Glossary Minimum Viable Product
Minimum Viable Product
Also known as:
mvp, minimal viable productProductPractices
Definition
The smallest version of a product that lets a team learn, with real users, whether the idea is worth building out
Frank Robinson coined the term in 2001, and Eric Ries popularized it in The Lean Startup (2011), as the build-measure-learn loop's first build. Minimum describes scope, not quality: an MVP that is too broken to use teaches you nothing about the idea. Related framings: Simple, Lovable, Complete (SLC) and Minimum Lovable Product.
A prototype tests an idea with a few people. An MVP tests it with a market. The slc-product-planner skill argues for Simple, Lovable, Complete over MVP.