In the corporate world, working with an MVP or Minimum Viable Product is gradually becoming common practice. Enterprises no longer wait for a new product to be developed to the very last detail but push it into the market at an early stage. This is a way for them to prevent their competitors from gaining an advantage over them or market demand from disappearing before they are able to fully develop the solution.

If the cocreation process relates to the public space, it’s equally essential to achieve results quickly, even though these results are not completely finalised yet. For public actors especially, this is often not their normal way of working at all. Still, it’s important to use an MVP as a milestone.

The market plays a role here as well. Society is evolving very quickly.  The demand for and the pressure on the public space are following this evolution. Waiting too long to launch a first solution may mean missing out on the opportunity to test your concept in practice  and on the feedback of real-time users. It’s precisely that feedback you need in order to make your solution viable for the future.

An MVP is also very important to secure the commitment of the partners around the table. In a first phase, everyone is very willing to give their opinion and voice ideas. However, if those ideas remain ideas, you run the risk of gradually losing support.

A short and powerful process during which ideas are quickly translated into prototypes and subsequently into MVPs has the biggest chance of success. As this way of working is so different from what you’re used to, it’s important to pay extra attention to this during the process and to force yourself and the partners to take the step toward MVPs at an early stage.