
and make changes

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2 1
4 3
Uncertainty
Impact
High
Low
Low
High
Identify your “most dangerous assumptions”
Prioritise using a 2x2 impact vs. uncertainty

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2 1
4 3
Learning
Effort
Low
Low
High
High
Prioritise your experiments on another 2x2
Effort vs. Learning

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Design Sprints are are great way to create a prototypes / MVPss

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An MVP is not just a
prototype or demo. An
MVP is a version of a
product to test a
fundamental business
hypothesis

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An MVP is a strategy for
learning about your
customers.

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An MVP helps find
Product/Market fit

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WHAT
IS AN
MVP?
A minimal form of your
product that is tested in the
market. This allows you to
learn how your users will
react.
VERIFY:
★ Product viability
★ Market demand
★ Assumptions

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WHY
MVP?
The goal is to
validate that the
product has value
quickly, while
minimising
development
costs.

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If your MVP doesn’t do this
there’s probably a more
appropriate term to use...

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A minimal form of
your product that is
tested in the market.
This allows you to
learn how your users
will react to your
product.
POC
HOW will the
product or feature
be done?
- A working and
interactive model to
confirm direction
and discover any
issues.
CAN a product or
feature be done?
- Used to verify a
certain concept
can be achieved in
development,
without
considering
usability yet.
PROTOTYPE MVP

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Release
Candidate
(MMP)
Proof of
Concept
Dark
Launch
MMF
Spike
Paper
Prototype
Working
Prototype
Functional
Prototype
Spike
Pilot
Soft
Launch
Hard
Launch
MMF
MMF
Stable
Release
Iterations

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https://awazevr.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AS/pages/282200023/Product+delivery+terms+definitions

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Consider whether there’s a
completely different way to prove
your concept without even building
a product at all.

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15 MVP techniques
1. Customer Interviews
2. Landing Pages (SEM)
3. A/B (split) Tests
4. Ad Campaigns
5. Fundraising
6. Explainer Videos
7. Piecemeal MVPs
8. SaaS & PaaS
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9. Blogs
10. Wizard of Oz MVP
11. Concierge MVPs
12. Digital Prototypes
13. Paper Prototypes
14. Single-Feature MVPs
15. Pre-Order Pages

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MVP Examples
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Foursquare — started from collecting customer feedback using Google Docs

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Benefits of MVP
1. Accelerated and continuous learning and education
2. Shortest time between product launch on the market and early adopters
3. Ability to test a product hypothesis with minimal resources
4. Avoidance of the bigger failures and fund expense
5. Checking real-life market tendencies
6. Cooperation and hand-in-hand work with potential users in crafting the final product
7. Gaining and expanding the user base
8. Possibility to attract investors early
9. Ability to apply for crowdfunding
10. Reduction of potentially wasted engineering hours
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Summary

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MVP is simply the fastest way to get
through the Build-Measure-Learn
feedback loop with the minimum
amount of effort.

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MVP aims to avoid
building unuseful,
unnecessary products by
gaining insight about the
market first

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MVP is a strategy for
learning about your
customers.

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Lean Startup
Test your product or service early
So that you discover failures and
achieve SUCCESS.
It’s all about getting outcomes rather
than getting outputs.

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Lean startup recommends
using an Minimum Viable
Product to get
‘Product/Market fit’

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Use Agile
frameworks/methods and
Lean Startup thinking
together

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Deliver iteratively and
incrementally – Move from
big to small learning loops
(Build- Measure- Learn).

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Building The
RIGHT THINGS
Faster

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*But be aware that
MVP is a loaded term -
using the term
sparingly to avoid
confusion

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Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me at @AndyBirds