I would say an MVP is the first viable step in a plan for a more elaborate product in order to test the water etc. Just showing earlier iterations of famous products without a snapshot of the accompanying vision isn't massively useful. Of course every company/product started somewhere, but a first offering isn't the same as an MVP. Did Yahoo intentionally set out to create an MVP or did they just launch with their best idea at the time?

I strongly disagree with the premise that the Yahoo! presented in that screenshot was a minimum viable product - that really was the product: the differentiator between Yahoo! and, say, AltaVista was that Yahoo! was a hierarchical list of links rather than an actual indexed search engine. It stayed that way for many years.

A wireframe or a mock-up is not a "viable product".

Unless you plan to sell wireframes or mockups, I guess.

Even a "prototype" isn't a "viable product" -- unless it is.

Does "MVP" actually mean anything anymore?

"First, a definition: 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." - http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-...

A wireframe or a mockup very might as well be a minimum viable product. They're easy to set up, and the right people can often gather valuable information using a mockup only. The point isn't to have a functional product. The point is to gather information and validate your assumptions about customers.

Okay, that's not the definition of "minimum viable product" I've heard and used.

I thought it was... well, the minimum viable product. Meaning it's a product. Which is viable.

So, okay, apparently "MVP" doesn't mean much anymore.

I'd call that definition of an "MVP" something else. Like, I dunno, a prototype? Minimum viable prototype? I guess that still has the same acronym...

Even the wikipedia article says "A minimum viable product has just those core features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more." It's the product. Deployed. Not a drawing. A drawing is not the product unless your business is selling drawings.

Context: Eric Reis is the writer of "The Lean Startup" and the person who coined the term MVP.