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Many say MVP is "the first usable product version with a minimal set of features." I'm sorry. It’s not. Even Wikipedia is wrong. I don’t like semantic battles. And I know many product managers commonly use the above definition. But if you employ that approach to assess a new product idea, it's a surefire path to failure. So what exactly is MVP? MVP is short for “Minimum Viable Product.” The word “Product” is causing a lot of confusion. The goal of MVP, as defined by Eric Ries in The Lean Startup, is to validate key assumptions about the product idea and get maximum validated learning with minimal effort. The value of MVP is to learn as quickly as possible, minimize risk and increase your chances of success by experimenting. Creating value for customers is not the goal. This is because creating products, e.g., writing software, is one of the most expensive ways to verify your hypotheses. If the assumptions were wrong, the work performed over many iterations could be wasteful. In contrast, building the first MVP should typically take a few hours or days. An order of magnitude cheaper and faster. In the Lean Product Playbook, Dan Olsen proposed the term MVP prototype. That’s a great way to avoid semantic battles and focus on what matters - learning as quickly and cheaply as possible. An example that always inspires me is a DropBox Video Explainer MVP: https://lnkd.in/e8wx--gH At that time, DropBox didn’t have a product. Instead, they created a simple video for a community of early adopters to demonstrate how the solution is meant to work. As a result, their beta waiting list went from 5,000 to 75,000 people overnight. In my latest post, you will find: - Quotes from product leaders (Marty Cagan, Alexander Osterwalder, Roman Pichler) - 9 MVP prototypes every PM should know - MVP prototype vs. MMP vs. MLP - Practical tips & insights, e.g., MVP as a process Check it now: https://lnkd.in/ewfe5BSi