Let’s be clear, Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is consistently used to ship unfinished, low quality, shitty features to customers. Professional Product Managers don’t use this terminology. If you need a term for a version of a product or feature that does not encompass the entire product vision then Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) is acceptable. MLP is a phrase that is customer focused.
The MVP crowd will convince you that the unsatisfactory product that is about to be launched will be fixed later. Here is the rub. There is never a v2.0. The biggest myth in Product Management is that everything will be fixed in an imaginary v2.0. Holding back all the good stuff until later is bullshit. In fact, it is such a fraud that it should be illegal. If the first version of your product does not deliver significant customer value and some portion of the core benefit of the product then it is a worthless MVP.
How does this MVP enigma manifest? Surely, the Product Manager ensures that we are always delivering customer satisfaction? No. MVPs are the result of interpersonal relationships and internal politics. To build a product, the Product Manager has to convince the engineering team to deliver and they typically have very limited resources to work with relative to their roadmap or backlog. Additionally, there is a mysterious force called ‘the business’ that is always demanding stuff fast. The pressure to deliver and the limited resource constraints mean that there is an internal pressure to ship MVP versus MLP.
Fighting for resources is hard work. It requires Product Managers to be believable and the protestations are often rejected, creating disappointment and resentment. It is much easier to just accept the constraints and limit the scope of the work to match the available resource.
Then there is the constant pressure to deliver. Often measured in the number of features shipped versus impact and results. If the Product Manager is rewarded for the number of features shipped or the quality of their internal relationships versus customer satisfaction, adoption or revenue then don’t be surprised if all the feature launches are MVP quality. This is particularly true when the Product Manager is facing strong business stakeholder(s) who demand fast results, meaning delivery.
In this situation, the easiest person to ignore is the customer. The customer is not in the room. It is easy for Product Managers to hide behind customer support to avoid the backlash when a crappy MVP is delivered.
Don’t deliver Minimum Viable Products, don’t use the terminology MVP. Focus on the customer and what the customer needs as the v1.0. Fight for resources if necessary to deliver the scope the customer needs. Push back against demanding stakeholders who think the date is the way to exert pressure. Have the courage to stand up for the person who is not in the room, the customer. Be a Product Manager.
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