Technology and Engineering Atlas

How Things Are Built
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Method

Minimum viable product

Software Engineering

A minimum viable product is a version of a new product built with just enough features to be usable by early customers, who then provide feedback that guides further development. The term was coined by Frank Robinson in 2001 and later popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. It functions as a form of experimentation that tests a business core assumptions about what customers actually want, helping teams avoid spending time on unnecessary work before those assumptions are validated. The approach is a central technique of the lean startup methodology, which favors validated learning over extensive upfront planning. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Core Principle
A product is built with just enough features to be usable by early customers, who then provide feedback that guides future product development. 1
Origin Year
2001 1
Connections

Long-Form Articles

Sources
1. Minimum viable product (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
  • lead paragraph, opening sentence
    A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development.
  • History section, sentence naming Frank Robinson
    The term was coined and defined in 2001 by Frank Robinson and then popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries.
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.