🧒 Explain Like I'm 5
Imagine you want to open a pizza restaurant. Instead of building a huge restaurant with 100 tables right away, you could start with a tiny food cart that sells just ONE type of pizza.
If people love your pizza, you know your idea is good! Then you can build the big restaurant. But if nobody buys your pizza, you didn't waste lots of money on a big restaurant.
An MVP is like that food cart—it's the smallest, simplest version of your idea that you can show to real people to see if they like it!
📚 Technical Definition
Definition
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a development technique in which a new product is introduced to the market with only the core features necessary to satisfy early adopters and validate the fundamental business hypothesis.
Origin
The concept was popularized by Eric Ries in his 2011 book "The Lean Startup," building on ideas from Steve Blank's customer development methodology.
Key Principles
1. Minimum
- Only essential features to solve the core problem
- Eliminates non-critical functionality
- Fastest path to market
2. Viable
- Must provide real value to users
- Solves a genuine problem
- Quality sufficient for paying customers
3. Product
- A tangible offering (not just a concept)
- Something users can interact with
- Basis for feedback and iteration
MVP Development Process
- Identify the core problem
- Define the minimum feature set
- Build rapidly
- Measure user response
- Learn and iterate
Benefits
- Reduced risk: Validate before full investment
- Faster time-to-market: Launch in weeks, not months
- Real feedback: Learn from actual users
- Capital efficiency: Preserve resources for proven ideas
Common MVP Types
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|
| Landing Page | Test demand with a simple page | Dropbox video MVP |
| Concierge | Manual delivery before automation | Food delivery startups |
| Wizard of Oz | Human-powered "automation" | Early chatbots |
| Piecemeal | Built with existing tools | No-code apps |
| Single Feature | One killer feature only | Instagram (photos only) |
📖 Related Blog Posts
🔗 Related Glossary Terms
Ready to Apply This Knowledge?
StartupGPT helps you put startup concepts into action. Build your business with AI-powered tools.
Start Building Today →