Minimum Viable Product
The smallest thing you can build to find out whether the idea works.
Definition
The smallest version of a product that allows a team to learn something valid about demand or usability.
Craft convention. True because the industry converged on it. Breaking it costs familiarity, not correctness.
On this plate
In plain language
The smallest thing you can build to find out whether the idea works.
Example
One workflow, end to end, for one segment, released to learn rather than to scale.
Commonly confused with
Close neighbours that get substituted for each other. The difference is stated first, then the condition that picks one over the other.
Minimum Lovable Product
TermThe least product people would willingly keep using and recommend.
Key difference
An MVP is the smallest thing that tests whether the idea holds. An MLP is the smallest thing people would actually choose to use. One protects the business from building the wrong thing, the other protects it from shipping something nobody wants to touch.
Use Minimum Viable Product when
- The question is whether anyone wants this at all.
- The audience is early and tolerant of rough edges.
- Learning matters more than retention.
Use Minimum Lovable Product when
- The market already has working alternatives.
- First impressions decide whether anyone returns.
- Quality is the differentiator rather than existence.
Local chart
TERM·091 · Region X · Grid C6
This entry and the entries it is stated to connect with. Each line is labelled with what the connection means.
Continue from here
Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.
Nearby in the Atlas
Adjacent territory, found through shared tags rather than a stated link.