So, the idea of minimum viable product is useful because you can basically say, look, our vision is to build a product that solves this core problem for customers, these kind of general feature areas, and we think that for the people who are early adopters for that kind of solution, they will be the most forgiving.
And they will fill in their minds the features that aren’t quite there if we give them the core, tent-pole features that point the direction of where we’re trying to go.
So, the minimum viable product is that product which has just those features and no more that allows you to ship a product that early adopters see and, at least some of whom resonate with, pay you money for, and start to gave you feedback on.
vaporware -> beta -> minimum viable product.... :)
but this is a good read on product development. essentially don't sell products till u know you can get a customer and with today's tools on the internet it's so much easier to test out demands for concepts by using search marketing.