MVPs are not prototypes and they are not beta products. A minimum viable product is a controlled experiment: the simplest buildable version of an idea designed to answer one question before full investment begins, specifically whether users will derive meaningful value from it.
The pressure to ship fast has intensified with low-code platforms and AI-assisted design tools. Nielsen Norman Group argues that speed of creation is now the wrong metric. Building quickly means nothing if the team is building the wrong thing. The MVP framework exists to force that reckoning early, when course correction is still cheap.
The full article goes deeper than the definition. It draws a hard line between what qualifies as an MVP and what does not, a distinction most teams get wrong. If your organization is conflating MVPs with prototypes, pilot programs, or version 1.0 releases, the original is worth reading in full.
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