Minimum Viable Product vs Minimum Marketable Product
Minimum viable product (MVP) and minimum marketable product (MMP) are two concepts that more people have become familiar with as more companies embrace Agile methodologies. That familiarity doesn’t however mean that everyone knows the difference between the two. They are actually often used interchangeably, even though they are distinct.
What is the difference between these concepts and what do they have in common if anything? Let’s take a look.
Minimum Viable Product
This concept, popularized by The Lean Startup author Eric Ries, refers to the version of a product that enables a team to check whether an idea will work. It is described as a learning tool that allows us to test an idea by putting an early product version before our target audience. This minimal version helps us to better understand what our customers need – a core idea on Lean Methodology..
An MVP is minimum because it lacks unnecessary bells and whistles, providing only what’s needed for validated learning. It means limiting the number of resources that we devote to building as much as possible. We only want to build only those features that aid what we’re trying to learn or test.
What all this means is that a minimal version is a tool for cutting risks. We don’t want to spend too much time and money building something only to find that it is the wrong thing. An MVP helps to guard against that risk. It forms an integral part of the Lean Startup’s Build-Measure-Learn (BML) process, which helps to get the product right.
MVPs might not necessarily be something that customers can start using immediately. They could be prototypes or mockups. The most important attribute is for them to be useful for testing an idea and to make validated learning. They should help figure out what works or doesn’t.
Minimum Marketable Product
As the name suggests, an MMP is a minimal version of a product that offers some value to the user, sufficient enough for it to be marketed or sold. It is the definition of simplicity in that it avoids the “shiny new object” trap and provides only features that see to the needs of the early adopters. At the same time, it offers measurable value to the business.
The minimum marketable product can be seen as a tactic for reducing time-to-market. We can think of it as the first version that we release to the public and then improve upon in subsequent releases. It provides us a means of guarding against the mistake of waiting until we have perfected the product before shipping, as is usually the case in Waterfall environments.
It is scarcely possible to get the product right at the first attempt. This is why it is recommended in Agile to work in iterations. It is better for us to ship, learn, and use our learning to improve on the next version.
So we only include the must-have features in our first launched version or the MMP. As time goes on, we may then include shiny features or nice-to-have features.
Apple presents us with a very good (and commonly used) example of the MMP in action with its flagship smartphone. When the company launched its first iPhone, it didn’t provide several features that were available in rival offerings. The device, for example, lacked copy/paste capability and a video option. Yet, the iPhone turned out to be a winner.
For the MMP version of the popular smartphone, Apple wasn’t interested in pleasing everyone. It was focused on catering for “the few, not the many.” Hence, it didn’t include a lot of nice-to-have features just to please everyone at once.
Bringing the Two Together
As we have seen, the MVP and MMP concepts are related but not the same. One comes before the other. The only similarity between the two is that they represent only a little of what the product would later be.
We use the MVP as a learning tool. One or more may be developed by the team during product discovery to test and validate ideas. MVPs help us to gain useful insights and build on our knowledge of the market and user. They provide the basis for what we are to do next.
We proceed to the MMP only after successfully validating our ideas. The insights that we have gained with the MVP are used to build a version of the product that we can launch. An MMP differs from the MVP in that it is good enough to be sold to our target audience.
Minimum viable products are often discarded after serving the purpose they are built for – to make possible validated learning. However, some may be improved upon and subsequently released to the public as an MMP.
MVPs and MMPs are of immense value to product teams and companies. They aid us in being sure that we are building only features or solutions that matter. Application of the concepts lessens the risk of failure considerably.
It is worth putting in mind though that some people do use these concepts interchangeably. In particular, MVPs are increasingly being viewed in the same light as MMPs. Some persons see them as minimal versions that we can ship as well.
What is more important, however, is that the first version that is launched should offer core features that address the needs of initial users. We can then scale on the essential functionality after the first release.
