Minimum Viable Product and the Importance of Experimentation in Technology Startups

Abstract

Entrepreneurs are often faced with limited resources in their quest to commercialize new technology. This article presents the model of a lean startup, which can be applied to an organization regardless of its size or environment. It also emphasizes the conditions of ex- treme uncertainty under which the commercialization of new technology is carried out. The lean startup philosophy advocates efficient use of resources by introducing a minim- um viable product to the market as soon as possible in order to test its value and the entre- preneur’s growth projections. This testing is done by running experiments that examine the metrics relevant to three distinct types of the growth. These experiments bring about accelerated learning to help reduce the uncertainty that accompanies commercialization projects, thereby bringing the resulting new technology to market faster.