What Is an MVP? Minimum Viable Product, Explained

An MVP (minimum viable product) is the simplest version of a product that still delivers real value and can be released to users. It has just enough to be useful, so you learn from actual use before building more.

Frank Robinson coined the term in 2001, and Eric Ries made it famous in his 2011 book The Lean Startup. The idea is to stop guessing. Instead of spending a year building everything you think users want, you build the smallest thing that solves a real problem, put it in front of people, and let their behavior tell you what to build next.

"Viable" is the word that does the work. An MVP is not a broken half-product. It has to actually work for the one job it promises. A single well-built feature people rely on beats ten features nobody trusts.

A concrete example: a warehouse team wants a system to track stock across three sites. The MVP is one screen that shows live counts and lets staff adjust them. No forecasting, no supplier ordering, no dashboards. If that one screen saves them the morning spreadsheet, it earned the next round of work.

Why it matters for custom software

An MVP is how we keep a first build small enough to ship in weeks, not quarters. You get something real in front of users fast, then decide what comes next from evidence rather than a wishlist. That evidence-first rhythm is the core of how we work, and it's why a fixed short delivery is realistic.