What is an MVP (minimum viable product)?

Eric Ries’s definition

In his blog post of August 3, 2009, Eric Ries defines the MVP as a version of a product. This version lets the team collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. I explain validated learning like this: you test your assumption against users’ real behaviour.

In the Venture Hacks interview of March 23, 2009, he puts the definition more briefly. The MVP is the product with just the necessary features and no more. It wins over early adopters. Some of them pay or give feedback.

Ries stresses two points. Despite the name, the MVP isn’t about creating a small product. And for a business you want to build for a quick flip, you don’t need an MVP.

What an MVP isn’t

An MVP isn’t a polite name for a first version built in a hurry. It is built to learn something. If there is no question you are looking to answer, there is no MVP either.

In the 2009 post, Ries tells how his team spent two weeks on a feature nobody wanted. In his view, a simple AdWords test could have shown how bad the idea was. In the interview, he also recommends measuring demand with a landing page that promises the product before building it.

There is no ready-made template for the MVP either. According to Ries, the definition can’t be reduced to a formula. Working out which MVP makes sense in which situation takes judgment.

Example: the MVP scope of a hair salon booking app

The hypothesis is: will customers of the salon around the corner book online instead of calling? To find out, it is enough to start with a single salon.

The items in the right-hand column aren’t bad ideas; they just aren’t needed to test the hypothesis. Tick the boxes below and try the scope yourself.

What I don’t cut from the UX in an MVP

On MVP projects I cut the scope without hesitation, but not the quality of the core flow. If users can’t complete the main task on their own from start to finish, your data only measures the obstacle in the interface.

• The main flow works from start to finish; there are no half-built screens or empty buttons.
• The error message says what went wrong and how to fix it.
• Users can go back a step or cancel.
• Copy is written in users’ words, not internal jargon.
• Readable contrast and keyboard operation are there in the first version and aren’t postponed.
• The behaviour you want to learn about is measured. You learn nothing from what you don’t measure.

These points are the most basic part of usability. Visual polish and secondary screens can wait.

The difference between an MVP, a prototype and a wireframe

A wireframe is the skeleton of a screen; nobody completes a task with it. A prototype is a clickable draft, usually tried out in a test session.

The MVP, by contrast, is the product real users use for their real task. That is why the prototype answers the question “Do they understand it?” and the MVP the question “Do they use it?”.