You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em
Know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
- Kenny Rogers, The Gambler
As a CEO, I was often asked to make decisions on new feature ideas with very little data or evidence to back them up. I remember hearing people in the product and engineering teams say, “Well, it’s your call.”
It was a great way to avoid accountability, and for me, it was stressful. If I gave the go-ahead for a new feature, I sometimes had to wait months to see if it would pan out. I started thinking there had to be a better way. That’s when I discovered Minimum Viable Tests (MVTs), a smarter approach that took the pressure off me and the team, and let data do the talking.
In business, the challenge isn’t coming up with ideas — it’s figuring out which ideas are worth pursuing. Companies often get stuck juggling too many concepts, wasting time and resources. The solution? Quickly discard ideas that don’t show promise. That’s where MVTs come in.
An MVT is a quick, low-cost way to test a specific hypothesis about a product, feature, or initiative. Unlike a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which involves creating a basic product version, an MVT focuses on validating assumptions with as few resources as possible. The goal is to gather enough data to decide without wasting time or money.
When you have too many ideas and no clear process to test them, it’s easy to get scattered. Teams lose focus, resources get spread too thin, and burnout follows. MVTs offer a structured approach to decide which ideas have legs and which don’t.
Product and growth managers came up with MVTs, but keeping them stuck in product and engineering is a mistake. MVTs should go beyond department lines. Every team can test ideas fast and rely on data to make decisions, not just gut feelings.
Here’s how different teams can use them:
Planning an MVT doesn’t have to be complex. Here are a few simple steps to guide your process:
By following these steps, you can ensure your MVTs are effective, fast, and data-driven.
If you work in a normal company with normal human beings, you will inevitably have people on your team who will question the validity of the data gathered from an MVT.
They might argue that the results aren’t statistically significant, and they could be right. But having some data is better than having none. In my career — whether in startups, scaleups, or multinationals — I’ve repeatedly seen executives make huge decisions with no evidence whatsoever.
Sure, an MVT might not give you perfect data, but it gives you something concrete to work with. Instead of relying on gut feelings, opinions, or assumptions, you’re basing decisions on real-world feedback. It’s better to make an informed decision from a small pool of data than gamble on untested ideas.
The key is to view MVTs as a stepping stone. If the results show promise, that’s when you can invest more time and resources to collect more robust data. The goal isn’t perfection — it’s progress.
Using MVTs not only ensures your team stays focused, but it also reduces the risk of wasting resources on ideas that won’t fly. The traditional method of building a product first and testing it later leads to long delays and a higher risk of failure. MVTs break that cycle by flipping the process — testing first to validate ideas before you invest too much time and money.
The beauty of MVTs is that they provide critical feedback early, allowing you to make smarter decisions without over-committing resources. No more betting the whole company. As Kenny Rogers used to sing: “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.”
MVTs also help you avoid typical implementation challenges like biased business cases, waterfall mode, and slow time to action. Instead of frontloading your efforts and resources, you build your confidence as you do.
MVTs changed how my team worked together. It ended the opinion-filled discussions and encouraged people to get evidence for the ideas we were testing. No more sales pitches or long debates about what might work. I remember one simple test that generated five-figure sales in a week. That kind of data instantly shifted the tone in meetings — decisions became grounded in what we knew, not what we thought.
Before using MVTs, I was stuck making gut-based decisions on new ideas, which was stressful and slow. But once we started running quick tests to get real data, the whole process became smoother. We knew early on which ideas had potential and which didn’t, saving us time and resources.
For any business — whether you’re just starting or scaling — MVTs are a game-changer. They give you clarity, help you move fast, and boost your confidence in decision-making. Trust the data, run the tests, and watch your business go in the right direction.
If you’d like to transform your team into a better innovation machine that quickly turns ideas into value-creating products and initiatives, check out our Fast-Track Innovation Workshop. This hands-on workshop will give you the tools, strategies, and mindset needed to run effective MVTs and speed up your time to market.
