Mobile nav

MVP Concept Not Revolutionary

Question"According to the Blackblot PMTK Methodology™, lean startup is unrelated to product management. However, is it not true that the MVP concept is revolutionary and it has transformed how product managers think about releasing products?"

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is a renamed and rebranded term for what the software industry has known for decades as a Beta Product.

Long ago IBM had defined stages in software development which were later adopted by many software companies.

Very generally, software development begins with an Alpha Version (aka proof-of-concept), continues with a Beta Product, moves to Release Candidate (aka Sliver version), and ends with Release-to-Manufacturing (RTM, aka Gold version).

Beta Product means a software product with a complete feature set that is ready for actual users to try out and comment on.

Through a phase called Beta Testing, actual feedback from users is gathered about their needs and the product's features, performance, bugs, or anything.

The MVP idea of "to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers" is rather similar to the premise of a beta product.

So while the concept of MVP is useful, it is not new, not revolutionary, and not transformative.

For more information, see the Blackblot PMTK Book: Second Edition.