{
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  "@id": "https://www.vidyasource.com/blog/what-if-marvel-built-a-minimum-viable-product/",
  "url": "https://www.vidyasource.com/blog/what-if-marvel-built-a-minimum-viable-product/",
  "mainEntityOfPage": "https://www.vidyasource.com/blog/what-if-marvel-built-a-minimum-viable-product/",
  "headline": "What If...Marvel Built a Minimum Viable Product?",
  "description": "Product development should begin with an MVP, and Marvel's What if?... is exactly that.",
  "datePublished": "2021-11-09T00:00:00.000Z",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Neil Chaudhuri",
    "jobTitle": "President",
    "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-chaudhuri/",
    "sameAs": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-chaudhuri/"
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    "@id": "https://www.vidyasource.com/#organization"
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  "image": "https://www.vidyasource.com/img/blog/what-if.jpeg",
  "keywords": [
    "Agile",
    "Lean",
    "Project Management",
    "Software Engineering"
  ],
  "articleBody": "In 2011, Eric Ries published *The Lean Startup*, and it revolutionized software development. Lean principles\nhad already [made it into agile software development](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/194338.Lean_Software_Development),\nbut *The Lean Startup* fills in a lot of gaps to turn the abstract\n[principles behind the Agile Manifesto](https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html) into something real.\n\nFor example, even if you nailed agile and built the thing right, how do you know you built the right thing? In other words,\nit's great to execute on your project and build exactly what you intend on time and on budget, but when you're done, how\ndo you know people will actually buy it? Although the Agile Manifesto never answers this question because it assumes you\nare on the right track all along, Ries gives us an answer.\n\n## The Minimum Viable Product\n\nProbably the most profound innovation in *The Lean Startup* is the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).\n\n(You can [watch Ries himself talk about it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4ex0fejo8w), but I have to warn you\nthat it looks like it was filmed by the director of [The Blair Witch Project](https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/how-blair-witch-project-manages-scare-without-showing-anything-supernatural-135492).)\n\nThe idea is really quite simple. Whether you are conscious of it or not, the product you have in mind is based on your\nassumptions about what your customers want and why, so the purpose of the MVP is to validate those assumptions with\nhard data around *a lightweight representation of your product* before you commit your full resources to building it out in full.\nYou give your early adopters access to the MVP and consider their feedback, which Ries calls \"validated learning.\" Validated\nlearning is crucial. For Ries, it's quantifiable feedback that is \"the unit of progress for lean startups.\"\n\nBased on what you learned, you either \"[pivot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n67RYI_0sc0)\"\nto something else more aligned to what your customers want or \"persevere\" because you had it right all along. From this point on,\nyou have quantifiable, proven demand for your product, and you can be confident that you will be investing in building\nthe right thing.\n\nLike a lot of terms in tech that blow up, consultants often use MVP to mean something different from what Ries intended--most commonly\nto mean the first version of your product and/or a really scaled down version of it. In either case you've implicitly\ndecided without any validated learning what you want to build. The fact it's in its earliest stages is irrelevant.\n\nSo what does all of this have to do with Marvel?\n\n## The MCU Juggernaut\n\nUnless you have been living in the [Quantum Realm](https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Quantum_Realm) for the last decade,\nyou know the [Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)](https://www.marvel.com/movies). It's a monumental achievement in cinema\nthat has taken decades of Marvel comics and reformulated them into a multibillion dollar juggernaut movie franchise that has\nraised once second-tier heroes like Iron-Man, Thor, and Black Widow to the stature of eternal favorites like Spider-Man,\nCaptain America, and Hulk and put [Mjolnirs](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Mjolnir) and\n[Infinity Gauntlets](https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Infinity_Gauntlet) into the homes of ardent fans worldwide.\n\nIt may be hard to imagine now, but there was no guarantee of success at the beginning as Marvel was struggling as a business\nhaving sold off their most bankable assets. This forced Kevin Feige, the architect of the MCU, to get creative to and\n[derive new ways to bring Marvel heroes to life](https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11595344/marvel-cinematic-universe-captain-america-avengers).\n\nThey succeeded spectacularly, and now they have to do it all over again.\n\nFirmly entrenched in global pop culture, the MCU now faces pressure to build on its foundation with new heroes and villains,\nmany of whom like [Moon Knight](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marc_Spector_(Earth-616)) and [Titania](https://www.marvel.com/characters/titania-mary-macpherran)\nlack the star power of Captain America and Spider-Man and are all but unknown to mainstream audiences. And considering that the MCU has decided to go all in on the\n[Multiverse](https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Multiverse), there are literally infinite possibilities for stories.\n\nHow can Marvel decide what direction to take with the MCU?\n\n## *What If?* is Marvel's MVP\n\nThere is no question Kevin Feige has sketched out the broad contours of the next iteration of the MCU. Still, as sterling\nas his record is, he's working from assumptions about what will make for great stories and what will thrill audiences going forward.\nIf he followed *The Lean Startup* model, Feige would build a lightweight MVP to test his hypotheses with passionate fans and\nmeasure their response for some validated learning.\n\nIt turns out that is exactly what Marvel is doing with *What If?...*\n\n*What If?...* is an [animated show on Disney+](https://www.marvel.com/tv-shows/animation/what-if/1) that imagines\nthe MCU heroes we know experiencing very different lives throughout the multiverse. For example, we see\nPeggy Carter receive the super soldier serum rather than Steve Rogers to become\n[Captain Carter](https://www.marvel.com/articles/tv-shows/what-if-episode-1-multiverse-report-captain-carter), and we watch somberly\nas T'Challa, voiced just as he is portrayed on screen by the legendary Chadwick Boseman in his final performance,\n[becomes Star-Lord](https://www.marvel.com/articles/tv-shows/what-if-new-images-episode-2) rather than\nPeter Quill. It's heroes and villains we know so well from the MCU facing new challenges alongside other heroes and villains\nwe've never seen them interact with before.\n\nThe novel combinations are fun and exciting, but they're also an experiment. How will fans, primarily hardcore MCU fans (early\nadopters if you will) react? You can easily track this with viewership metrics on Disney+, mentions on Twitter, and the impressions\nof media influencers for validated learning. When a story doesn't click, Marvel can dismiss it as a fun idea for the fans\nand pivot to something else. On the other hand, when a story does click, Marvel can persevere and explore it further on a live-action series\non Disney+ or even on the big screen within established MCU canon.\n\nBest of all, Marvel can test their hypotheses, engage in validated learning, and guide the future of the MCU accordingly\nat a low cost. *What If?...* is high-quality animation, and most of the elite talent that portrays the characters on the\nbig screen voices them on the show. Still, the cost of running these experiments in animation without any real commitment\nsince the stories all happen outside the \"prime\" MCU universe is orders of magnitude less than it would be going all in\nwith any of the *What If?...* plots in live action.\n\n## The Key Lesson\n\nOne way or another, we are all in the business of product development. Too often we assume we have accurately gauged\ncustomer sentiment, and [we exude hubris that success is inevitable only to fail miserably](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-_PfdQ0DYo).\n\nDon't be afraid to test your assumptions before you go all in. Build a Minimum Viable Product--something more lightweight\nand less expensive that will nonetheless provide your early\nadopters something meaningful to evaluate. The validated learning you get from their feedback will either help you pivot to something\nmore aligned with what people want or empower you to persevere with your original idea with legitimate confidence it\nwill sell. Once you start executing, then you can argue on Twitter about whether you need daily meetings and whether\npeople should be allowed to sit down in them.\n\nUsing an MVP to build confidence in your product direction is exactly what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done with *What If?...*,\nbut you don't have to be Marvel to fly [higher, further, faster, baby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKAvj9EjBmM)."
}