From the Mostly Futile Ambition (MFA) to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
After more than two decades working in the public sector I have witnessed several large digital projects that have never really delivered. They tend to start with high ambitions, gather lots of ideas about what they will achieve, and then set out to achieve it all.
At some point along the journey (usually after a few milestones have been missed), there will be a time of reflection, assessment and then after descoping, the project is sanctioned to continue. Afterall, so much finance, energy, time - and hopes and dreams - have already been invested. This “Mostly Futile Ambition” (MFA) can result in years of developer effort taken away from solving the daily issues of the organisation. If it does deliver, too often this is to an evolved user base who now need something rather different.
Instead, changing the focus to one of delivering a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) ensures something useful is delivered without too great an initial investment. The MVP then serves the function of eliciting user feedback which can be used to develop the product further - or bin it, if that is what the feedback says!
Like the MFA, the MVP draws on an understanding of what the user wants. However, this research is more penetrative, digging further into what the users actually need, what they do and, importantly, why. This information is often summarised well in user stories. By delivering a core requirement, simply and quickly - the U.S. Digital Services Playbook states “no longer than three months from the beginning of the project” - the MVP addresses a need in a timely way.
I am interested in exploring what MVPs look like in the wild and in considering the application of this concept to wider applications beyond digital. In later iterations of this post (see the next sections) I will review real-world and theoretical MVPs. I am also going to try to use the approach to address a common MFA of my own - the issue of writing for assignments. Therefore, this first section of this post was created to solve for the following user story:
As an instructor I need to observe my student’s understanding of the concept MVP so that I can determine their comprehension of the topic
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