How to determine a minimum viable product in app-based lean start-ups: Kano-based approach

According to the ‘lean start-up’ concept, companies should develop their products or services with the minimum amount of effort and do the iterative release to shorten the life cycle. Therefore, defining a proper minimum viable product (MVP) is critical for companies who want to succeed in a lean start-up process. Despite the importance, however, how to determine an MVP has not been addressed in the previous literature. Therefore, this article suggests a systematic approach to determine an MVP using the Kano-based approach. In this approach, each function is evaluated from both customers’ and companies’ perspectives based on the revised Kano evaluation table. The results of customer-side Kano analysis and company-side Kano analysis are integrated to suggest the desirable MVP types: core to be MVP, feasible to be MVP, and next priority to MVP. A case study is also provided for better comprehension. The target start-up business is the service to measure and manage fine dust concentration. As a result, two functions are determined to be core to be MVP, and one function is derived as feasible to be an MVP, and eight functions are turned out to be next priority to MVPs, which are not urgent as company expected. This article contributes to the fields of the lean start-up in that it is one of the first attempts to provide a methodological support for determining MVPs in a systematic way.