A minimum viable product (MVP) is a development technique which involves a new product or website being developed with the minimum amount of functionality required to satisfy early adopters, and thus validate or invalidate the idea - with the final, complete set of features only being developed once feedback has been received.
An MVP typically consists of three main characteristics:
- It has enough value that people are willing to use it or buy it initially.
- It demonstrates enough future benefit to retain early adopters.
- It provides a feedback loop to guide future development.
One consideration however is that, as a development technique, an MVP assumes that early adopters will buy-in to the vision of the final product and thus provide the feedback required to enhance the product going forward. For this reason, technically-orientated products typically benefit the most from the MVP technique, as the intended audience (e.g. those who are technologically-minded) is most appropriate for it.
As part of the process, and when developing an MVP we would typically consider the following:
- Viability/proof of concept
- Technical specifications
- Product/website objectives
- Product/website features (both initial and long-term)
- Early-adopter audience
- Long-term audience
For more information, please take a look at our Happiness Lab case study.