Minimal viable product (MVP) is used to avoid cost and risk associated with developing the wrong product by

• Testing a hypothesis,
• Reducing waste, or
• Increasing speed to customers for feedback and adoption.

Effective application of the minimal viable product technique is important in POA so detailed below, even though it is described in section 7.6 of the Agile Extension V2.

Description

MVP identifies the smallest set of features or requirements needed to deliver value to stakeholders and satisfy early adopters in the shortest time possible. It focuses on core features sufficient to deploy and deliver stakeholder value. Further features are developed after considering feedback. It applies to

• Product development,
• Services (commonly to test the willingness to pay),
• Feature development (to gauge demand), and as
• Differentiation (market test strategy).

Minimal approaches are frequently chosen based on time and money constraints. Minimal viable product (MVP) enables iterative development cycles by collecting and analyzing feedback before delivering additional features.

What it is

Building a viable product	Minimal effort with maximum learning	Evidence-based learning
Focus on core features that allow it to be a working product and provide value to the customer to gain feedback and validation.	Consider the minimum features required to get the needed feedback and learning to demonstrate value.	Maximum learning comes from customers' direct experience with the product, rather than on customer's extrinsic needs and perceptions.

What it might be

Functional prototype	Shippable product	Cheap and fast
MVP is a functional prototype that may be delivered to production. In some cases, MVP might just be the functional prototype.	While MVP should have sufficient value to be sold to the customer, in some instances it does not have the desired experience needed for it to be shippable.	Budget and time constraints should not be the primary decision when defining MVP. While it should be cost- effective and release quicker to market, having "cheap and fast" as the goal of MVP has risks.

What it is not

All must-have features	Proof of Concept (POC)	A single, fixed release
There is a difference between the must- have features of a product and core features that make a working product that delivers value to the customer. MVP focuses on core features delivering value.	POCs are built for internal use, to check if a product idea is feasible. It often validates a technical aspect of the product.	While MVP is the first release of the product, it may not include all the features that realize the full value of the product.

Components

There are four primary components in defining the MVP.

• Target Audience: POA Practitioners clearly identify the target market and likely early adopters of the solution. Analysis of these groups identifies what problems they may have related to the proposed solution.
• Goal to Achieve or Hypothesis to Test: POA Practitioners clearly define the goal or the hypothesis to test with MVP.
  • For example, the hypothesis may suggest that the new product will lead to quick adoption by the target audience, or
  • The organization may hypothesize that a new feature in a product will improve customer service.
• Defined Requirements: POA Practitioners select the minimal number of requirements necessary to deliver the MVP. This selection is based on:
  • The target audience,
  • The goal to achieve, and
  • The mechanism to measure learnings.

The number of requirements necessary is subjective and dependent on context. There must be enough produced to validate the hypothesis. However, it must be the minimal amount to release the solution quickly.

• Mechanism to Measure Learning: To validate the hypothesis or to determine if the desired goal was achieved, POA Practitioners identify objective measurements to interpret the feedback and learning received. These measurements influence further solution development by identifying the success of the current MVP.