An MVP is not a smaller version of the final product. It is the smallest slice that tests the assumption most likely to be wrong.
We start with one operational loop: intake, status, and a report someone already asks for every Monday. If that loop is not used, more screens will not save the project.
Scope is a list of refusals. Everything else waits. The first release has a named owner, a real data source, and a path to change a record without calling engineering.
After launch we watch where people still open the old spreadsheet. That gap is the next slice — not a redesign of the whole system.
