
It’s often the case though that we use the concept of MVP outside the discovery phase. When we do we need to be wary. Delivering production ready, customer facing product under the name “MVP” can fundamentally undermine the product. In this scenario, It’s quite possible that the minimum will win over the viable, and if we avoid that scenario, then the best outcome is the viable winning over what could be truly desirable.
If we want to stay aligned with Lean Startup practices, we would be thinking about MVP’s as tools for validating our hypothesis and only that. Cagan uses the term “MVP test” to describe the smallest experiment that either proves or disproves …