It is easy to misuse what the minimum viable product is for. Some may use the term to ask developers to go string from the idea to coding. Others will use it to justify building an incomplete product or not producing tested code.
The MVP is how you test the market and get feedback to improve. The MVP is the tangible asset of a strategy to confirm what the future of the product should be: continue, adapt, or get dropped.
The MVP is what get the business from having assumptions to an understanding of what the product does and why. By investing in the MVP design, we avoid waste during the development as our product principles become clearer.
We design the MVP to be the first working version of our product, with all the needed capabilities to fulfill its main goal. The key to success is to be able to sharp focus on the goal and trim the fat from the features to keep only the essentials.