Engineering Management IV: MVPs

One of the biggest traps for any team is confusing progress with movement. It's easy to stay busy, harder to stay focused. As managers, part of our role is to help our teams create value fast enough to learn, but not so fast that we lose direction. This is where the concept of the MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, becomes a practical tool for alignment and learning.

An MVP is not about doing less work; it's about doing the right amount of work to validate an idea. It's about reducing risk while keeping the purpose alive. When done right, an MVP helps the team learn quickly and focus their creativity where it matters most.

Engineering Management series

Engineering Management I: Building trust and protecting focus

Engineering Management II: Outcomes and alignment

Engineering Management III: Objectives and key results

Engineering Management IV: MVPs

What makes a good MVP

Releasing early versions of products has become a common practice, yet the idea behind a Minimum Viable Product, or MVP, is often misunderstood. Many teams treat it as an excuse to deliver incomplete work or to move fast without clarity.

For engineering managers, the purpose of an MVP goes far beyond speed. It is a structured tool for learning. It helps confirm if the problem is worth solving, if the solution is valuable, and if the approach is sustainable. A good MVP balances pace with purpose and gives the team a clear signal for what to do next.

The goal of an MVP is not to cut scope but to learn. It is a way to test assumptions, validate direction, and build confidence with real feedback instead of opinions. A strong MVP provides a complete experience within a focused scope. It should be reliable enough to gather honest feedback and small enough to make iteration fast. If it does not lead to clear learning, it is not an MVP but simply a smaller version of a full release. The point is not to deliver less but to learn faster and smarter.

The manager's role in the process

An engineering manager's role during MVP development is to guide learning instead of chasing speed. Managers help the team define what they want to discover and ensure each iteration serves that goal. It is the manager's responsibility to shield the team from external pressure to overbuild. Stakeholders may want a fully polished product immediately, but the focus of an MVP is validation.

Managers keep the team aligned on learning so that effort is spent on meaningful experiments rather than unnecessary polish. Managers also help the team interpret feedback correctly. Not every comment is equally important, and distinguishing insight from noise is critical. By framing feedback as information rather than judgment, managers encourage curiosity and reflection instead of defensiveness.

Finally, managers model reflection and prioritization. After each MVP release, teams should review what was learned, what worked, and what requires adjustment. Managers create space for these discussions and ensure that insights are applied to future iterations, turning experiments into actionable knowledge.

Turning learning into confidence

When MVPs are handled correctly, they create confidence within the team. Iterations provide clarity on what works, what does not, and what is worth pursuing. Each release strengthens the team's ability to make informed decisions and reduces uncertainty about future work.

Celebrating insights and progress reinforces this mindset. Recognition shows the team that learning is valued as much as delivery. Over time, a culture emerges where the team makes better decisions faster, and confidence grows from evidence rather than assumptions.

Looking ahead

In the final article of this series, we will focus on the core mission of an engineering manager. We will explore how to connect people, outcomes, and learning to create lasting impact, bringing together everything discussed in the previous articles.