We can build in Lovability, but do we have to be Viable first?
The danger with overemphasis on Lovability at the outset, means the world can end up with many cute products, that are simply unusable, or not what the addressable market wanted.
That is NOT to say we shouldn’t desire to build a loveable product, just that it may have a precursor.
What are we talking about here?
Is it just semantics? As way of a dangerous assumption, lets assume you, dear reader, know already that MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product, and also that the term MLP represents a Minimum Loveable Product.
The inference here is that you may, if your not careful, end up with something viable (congrats) but not especially loveable (oh, heck!).
Is it just about balance?
There’s some very talented UX Product people in the world, and they should be included earlier in the product-lifecycle. It is far from simple to understand what we mean by loveable, but it is an aspect that should be considered at the start. However, if we overdesign, or overthink this aspect at the start, we may well kill the budget too early. We want to give these new products or prototypes of products the maximum time in the market for them to be experimented on, to see what is it really that customers want, and if it satisfies their needs. It is very unlikely that our first intuitions, customer interviews, and surverys will lead us to exactly what the majority of customers want. This leads us to iteration.
Refining the product…
If we are iterating a spin-out or startup every fortnight, we have the opportunity to make a product more loveable. If we have not demonstrated that a product satisfies a basic need of a customer into viability, then we are dead in the water, and can no longer iterate. It is of course, wrong to suggest that loveability is an add-on. The initial UX and design sprint should highlight the priorities of this aspect. But they shouldn’t dominate. However, if we’re now iterating (post-viability) we should prioritise an aspect to increase our loveability as measured by the customers, or perhaps you consider KPIs like retention and reduced cost of acquisition of an active customer a key consideration?
This is just a quick discussion article…. what are your thoughts on moving from viability to loveability?
Many thanks for reading,
Ian.
alter.is is looking to work in a team on exciting new products, and combine product management with implementation in Ruby On Rails.
Get in touch with Ian via LinkedIn for a free half hour consultation
alter.is is looking to work in a team on exciting new products, and combine product management with implementation in Ruby On Rails.
Get in touch with Ian via LinkedIn for a free half hour consultation
