A product it is … not a product.

What does MVP really mean…? (MVP – Minimal Viable Product)

That is a very interesting question. A first idea is to thing to the customer business needs: what are the minimal set of features that are needed and have relevance to be deployed first.
In fact, with this first delivery, we are initiating an ecosystem, where:

• a business relationship with the customer(s) it is born, where the development side mus be able to follow the customer needs on short, medium and long term with good enough cost, quality, responsiveness and other possible attributes
• the economics of this business relationship must be good enough for both sides
• the development side must be able to find continuously effective and efficient technical solutions
• the development side must form and maintain a product team with enough skills, maturity and availability to serve the customer needs
• the process approach must make sure that enough business side feedback it is included in the product in order to make this product fit for the target business. Also the product must have such properties and included support in order to be  a consumable solution (DAD – Disciplined Agile Delivery concept)
• the initiated approach must produce repeatable results (DAD principle)

…conclusion…

A Minimum Viable Product it is in fact a Minimum Viable Product Ecosystem that could include:

• Minimum Viable Consumable Product
• Minimum Viable Product Economics
• Minimum Viable Product Architecture / Design approach
• Minimum Viable Team
• Minimum Viable Process

It is not a product …. it is an endeavor, an enterprise, an initiated path to follow, a vision.

… yes, you first need some opportunities in the market, but you can blow up any opportunity without  considering above mentioned aspects.

A product is not …. (just) a product, it is an ecosystem that need to born, adapt and survive.