Imagine you’re building a new analytical tool. You might work on it for a year, perfecting the concept, functionality, and user interface, only to discover on launch that it doesn’t do what you aimed for it to achieve. Too late, you’d find that you wasted a lot of development time.
Instead of perfecting the app, develop it just far enough to test it with your team or target user. It might not have all the features you intend, and the user interface might be simplified, but it works just well enough - it’s minimally viable. Instead of a year, this initial result for your app might only take a month. Then you send it out for feedback and use that input to improve the project. You iterate, get feedback, iterate again, etc.
Working this way lets you run a nimble operation that only commits when the path forward is clear. Each iteration is a chance to make changes that help your product better reflect the realities of your target.
This is a lesson that all teams should learn. Keep things simple, iterate frequently, and get feedback at every stage. If you find you need to make a change, you’ll know far more rapidly and with greater specificity than you would otherwise.