2 ms·

At work we had to start calling things "minimum lovable product" a while back. Seems like corporate newspeak to me. It's the same idea as MVP - build just what

At work we had to start calling things "minimum lovable product" a while back. Seems like corporate newspeak to me. It's the same idea as MVP - build just what you need to work, with a little better branding. I think the author's first illustration shows this pretty well. They show an MVP as constructing the whole semi part by part and the MLP as using a wheel barrow, then a truck, then a van, then the semi. Only, that second illustration is obviously what MVP means. Use the fastest thing you can build that does the job. That's the wheel barrow until your load is too big. MVP and MLP actually mean the same thing - just people feel like "lovable" sounds better, when in reality it just obscures the meaning. The author is right about one thing though. It matters what you're doing. If you're building a podcast app you've got to do a lot better than existing podcast apps to make anybody switch. You'll need to be much more polished. If you're making new you can be a lot rougher because people have no alternative. This isn't really an argument against the MVP idea though, it's more like the observation that UX has different importance for different products. I would still suggest someone making a podcast app start with the MVP though and build that up until it was good enough to win users.

TylerE 6y ago
The term feels different to me. MVP has more than a whiff of the half-assed and barely functional.
- JamesBarney 6y ago
  This is true, but that mostly comes from plenty of successfully founders talking about how their first products were half-assed and barely functional. The whole point is answering the question "when should you close your IDE and start trying to sell your product?" and many of us who believe in the tenants of lean startup would answer that question with "as early as possible".
robador 6y ago
Totally agree, the other illustration where MVP supposedly only concerns functionality is not how I, or we in my company, ever define MVP. We use the other one to explain MVP to our customers. How can a 'product' be viable with only functionality? In my personal observation, working in a cross functional team which includes frontend and backend developers, and ui/ux designers, an MVP only consisting of functionality just wouldn't be considered. Perhaps the author is used to environments where those disciplines are siloed.
chrisdbanks 6y ago
If you're building a new podcast app, all you need is one feature that makes people love your app. People often use apps that have far fewer features than their competitor but do one thing very well. In this sense, I think the "love" part is even more useful to focus you in developing something unique about your app that will help you build a user base even if you don't have all the bells and whistles.

TylerE 6y ago

The term feels different to me. MVP has more than a whiff of the half-assed and barely functional.

JamesBarney 6y ago
This is true, but that mostly comes from plenty of successfully founders talking about how their first products were half-assed and barely functional. The whole point is answering the question "when should you close your IDE and start trying to sell your product?" and many of us who believe in the tenants of lean startup would answer that question with "as early as possible".

robador 6y ago

Totally agree, the other illustration where MVP supposedly only concerns functionality is not how I, or we in my company, ever define MVP. We use the other one to explain MVP to our customers. How can a 'product' be viable with only functionality? In my personal observation, working in a cross functional team which includes frontend and backend developers, and ui/ux designers, an MVP only consisting of functionality just wouldn't be considered. Perhaps the author is used to environments where those disciplines are siloed.

chrisdbanks 6y ago

If you're building a new podcast app, all you need is one feature that makes people love your app. People often use apps that have far fewer features than their competitor but do one thing very well. In this sense, I think the "love" part is even more useful to focus you in developing something unique about your app that will help you build a user base even if you don't have all the bells and whistles.