MVP Discovery by Early Stage Startups: A Qualitative Analysis of Founders' Hindsight

Abstract

The term Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is widely used by startups and experts as a tool to accelerate a startup’s product development process and reach the market faster. However, there is confusion among young startups in understanding of the concept of MVP given different explanations in literature. Using case study method, we deep-dive into the product development journey of five hardware-startups from diverse domains and identify seven factors: (1)Technical Acumen, (2) Domain Knowledge, (3) Business Acumen, (4) Resources, (5)Policies and regulations, (6)Customer readiness and (7)Founder(s)’ life stage, that affect product development. We also assign a level of importance to these factors at each stage of the product development progression proposed by us herein. The key contribution of this study is assimilation of two different interpretations of the concept of MVP and development of a comprehensive framework to explain how a product moves through product development progression. The findings of this study will bring clarity and provide a holistic view of the product development approach taken by early stage startups.