An earliest testable product, earliest usable product, and earliest lovable product can all be valid forms of MVP
Overview
The traditional MVP is a scaled-back product with minimal features, but enough to attract early-adopter paying customers. But, agile PMs realized a paying MVP is still too far out to be used for validation.
Instead, they broke down the MVP into three stages: earliest testable, earliest usable, and earliest lovable. By opting for truly incremental improvements, product teams can adapt to learnings at each stage of the product development process.
Keep in mind that the earliest lovable product goes way beyond the quality of a traditional MVP.
Earliest testable - contains enough features to learn from field tests
Earliest usable - contains enough features to be self-sufficient & sold to customers
Earliest lovable - contains enough features to convince users why it's way better than alternatives
