Lean UX, 3rd Edition

Chapter 12. Box 8: MVPs and Experiments

Figure 12-1. Box 8 of the Lean UX Canvas: MVPs and Experiments

The final step in the Lean UX Canvas is focused on experimentation. The second key question of the canvas we have to answer is What’s the least amount of work we need to do to learn the next most important thing? The answer to this question is the experiment you’re going to run to test your hypothesis.

Doing the least amount of work isn’t lazy. It’s lean. Remember, we’re trying to eliminate waste, and extra work spent testing your idea is waste. In fact, the faster you find out if your idea is something you should continue working on, the less you invest in it. This makes changing course much easier, which increases the agility of the team.

The experiments you come up with in Box 8 are your minimum viable products or MVP. In fact, this is the exact definition of MVP from Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup.

What Is an MVP Anyway?

If you ask a room full of technology professionals the question “What is an MVP?” you’re likely to hear a lengthy and diverse list that includes such gems as the ones that follow:

“It’s the fastest thing we can get out the door that still works.”

“It’s an ugly release that’s full of compromises and makes everyone unhappy.”

“It’s whatever the client says it is.”

“It’s the minimum set of features that allows us to say, ‘it works.’”

“It’s phase 1.” (And we ...