MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and MBI (Minimum Business Increment) are two concepts in product development used to determine the minimum set of features and functionality required to deliver value to customers and stakeholders.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a new product that is built with as little effort as feasible in order to gather verifiable client feedback. MVPs are utilised to conduct tests to test a hypothesis regarding what your clients truly desire. They are far closer to prototypes than to the “actual” functioning version of your final product.

Minimum Viable Products Inspire a sense of short-term urgency and accomplishment. All of this is beneficial to both the customer and the project team.

Typically, a development team sends a minimum viable product to a portion of your (possible) consumers in order to test a new concept, collect data about it, and so gain insight. MVPs are designed to aid in identifying the characteristics that customers genuinely desire.

Important Characteristics of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

• MVP is not MVP unless it sells; it must provide sufficient value to users.
• MVP focuses more on the process than the product.
• MVP is not a product with a minimum amount of features, but rather a product with sufficient core features to implement an idea and retain early adopters.
• MVP is built on the lean startup idea and entails the iterative process of building -> measuring -> learning until the product perfectly satisfies a market needs.
• MVP seeks to avoid developing useless or unneeded products by first obtaining market intelligence.

Minimum Business Increase (MBI)

An MBI is the smallest amount of functionality that a customer (internal or external) can realise that is consistent with the business’s goal and makes sense to supply when transaction costs are taken into account.

An MBI delivers value for your consumers and provides valuable input to the product team to ensure that the correct functionality is being produced in the correct manner. An MBI delivers functionality that may be deployed and evaluated as helpful, hence enhancing the organization’s potential to deliver value in the future. An MBI is a solution that includes all of the components necessary for value realisation.

(Minimum) it should be the smallest amount of value that is realizable because this speeds value realization and makes work easier to manage (transaction cost needs to be considered in this, of course)

(Business) the focus is on delivering value from a business perspective (while it’s directed at the customer it needs to be aligned with the business strategy)

(Increment) it represents an increment of business value

Examples of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and MBI (Minimum Business Increment)

Examples of MVP (Minimum Viable Product):

1. A mobile app with a limited set of features that allows users to sign up, upload pictures, and share them with friends.
2. A website that provides a basic e-commerce platform, allowing customers to browse products, add items to their cart, and complete purchases.
3. A hardware product with a limited set of features, such as a simple fitness tracker that only tracks steps and displays them on a screen.

Examples of MBI (Minimum Business Increment):

1. A project management tool that allows teams to track progress, assign tasks, and collaborate in real time.
2. A customer relationship management (CRM) system that integrates with a company’s sales and marketing processes, allows teams to manage leads, opportunities, and customer data in a centralized location.
3. A supply chain management system that provides real-time visibility into inventory levels, purchase orders, and shipping status, allowing companies to optimize their supply chain operations.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and MBI (Minimum Business Increment)

Apart from MVP and MBI, there are other ways to check if your investment will find users and have sales potential such as the Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF), the Minimum Marketable Release (MMR), and the Minimum Marketable Product (MMP).

Conclusion

Both MVP and MBI are used to reduce risk and accelerate the product development process by focusing on delivering a functional product as quickly as possible, and then iteratively adding additional features and functionality based on customer and stakeholder feedback.

Further Readings

• https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/61937/Defining-MVP–MBI–MMF–and-MMR
• https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/microsites/disciplined-agile/posters/poster_mvpvsmbis.pdf?v=42197bdf-3e41-4d86-b8ba-5033a0dfd766
• The importance of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and Minimum Business value Increment (MBI) in project management