Minimum Viable Product Development: Steve Jobs Didn't Do It

As popular as the approach seems to be, one wonders whether Steve Jobs, former Apple CEO, ever bothered with development using the "minimum viable product" approach. 


One can safely assume he did not, as minimum viable product development requires some amount of end user feedback about the prototype.

The whole point of designing using this approach is that a development team collects the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. Jobs never seemed to think that consumers could provide much valuable input about products that solved problems they didn't know they had.


In this, as in other fundamental ways, Steve Jobs broke the rules. Keep in mind that the point of a minimum viable product approach is not to create a "minimum" commercial product, but rather to quickly test a concept with real users, at low cost, to validate an implementation.

Minimum Viable Product

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Minimum Viable Product

Eric Ries on "Minimum Viable Product"

Eric Ries, author of the blog "Startups Lessons Learned," and a guiding light in what's become a popular movement in Silicon Valley - going lean.

  

Minimum Viable Product Webcast

Here's a webcast with Eric Ries, who teaches startups and product developers about the development process, especially the way to use the "minimum viable product" approach. It is worth a listen if you do product development. 

What is a "Minimum Viable Product," and Why Do You Care?

If you are not in the product development business, you probably don't care what a "minimum viable product" is, and how it relates to creation of new products. If you do have responsibilities for product development, minimum viable product is a method for creating products faster, and at lower cost, by prototyping and beta testing.

More on "Minimum Viable Product" in Product Development Process

 In the product development process, the "minimum viable product" is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. Think of it as a "beta" released initially to a rather small number of power users, to test features, find bugs and prepare for a "full production" product.

The idea is sort of like "prototyping." One wants to quickly figure out what features everybody wants, which features nobody wants, and find out fast.