Testing your innovation assumptions – the role of the MVP

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Libby Cross, Senior Marketing Executive

Rule 11 – the bonus rule added to our Ten point plan to successful innovation – is test your assumptions as quickly and as often as possible.

The key point for this rule is:

Your early assumptions about your innovative idea or product are probably wrong.

In the software development world this is called getting to minimum viable product (MVP).

MVP is the about doing the least amount of development to get to the point of satisfying early adopters. Then we use the minimum viable product to test our assumptions with our learners.

The MVP process is about asking two questions:

• What’s my riskiest assumption?
• What’s the smallest experiment to test it?

The process of getting to a mature and stable product or service is more one of test and change, test and change, test and change, rather than a smooth and uninterrupted route towards a glorious implementation.

In the learning and development space, we can make and test smaller changes with our learners in a developing series of MVP stages – a process not without risk, but ultimately with the potential for great reward.

If you would like some support with innovation in your learning and development team and processes, then watch the recording of our Practical Innovation in Learning and Development webinar or get in touch. Happy innovating!