I love MVPs and think Ries’ Lean Startup‘s brilliant. But MVPs are about discovering if something’s of value &was designed around startups a focus on what to work on exists. While the thinking underneath MVPs can be used in existing orgs this is too abstract for many.
Overloading or using terms that aren’t natural causes confusion. MVP’s viable & product do not apply everywhere. The idea is-what’s the next business increment to deliver. In ’05 we renamed Denne & Cleland-Huang’s MMF to Minimum Business Increment to avoid the confusion the terms marketable & feature have.
Net Objectives helps companies achieve Business Agility-the quick realization of business value predictably, sustainable & w/high quality. Doing this requires
1) understanding what has the most business value
2) allocating your capacity to getting it done w/o distraction
MVPs are about discovering if something is of value.
If an established company doesn’t know what’s of value, that company is in trouble. They have existing products/services & markets. They should know. What needs to be focused on is the relative value of what’s being considered in order to focus on that. Few people can do this so it’s ignored-doesn’t mean it’s not important.
A combination of MVPs for discovering value and Minimum Business Increments (MBIs) for when we are working on an existing product is more effective than MVPs alone.