---
title: "Smoke-test MVPs"
course: "ENTR 242 · Start your own business"
unit: "Experiments, MVPs, and pivots"
lesson: 20 of 43
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/start-your-own-business/smoke-test-mvps
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Smoke-test MVPs

Lesson 20 of 43 in **Start your own business** (ENTR 242), unit "Experiments, MVPs, and pivots". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Understand an MVP as the cheapest experiment that produces credible evidence on one hypothesis, not a smaller version of the product, and a smoke test as an MVP that asks people to act on an offer before the product exists, where a click, email sign-up, pre-order or deposit gives progressively stronger evidence.
- Use the Dropbox and Buffer cases to identify how a smoke test measured demand before the product existed.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 20 complete: Smoke-test MVPs."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "Building a smoke-test landing page" (lesson 21 of 43), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/start-your-own-business/building-a-smoke-test-landing-page.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: The build-measure-learn loop
Next lesson: Building a smoke-test landing page