The Minimum Lovable Product (Forget the MVP)

www.aha.io© Aha! 2014
The Minimum
Lovable
Product
(forget MVP)

A can of cat food
is a Minimum
Viable Product
(MVP) when you
are starving

But it’s highly
unsatisfying
and unlikely to
generate a
loyal following
(of humans)

That’s one of the
problems of the MVP
approach. It strives for
‘barely enough’ and
never great

It results in
products that
mostly work
but never
delight

Definition:
The MVP is a new
product with just the
necessary features to be
deployed, but no more

But will that make
customers love you?

Growth
comes
from long-
term
customer
happiness

And long-term customer
happiness comes when
customers adore your product
and want you to succeed

What would it take for
customers to love
you—not tolerate
you?

What would it take to
create a Minimum
Lovable Product
(MLP)?

While the true
adoption of the
MVP is a
strategic
approach to
getting product
out the door…

…when
applied, can
yield to
unsatisfactory
products

Rather than asking what do
customers really want, or what
would delight them

The conversation always
returns to what’s the
minimum viable product and
when can we get it to market

The problem is that the
two major principles
driving the MVP are
flawed

1: The MVP
reduces waste

The MVP never reduces
waste because it never
delivers what the
customer really wants

2: The MVP
accelerates time to
market

The MVP may very well
get you something to
market first but even in
an emerging market you
will not be a serious
contender

• Helpdesks before Zendesk
• Tablets before iPads
• Electric cars before Tesla
• CRM tools before Salesforce
There were …

Chasing the
MVP forces
you to
sprint faster
and faster
chasing
fool’s gold

Assuming you
want to start
thinking about
creating love and
others are willing
to give you a
chance …

Here are a few
ways to
determine if you
have succeeded
in identifying a
Minimum
Lovable Product

Find the big idea
first
(The more of these characteristics you can
check off for your idea, the more lovable
your product will be)

At least one person tells you
it’s never been done

Customers visibly smile
when you describe it to
them

Someone swears
when he hears the
idea (in delight or
disgust)

You dream of using it and all
of the features you could
add

Only your CTO or top
architects think it’s possible

People start contacting you to
learn about what you are
building

The top industry analysts
are not writing about it

We hope
this inspires
and excites
you

Interested in learning about
what customers think of your
product today?
Use our interactive tool to discover
how lovable your product is

Check out a free trial of our
lovable software
at Aha!
the new way to create
brilliant product
strategy and visual
roadmaps

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