{"head":{"title":"What Is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)? | OceanLab","description":"An MVP is the smallest version of a product real users can use, built to test whether the core idea works. What counts as minimum, plus common mistakes.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/glossary/mvp"},"crumbs":[{"name":"Home","path":"/"},{"name":"Glossary","path":"/glossary"},{"name":"MVP","path":"/glossary/mvp"}],"slug":"mvp","term":"MVP (minimum viable product)","aka":["minimum viable product"],"category":"Buying software","short":"The smallest version of a product that real users can use, built to test whether the core idea works.","body":[["An MVP keeps only the features needed to deliver the main value and learn from real use. It is real software: people sign up, use it for real tasks and their data is kept. That is what separates it from a ",{"href":"/glossary/clickable-prototype","text":"clickable prototype"},", which only looks real."],["What counts as minimum depends on the risk you are testing. If the question is whether anyone wants it, the MVP can be narrow and manual behind the scenes. If the question is whether it can be built at all, the MVP has to prove the hard technical part."]],"why":["Every feature you add before launch is a guess about what users want. An MVP limits how much you build on guesses and gets real usage data sooner. It also keeps early ",{"href":"/glossary/technical-debt","text":"technical debt"}," contained, because there is less code to change when you learn something new."],"example":["A team wants to build a marketplace for equipment rental. Their MVP lists equipment from a handful of suppliers, takes bookings and sends a confirmation email. Payments are invoiced by hand at first. If bookings come in, automated payments are the next build; if not, they learn that before building them."],"inBuild":null,"mistakes":[["Making it minimum but not viable: so stripped down that nobody can do a real task with it."],["Skipping security and data protection because it is only an MVP. Real users mean real data."],["Never deciding what result would count as success or failure before launch."]],"related":[{"href":"/glossary/clickable-prototype","label":"Clickable prototype","detail":"A set of linked screens you can click through, built to test a design before the real software exists."},{"href":"/glossary/technical-debt","label":"Technical debt","detail":"The future cost of shortcuts taken in code today."},{"href":"/glossary/fixed-price","label":"Fixed-price contract","detail":"A contract where the price for an agreed scope is set up front."},{"href":"/glossary/total-cost-of-ownership","label":"Total cost of ownership (TCO)","detail":"Everything a piece of software costs over its life, not just the price to build or buy it."}],"tools":[{"href":"/tools/mvp-cost","label":"MVP cost","detail":"Free tool"}],"links":[{"href":"/software","label":"Software by industry","detail":"Systems we build per industry, with guides and tools."},{"href":"/case-studies","label":"Case studies","detail":"Product builds by OceanLab, by industry."}],"sources":[],"legal":false,"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"}