Starting a new business comes with significant risks. You might spend months developing a product only to discover that customers don’t want it or won’t pay for it. Market research shows that 42% of startups fail because they build products with no market need. This reality creates a difficult challenge: how can you test your business concept without exhausting your limited resources?

The minimum viable product (MVP) approach offers a solution to this problem. An MVP is the simplest version of your product that delivers value to customers while allowing you to collect feedback with minimal resources. By focusing only on core features that address the primary customer need, you can reduce development time, lower costs, and most importantly, validate whether your solution works in the real market. What features would you include in your first version, and which ones could wait until later?

The 80/20 principle (also known as the Pareto Principle) and the MVP concept share a strong philosophical connection. The 80/20 principle suggests that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. When applied to product development, this means about 80% of user value often comes from just 20% of features.

The MVP concept emerged from the lean startup methodology and was coined by Frank Robinson and later popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. This practical approach helps entrepreneurs test assumptions quickly and make data-driven decisions based on actual user behavior.

For example, if you’re developing a food delivery app, a minimum viable product might skip features like real-time tracking or loyalty programs. Instead, it might offer the basic core feature of ordering from a limited selection of restaurants with simple payment options. This approach lets you test your core concept—connecting hungry customers with restaurants—without months of development.

Many entrepreneurs mistake a minimal viable product for an unfinished or low-quality product. It’s not about cutting corners; it’s about strategic focus. Your MVP should solve a specific problem well, rather than attempting to solve multiple problems inadequately. Quality still matters, but it’s concentrated on essential functions.

Creating Your First MVP

Building an MVP starts with identifying your product’s core value. Ask yourself: What single problem does my solution solve? How can I address this problem in the simplest possible way?

For instance, if you’re creating accounting software for freelancers, the core value might be tracking expenses. While your full vision includes invoicing, tax calculations, and financial forecasting, your MVP might focus exclusively on expense tracking with a clean interface and basic reporting.

Here’s a practical way to develop your MVP:

1. Talk to potential customers first: Before building anything, ask at least 10 potential customers about their biggest pain points related to your business idea. Listen for patterns in their responses.
2. Draw out your solution: Sketch your MVP on paper or using a simple design tool. What screens or steps will users need to accomplish their goal?
3. List features in three columns: “Must have” (core functionality), “Nice to have” (enhances experience), and “Later” (future additions). Only build the “Must have” items for your MVP.
4. Apply value and feasibility filters: For each feature, ask two questions: How much value does this provide to users? How difficult is it to build? Keep only high-value, high-feasibility features in your MVP.
5. Use existing tools to piece together a solution: For a food subscription box, you might use a simple order form created with Google Forms, process payments through PayPal, and manually pack and ship boxes rather than building a custom platform.
6. Set a firm deadline: Give yourself 30 days to launch your MVP. The time constraint forces you to focus only on what’s essential.

Before building anything, you should validate your startup idea through market research and customer interviews. This validation helps ensure you’re solving a real problem people will pay to fix.

Learning From Your MVP

The true power of an MVP lies not in the product itself but in what you learn from it. Your MVP should act as a feedback machine, collecting valuable insights about what your customers truly want.

Here’s how to gather useful feedback:

Direct customer interviews: Talk to users after they’ve tried your product. Ask specific questions like “What task were you trying to accomplish?” and “Where did you get stuck?” rather than general questions like “What did you think?”

Simple surveys: Create a 3-5 question survey that pops up after customers use your product. Include a mix of rating scales (1-5) and open-ended questions.

Usage tracking: Use basic analytics to see which features people actually use versus which ones they ignore. Tools like Google Analytics are free and relatively easy to set up.

Net Promoter Score (NPS): Ask customers, “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this product to a friend?” This simple question helps measure satisfaction and identify your promoters.

Social media responses: Post about your product on relevant platforms and pay attention to comments and private messages.

For example, a personal fitness app MVP might track just three exercises with basic progress reporting. If you notice that 80% of users stop using the app after three sessions, you might call a few of them to find out why. Their feedback might reveal that they want nutrition tracking more than additional exercise options, shifting your development priorities.

Focus on these five key questions:

1. Are people signing up? (If not, your marketing or concept may need work)
2. Are people completing the core task? (If not, your user experience may be confusing)
3. Are people coming back? (If not, your product may not deliver enough value)
4. Are people telling others? (If not, your product may not be solving a significant problem)
5. Are people willing to pay? (If not, you may need to adjust your pricing or value proposition)

The MVP process connects directly to your business model canvas, helping you test key assumptions about customer segments, value propositions, and revenue streams.

Next Steps After Your MVP

After gathering feedback, you’ll need to make decisions about your next steps while keeping your startup runway in mind. Your “runway” is how long your business can operate before needing additional funding. A typical pre-revenue startup should aim for at least 12-18 months of runway. By starting with an MVP instead of a full product, you’ve likely preserved precious runway that you can now use strategically as you decide whether to iterate, pivot, or scale.

Iteration means improving your existing concept based on feedback. For example, if users like your food delivery app but complain about limited restaurant options, you might focus on adding more restaurant partners while keeping the app functionality the same.

Pivoting involves changing direction when you discover your initial concept isn’t working. For instance, if your original idea was a subscription box for office supplies, but customers only want certain items on demand, you might pivot to an online store with fast shipping for individual products.

Scaling means expanding your successful MVP into a full product. This typically happens when customers are actively using your MVP, asking for specific additional features, and (ideally) paying for the current version.

Here’s a practical roadmap for moving beyond your MVP:

1. Create a feature backlog: List all potential improvements based on user feedback, sorted by frequency of request and business impact.
2. Plan in small batches: Group features into 2-3 week development cycles rather than planning months ahead.
3. Keep testing: Release new features to a small group of users before rolling them out to everyone.
4. Watch your numbers: Track basic metrics like user growth, retention rate, and revenue. Set specific targets for each metric.
5. Stay in touch with early users: These people are gold—they can provide ongoing feedback as you grow.

For example, if you run a pet sitting service, a good MVP might be a simple booking form with basic pet care services. After success with early customers, you might add features like pet health tracking, photo updates during visits, or expanded service areas—but only after confirming through customer feedback that these additions will drive more business.

The minimum viable product approach changes how you build your business by putting learning at the center of your process. Instead of assuming what customers want, you create opportunities to discover it through real-world testing. This mindset shift, from building everything at once to building just enough to learn, might be the difference between joining the 42% of startups that fail due to a lack of market need and creating a business that truly resonates with customers. An MVP is not a prototype or a draft, it’s the first version of your real product, designed to solve a specific problem while giving you the insights needed to build something even better.