I first encountered the term MVP just over a year ago, when it was suggested we should take our idea to the next level and build a MVP. After having the concept of the MVP explained to me I started running around saying, “We want to build a MVP!” Finally we got lucky and progressed to saying, “We’re building a MVP.”
Now, right in the middle of the job I suddenly find myself wondering, “What the dickens is a MVP?” The reason for my uncertainty are conflicting opinions from workmates as well as from the “lean gurus”. Luckily I found a talk by Melissa Perry on exactly this subject. She also finds the term MVP is often misunderstood and states that the term MVP has evolved over time. Melissa boldly proposes to abandon the word MVP and instead focus on the goal of the MVP which since the beginning is to learn what your customers want and need. We do this through experimentation and then out of lots of experimentation a product strategy may emerge. She also introduces an interesting concept called the “Product Kata”.
So let’s stop “building MVPs” and agree instead on experiments to find ways to maximize customer value. We’re agile, so we can do this, right?
Melissa Perry’s talk here.
First published in Swisscom Intranet in August 2016
