By Lior Ronen | Founder, Finro Financial Consulting

The minimum viable product (MVP) approach is all about getting your core value proposition into customers' hands as early as possible.

It's a great way to validate assumptions, reduce development time and cost, gather early feedback, and focus on essential features. That’s what makes it extremely popular in the startup world.

The MVP's popularity in startups is understandable--when you need to quickly test the viability of a product idea without investing a lot of resources.

In this article, we explore the key characteristics of an MVP, famous examples of companies’ MVPs, and the challenges and benefits of building an MVP.

MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product. It’s a product development concept that many software companies use to test the waters before releasing a fully blown product.

It allows software companies to release a product, receive feedback from users and make changes before spending too much time and money developing something that clients may not want to use.

To ensure that an MVP is successful, it's important to understand its characteristics:

1/ Minimal. An MVP should be a minimal version of the vision you have for the final product. It should include only the features that are essential to delivering the core value proposition of the product, not every feature you can imagine. This helps reduce time and cost, allowing you to focus on what matters most..

2/ Viability. An MVP needs to demonstrate the potential value of the product and provide a usable experience for target customers. This allows you to test, gather feedback from, and improve the product based on what users say they want.

3/ Testability. An MVP should be designed in a way that allows for testing and gathering feedback from the target audience. This helps validate assumptions and ensures that the product is meeting the needs of its users.

4/ Iterative. An MVP is just the starting point for the final product. The MVP approach allows you to get feedback from customers quickly so that you can make changes to your product, if necessary.

5/ Focus on the core product. An MVP should be designed to deliver the core value proposition of a product, rather than including every desired feature. This will help ensure that the product is bringing maximum benefit to its users.

6/ Scalability. An MVP should be designed in a way that can easily be scaled and expanded as the product grows. This will help ensure the long-term success of the product, while accommodating changing customer needs and market trends.

The key characteristics of an MVP are crucial for ensuring the success of a product development project. By focusing on minimal, viable, testable and iterative design, an MVP can effectively validate assumptions, gather early feedback and guide further product development.

There are several types of Minimum Viable Products, including:

1. Prototype MVP: A simplified version of the product that mimics its core features and functionality, allowing customers to get a sense of what the final product will look like.

2. Concierge MVP: A personalized version of the product where a team member manually provides the service or product to a limited number of customers, allowing for direct feedback and improvement.

3. Wizard of Oz MVP: A version of the product that appears to be fully automated but is actually controlled by a person behind the scenes, allowing for low-cost testing of the product idea.

4. Landing Page MVP: A single webpage that explains the product and allows for sign-ups, collecting early feedback, and validating demand.

5. Single-Feature MVP: A version of the product that only includes one core feature, allowing for focused testing of the most important aspect of the product.

6. Existing Product MVP: A version of an existing product with a new feature or iteration, allowing for quick testing and validation of the new addition.

These types of MVPs can be used in various combinations and can be adapted to fit the needs of a particular product and market. The key is to choose an MVP type that allows for the quickest and most cost-effective validation of the product idea.

As I mentioned above, an MVP is a version of a product that contains just enough features to satisfy early adopters and give developers feedback on what works and what doesn't.

By launching an MVP, companies can gather data, test their ideas, and refine their products before investing significant resources in full-scale development. Many software companies have used MVPs to test product ideas and guide further development.

Below, I present several well-known examples of this approach. From Dropbox's simple file-sharing tool to Airbnb's online platform for finding alternative accommodations, these examples illustrate the power of MVPs and the many different forms they can take.

Dropbox. The first version of Dropbox was a simple file-sharing tool that allowed users to store and share files online. This MVP helped validate the demand for cloud storage and led to the development of the full-featured Dropbox product we know today.

Airbnb. The original MVP for Airbnb was a simple website that allowed users to find and book a place to stay, either a spare room or an entire apartment, from hosts. This MVP helped validate the demand for alternative accommodation options and led to the development of the full-featured Airbnb platform.

Twitter. The first version of Twitter was a simple text messaging service that allowed users to send short updates to their friends. This MVP helped validate the demand for real-time communication and led to the development of the full-featured Twitter product we know today.

Uber. The original MVP for Uber was a luxury car service that connected passengers with drivers via a smartphone app. This MVP helped validate the demand for on-demand transportation services and led to the development of the full-featured Uber platform.

Snapchat. The original MVP for Snapchat was a simple photo-sharing app that allowed users to send self-destructing photos and videos to their friends. This MVP helped validate the demand for ephemeral messaging and led to the development of the full-featured Snapchat platform we know today.

Spotify: The original MVP for Spotify was a simple music streaming service that allowed users to listen to music on demand. This MVP helped validate the demand for on-demand music streaming and led to the development of the full-featured Spotify platform we know today.

These were a few examples of how MVPs helped popular companies validate their product ideas. By focusing on delivering a minimal but viable product experience, these companies were able to minimize risk and maximize the chances of success.

Building a minimum viable product (MVP) is a great way to validate a product idea, but it can be challenging. Let's take a closer look at some common challenges in building an MVP, and how to overcome them.

Finding the right balance between minimalism and viability is one of the biggest challenges in building an MVP. An MVP must be minimal enough to be quickly developed, but it also must be viable enough to provide valuable feedback. This is a bit tricky, since you have to know what your target audience values most. It also connects us directly to the second challenge, which feature to include in the MVP and which could be deferred for later.

Prioritizing the right features is critical for a successful adoption of the product. There are many different method to prioritize MVP features from the Feature Priority Matrix to MosCoW Matrix and Effort and Impact. Choose the model that works best for you and stick to it.

Building an MVP often means working with limited time and resources, which can make it challenging to create a polished product. However, remember that the MVP is just a starting point and can always be refined later. The focus should be on delivering an MVP experience, not a fully-featured product.

It's hard to make a product that's polished and perfect when you're working with limited time and resources. The MVP is a starting point, and it can always be refined later. The focus should be on delivering an MVP experience, not a fully-featured product.

Collecting and analyzing data from the MVP is a great way to guide future development, but you need to have a system for collecting and analyzing that data. There are a few different models to test and MVP, but it's essential to have a plan in place for how to collect and use this data to refine and improve the product over time.

We already know that building an MVP can be an extremely efficient way to test the waters before launching your product. In this section, we'll take a closer look at the benefits of using an MVP and why it's become so popular.

One of the best things about using an MVP is that you can test your product ideas with a small, focused group of users. It allows companies to test their ideas and find out if there is any demand for the product, saving them time and money in case their idea isn't well received. Getting user feedback is a key benefit of an MVP. It helps companies ensure that their product is well-received, meets the needs of their target audience and doesn't have any major flaws.

Launching an MVP can also help build buzz around the product and generate momentum. This can help attract investment, build a community of early adopters, and set the stage for a successful full launch. Many founders find it helpful to publish their MVP on Product Hunt, a website where users can share and discover new products. This can help generate buzz and create a network effect around your product.

A primary benefit of building an MVP, is that companies can save time money when they develop an MVP rather than a full-fledged product. This allows them to test their ideas using limited resources and avoid costly mistakes, reduce the time to market and give companies a competitive advantage.

Another great benefit of an MVP is that it forces companies to focus on the core value proposition of their product, which helps ensure that it is simple and straightforward. Its pressure startups to avoid the temptation to add unnecessary features.

In conclusion, the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach is a proven method for validating product ideas and gathering valuable feedback in the most time- and cost-efficient manner.

With its focus on delivering a minimum viable product experience and its ability to test ideas with a small, focused group of users, the MVP has become a popular approach for many companies. Companies like Airbnb, Dropbox and Uber have all used MVPs to validate their ideas and speed up the development process.

Despite the challenges of building an MVP, including limited resources and time constraints, the benefits of using this approach make it a valuable tool for companies looking to validate their product ideas and set the stage for a successful full launch.

Ultimately, the MVP is a flexible and versatile approach that allows companies to test their ideas, gather feedback, and build better products.