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I'd say the biggest problem with how people approach it is that they fixate on the MVP rather than the cycle. The MVP is just a particular cycle. It's even wor

I'd say the biggest problem with how people approach it is that they fixate on the MVP rather than the cycle. The MVP is just a particular cycle. It's even worse than that. The problem I see is folks who focus on particular forms of the MVP. Not every damn product starts best with a launch page of some Google Adwords. Lean Startup is neat. I'm finding a bunch of ideas from it stupidly useful. But it's going throught the Hype Cycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle) amazingly quickly.

jacques_chester 14y ago
Yeah, it's not half bad. Like I said, I tend to instinctively avoid whatever book is being waved like a bible in HN circles. So as I say, it was a surprise to see how different the expressed vision of MVP seems to be from what I got from the book. I got the impression that it was the first thing you could actually give to a user and have them use. Even if it was buggy and had a single feature. The launch-page "MVP" isn't actually a product. It's market research.
- adrianhoward 14y ago
  I know this is somewhat heretical - but I don't actually like The Lean Startup book that much. I was pointed to Lean Startup back in 2010 as a solution to some of the problems I was looking at. The folk I talked to, places like the LSC mailing list, and reading the online/offline writings of Steve Blank, Eric Ries and many others helped a lot. I was really looking forward to Eric's book - but it didn't really hit the spot I was hoping it would hit. It's very much aimed (I think) at explaining the ideas to the world in general - rather than being a guide to folk who want to apply the ideas. There's nothing wrong with the former, but I was hoping for the latter.
  - jacques_chester 14y ago
    Well if I had a complaint about Eric's book it's that there's a ton of undergraduate-essay padding at the front end. It could have been about 2/3rds as long and said all the same stuff.

jacques_chester 14y ago

Yeah, it's not half bad. Like I said, I tend to instinctively avoid whatever book is being waved like a bible in HN circles. So as I say, it was a surprise to see how different the expressed vision of MVP seems to be from what I got from the book. I got the impression that it was the first thing you could actually give to a user and have them use. Even if it was buggy and had a single feature. The launch-page "MVP" isn't actually a product. It's market research.

adrianhoward 14y ago
I know this is somewhat heretical - but I don't actually like The Lean Startup book that much. I was pointed to Lean Startup back in 2010 as a solution to some of the problems I was looking at. The folk I talked to, places like the LSC mailing list, and reading the online/offline writings of Steve Blank, Eric Ries and many others helped a lot. I was really looking forward to Eric's book - but it didn't really hit the spot I was hoping it would hit. It's very much aimed (I think) at explaining the ideas to the world in general - rather than being a guide to folk who want to apply the ideas. There's nothing wrong with the former, but I was hoping for the latter.
- jacques_chester 14y ago
  Well if I had a complaint about Eric's book it's that there's a ton of undergraduate-essay padding at the front end. It could have been about 2/3rds as long and said all the same stuff.