A minimum viable product is the activity that allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least amount of effort. The MVP must allow the startup to complete one cycle of the Build-Measure-Learn loop by presenting something to the customers and receiving feedback.

A minimum viable product template has four parts:

• Value Proposition – The solution or the promise of a solution. What benefits will the customer receive?

• Customer Segment – A specific target market that has a job to be done. These are the people who will give feedback on the value proposition.

• Channel – The customer must receive the value proposition to give feedback, so there must be a method for reaching the specific target market.

• Customer Relationship – The customer must give feedback on how the solution actually benefited them. To measure the effectiveness of the product, the customer must maintain contact with the startup somehow.

Easy enough. The term MVP comes from lean startup principles, which in turn comes from lean manufacturing principles. Those original principles from Toyota were about producing a valuable product (in this case, cars) with the least amount of waste possible. There shouldn’t be any extra pieces lying around, and workers shouldn’t find themselves carrying pieces from place to place unnecessarily. Even items kept in storage and not being actively used in the production process were considered waste.

So a minimum viable product template should be about reducing waste. For a startup, waste isn’t about creating a product with the least amount of scrap metal left lying around when the product is finished.