From MVP to VCP: the Complete Version of the Project as a learning unit in organizational innovation under multidimensional uncertainty

Abstract

This article argues that the minimum viable product (MVP) becomes less adequate as the central learning unit in organizational innovation projects characterized by multidimensional uncertainty, long feedback cycles, medium to high decisional irreversibility, problems not reducible to product, and the need for internal acceptance from multiple stakeholders. In dialogue with the recent critical literature on the MVP, an alternative unit is proposed: the Complete Version of the Project (VCP), defined as a structurally complete and empirically provisional configuration of five elements — problem, context, desired situation, solution, and expected results — sustained by progressively more robust evidence produced through iterative learning cycles. The theoretical contribution articulates, in a single structure, the traditions of problem-solution coevolution, double-loop organizational learning, and structured hypothesis testing. Six theoretical propositions formalize the thesis and are anchored in findings from a protocol-based integrative review of 67 individually verified sources. Internal acceptance is discussed as a transversal category of falsifiable hypotheses crossing the five elements. The limits of the work are declared, with a specific research agenda for future empirical validation.