Minimum Viable Product

The term Minimum Viable Product (MVP) often refers to a version of a product with just enough functionality to be usable and of value to early customers while still being far from being complete. According to that definition, an MVP is already a running product. However, many people also consider MVPs to be experiments in the sense of product discovery.

Confusing Concepts of MVPs

Before we discuss what an MVP is, let’s discuss what it isn’t. The following is an ill-famous illustration for explaining the idea of MVPs:

We believe this illustration is totally misleading because these different “products” shown do not address the same needs. When you add functional as well as emotional jobs to be done, this becomes apparent immediately:

Would you travel long distances with the family on a skateboard? Or can you imagine Harley riders cruising the Alps on their e-scooters? Us neither…

MVPs as Experiments

Originally, however, Eric Ries defined MVPs differently in the context of Lean Startup:

Several MVP experiments can be performed to narrow down on that learning aspect, particularly learning about value for customers. These are particularly useful for validating utterly new business ideas but might not be directly applicable to features that extend an existing product:

Landing Pages

At a very early stage, a simple landing page might be sufficient to explain a new product and test its value proposition. Given the low effort, running different versions of a landing page to test multiple variants is possible. When it attracts customers from the target group, it’s worth continuing. When there is little to no response, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all…

Explainer Videos

Simple landing pages might not be sufficient for topics that are a bit more complicated, and a more elaborate story is required to convey an idea.

For example, before Dropbox was launched, CEO Drew Houston wanted to know whether people would actually be using such a tool for syncing files between devices. At that time, such a solution didn’t exist and people had a hard time imagining how this might even work — so it was impossible to interview them. Also, a real working prototype didn’t exist because that would have meant having solved all the hard topics already. Instead, he decided to put up a short video pitching the overall idea in just a few minutes — so essentially faking the complete product.

At the end of the video, Drew explains that the product will still be in private beta and asks interested people to join the waiting list. Essentially, overnight, the demo video went viral, and tens of thousands of people subscribed to the waiting list. That was enough proof of value.

Fake Door Test or 404

Fake door testing is another helpful way to rapidly validate whether an idea that doesn’t exist yet is worth exploring. Essentially, the fake door is a button or link that promises the expected functionality, but when users click, they will land on a page explaining that the feature isn’t ready yet, or they can register for a waiting list. The demand can be assessed, and the next steps can be decided by measuring how often users actually take that action.

Concierge Test

When you spend a couple of days in a great hotel, and they have a concierge, then that person would not only welcome guests but also arrange additional services, book transportation, coordinate luggage, and procure tickets to events. That’s the exact same idea behind a concierge test in Product Management: offer a service to customers, see if they find that service valuable, and deliver that promise manually, with as little technology as possible. Note that every such service usually has a price tag associated with it, so while it is a very time-consuming process, a concierge test provides valuable qualitative feedback on whether or not customers would find it useful enough to even pay for it. Also, based on the direct interaction with users, concierge tests help generate solution ideas.

Wizard of Oz

Piecemeal

A piecemeal MVP combines existing technology components from multiple sources to provide the product’s functionality. So it is similar to Wizard of Oz but utilizes a bit more technology to scale better. On the other hand, the selected technology, in most cases, will not be mature, scalable, or performant enough for a true product solution. Today’s No Code tools, such as Bubble, Airtable, or Zapier can be considered piecemeal MVP tools as they easily allow the creation and testing of the expected experience but in most cases will need a more scalable implementation later on when demand grows.

Fast forward to 2025, and Generative AI technology has advanced significantly. Today, prototypes and working apps can be built with co-pilot tools, such as GitHub Copilot or Cursor AI. But at least at the time of writing, a fully functional, large-scale application still isn't feasible - but definitely piecemeal MVPs.