What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

Question

Accepted Answer

A **Minimum Viable Product (MVP)** is the smallest version of a product that delivers real value and lets you **learn** whether you're on the right track. The goal isn't to ship something cheap — it's to test the riskiest assumption with the least effort before investing further.

## The key idea

```text
MVP = MINIMUM (smallest build) + VIABLE (actually usable, delivers value)

NOT minimum + broken
NOT every feature, half-finished
BUT a real, focused slice that solves one problem well
```

## A concrete example

You want to build a meal-kit delivery app. A full app with menus, payments, and logistics is months of work. An MVP might be a simple landing page plus a manual process: customers order by form, and you arrange deliveries by hand. If nobody orders, you've saved months. If they do, you've validated demand before building.

## The famous illustration

If the goal is transportation, don't ship a single wheel and call it an MVP. Ship a skateboard — small, but it actually gets someone somewhere. Each iteration gets closer to the car.

## Common pitfalls

```text
✗ "MVP" used as an excuse to ship something broken
✗ Cramming in features → it's no longer minimum
✗ Building the MVP but never measuring/learning from it
```

## Why it matters

Most product ideas are wrong in some way.

An MVP de-risks that: you spend a little to learn a lot, instead of betting months on an untested guess.

The "viable" part matters as much as the "minimum" — a slice that doesn't actually work teaches you nothing.