Most MVPs Are Not MVPs — Maybe the “V” in MVP Should Stand for Value

The term MVP
Minimum Viable Product

is everywhere in product development.
Almost every startup, product team, and digital project uses it. Even in UX, the term is widely accepted.

Still, I have always been a little uncomfortable with it.
Not with the idea itself, but with how it is used in practice.

When teams talk about an MVP today, they often mean something very technical. The main question becomes: What can we build quickly? What is technically possible? What can we deliver with the resources we have?

The result is often a product that works, but does not really help anyone.

It is technically functional, but it does not create much value.

In many cases, what teams call an MVP is actually something else: a Minimum Buildable Product. The smallest thing a development team can build.

This is where my problem with the term begins.

The V in MVP stands for Viable. In theory, this should mean that the product is useful enough for people to actually use it. But in practice, viable is often interpreted as technically possible.

Viable becomes buildable.

I would like to see a different interpretation.

For me, the V in MVP should stand for Value-Adding.

Not Minimum Viable Product, but Minimum Value-Adding Product.

This small change shifts the focus in an important way

Instead of asking:  What can we build?

we start asking:  What actually creates value?

A Minimum Value-Adding Product focuses on a real user problem. It does not start with features. It starts with a pain point that people actually experience.
The goal is not to build as many things as possible. The goal is to solve one important problem in the simplest possible way.

This also changes how we measure success.

In many projects, success means that features were delivered: login implemented, profile page built, API integrated.

From a UX perspective, this says very little about whether the product is actually useful.

A Value-Adding MVP measures success differently. What matters is whether users can achieve their goal.

There is a simple rule behind this idea:
If a product is viable but does not add value, it is not really a product.
It is just a prototype.

Maybe it is time to rethink the meaning of MVP.
Not as a Minimum Viable Product, but as a Minimum Value-Adding Product.

The smallest product that truly makes a difference.