&gt; I&#x27;m quite surprised by this, since to me there&#x27;s little to disagree about. A &quot;minimum viable product&quot; seems like a very simple description to me.<p>I&#x27;ve found a lot of confusion about the term. Just a few of the many examples I&#x27;ve read: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hbr.org&#x2F;2013&#x2F;09&#x2F;building-a-minimum-viable-prod&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hbr.org&#x2F;2013&#x2F;09&#x2F;building-a-minimum-viable-prod&#x2F;</a>, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tynerblain.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2012&#x2F;09&#x2F;11&#x2F;why-do-products-fail-incomplete-solutions&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;tynerblain.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2012&#x2F;09&#x2F;11&#x2F;why-do-products-fail-i...</a>, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;paulkortman.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;11&#x2F;21&#x2F;the-problem-with-a-lean-startup-the-minimum-viable-product&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;paulkortman.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;11&#x2F;21&#x2F;the-problem-with-a-lean-st...</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@maxdunn&#x2F;when-the-minimum-viable-product-is-not-enough-308d8f009b13#.w8u3gudqg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@maxdunn&#x2F;when-the-minimum-viable-product-...</a>, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.romanpichler.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;minimum-viable-product-and-minimal-marketable-product&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.romanpichler.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;minimum-viable-product-and-...</a>, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.svpg.com&#x2F;minimum-viable-product" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.svpg.com&#x2F;minimum-viable-product</a>, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;andrewchen.co&#x2F;minimum-desirable-product&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;andrewchen.co&#x2F;minimum-desirable-product&#x2F;</a>, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.startupblender.com&#x2F;minimum-viable-product-vs-minimum-delightful-product&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.startupblender.com&#x2F;minimum-viable-product-vs-mini...</a>, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.invisionapp.com&#x2F;minimum-viable-product-mutants&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.invisionapp.com&#x2F;minimum-viable-product-mutants&#x2F;</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;validately.com&#x2F;leancustomerresearch&#x2F;death-minimal-viable-product&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;validately.com&#x2F;leancustomerresearch&#x2F;death-minimal-vi...</a>.<p>Note how many of the articles above try to redefine the phrase to reduce confusion, such as &quot;Minimum Delightful Product&quot; or &quot;Minimum Marketable Product.&quot; There is confusion about every part of MVP: what &quot;minimum&quot; means, what &quot;viable&quot; means, and what &quot;product&quot; means.<p>&gt; If it&#x27;s not the smallest viable product then how is it a minimum viable product? If it&#x27;s not a viable product, again, it&#x27;s not an MVP.<p>How do you do know if it&#x27;s &quot;smallest&quot; or &quot;viable&quot;? Walk me through your process.<p>&gt; If people are going to use the term MVP to describe proofs of concepts and mockups and a general process, then what term do you suggest should replace it for actually describing minimum viable products?<p>Based on the massive confusion around the term MVP, as you can see in the articles I linked above, I think it&#x27;s fair to say that you need more than an acronym to understand what to do. That&#x27;s why I tried to define it as a process. Will that fix all the confusion in the world? Of course not. But I hope that focusing on a <i>mindset</i> instead of a <i>product</i> will help at least a little bit.