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I think what others have posted about serialization, character pieces, or short stories are all ways novels can make sense of the MVP concept of lean. There are also sites such as Wattpad that allow the author to publish as they go and get crowd feedback. They can then rework sections based on how fans react to characters, story arcs, etc.

Two ways to do it are short stories or serialization. If you look into how Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, they definitely had a feedback loop going.

That's basically what Hugh Howey did. His short story "wool" took off and so he focused his efforts on that story line.