A minimum viable product, or MVP, is the simplest version of a product that you need to build to sell it to a market. Creating just the minimum necessary saves time and money, and ultimately allows you to build a better product that's correctly tailored to the audience who will actually use it. This isn't a short-sighted shortcut; it's a better business practice.
The concept of the minimum viable product, or MVP, was first introduced by Lean Startup genius Eric Ries. Ries defines MVP as:
The version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.