What is MVP (Minimum Viable Product)?

The MVP concept, popularised by Eric Ries in The Lean Startup, is a product development philosophy: rather than building a complete product based on assumptions about what users want, you build the smallest thing that can test your most critical hypothesis. If the hypothesis is wrong, you've learned quickly and cheaply. If it's right, you build on a validated foundation.

A common misconception is that MVP means buggy or incomplete. It doesn't. It means focused. A well-scoped MVP has one core workflow that works reliably, serves a specific user type, and demonstrates the core value proposition. Everything that isn't necessary to test the central hypothesis is cut — not because quality doesn't matter, but because building the wrong thing perfectly is worse than building the right thing simply.

For SaaS products, scoping an MVP well is one of the most valuable things a technical consultant can do. The question isn't 'what should we eventually build?' — it's 'what is the one workflow that, if it works and users pay for it, validates that this product is worth building fully?' That answer shapes everything from the database schema to the onboarding flow.