Mvp Scoping

---
name: mvp-scoping
description: Define the smallest product that tests the riskiest assumption. Use when MVP, minimum viable, what's the smallest version, cut scope, or phase 1.
---

# MVP Scoping

**An MVP is not a half-built product. It's the smallest thing that tests your riskiest assumption. If you can't name the assumption, you can't scope the MVP.**

### 1. Name the riskiest assumption
Identify what must be true for this product to work from the discovery brief or product strategy. That is exactly what the MVP tests.

### 2. List every feature
Pull the full feature list from the product strategy output or the user's brief.

### 3. Classify ruthlessly
Sort into three buckets: (a) Must-have: directly tests the core assumption, (b) Should-have: improves the test but not essential, (c) Out: everything else, with an explicit reason for each cut.

### 4. Draw the MVP boundary
The boundary is a line, not a gradient. Everything inside ships together. Everything outside waits.

### 5. Define the exit criterion
Specify what result from the MVP tells you to proceed, pivot, or kill.

### Completion Criteria
Done when the scope strictly isolates the riskiest assumption with clear exit criteria.

### Output Format
MVP Scope Document detailing the assumption being tested, an in/out feature table, and exit criteria.

### Anti-patterns
- "MVP" that includes 80% of the full product.
- Scope creep disguised as "just one more thing".
- MVPs that don't test anything — they're just v1.