[polemic]

> A MVP [minimal viable product] is not a minimal product....

While I agree with the general sentiment of the post, the insistence that an MVP doesn't actually have do be something useful has something wiffy about it. Am I the only one who thinks that a landing page is not a viable product?

A lot of the time people don't know what they want/need until they actually have something to use, so simply pitching an idea and seeing if they get it is not, in my mind, sufficient for gathering hard data.

But maybe I just like to call a spade a spade.

[viscanti]

It depends what idea you're testing. If you're looking to see if there's any interest at all in the idea, a landing page with adwords could test that. You can funnel traffic there and see if anyone clicks a "buy now" button. That can be enough to see if the idea warrants any additional work.

A landing page isn't the only way to do an MVP, and it's not always helpful in finding out more about your problem area. If it does help, then great, use it. If it doesn't add any additional information, don't waste your time.

[pkamb]

I think the original idea of these landing pages was to track how many times your Google Adword links were clicked. Tim Ferris did that to A/B test the title of his book, for example. If you're doing that they are useful and I suppose maybe an 'MVP'.

But no, they're not something you should be submitting to Reddit/HN as if it's a real thing.