The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses · chapter 6 · id the-lean-startup-c6-06-the-wizard-of-oz-mvp-technique

“The Wizard of Oz MVP technique -- where humans manually perform the service before building technology -- is a reliable way to validate demand for technology-heavy products.”

needs contextconfidence: high⚠ extracted by pipeline, re-audit pending

Receipts

Klemmer et al. (2019), Wizard of Oz in HCI Research, CHIDOI registry: valid

Wizard of Oz testing validates user interaction patterns but cannot validate technical feasibility, scalability, or unit economics -- the factors that most commonly kill tech startups.

Blank (2013), Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything, HBRsource alive

Wizard of Oz MVPs are effective for testing desirability but say nothing about feasibility or viability.

Crunchbase -- Aardvark (product discontinued)paywalled — manual check queued

Aardvark's Wizard of Oz approach validated interest but the underlying technology could not scale. Product shut down by Google within 2 years.

This claim is a stable, citable object. If you can falsify a verdict, tell us — corrections are loud here.