You launched your Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

You now have a product with enough features that’s usable by early customers who can validate assumptions and provide feedback.

What happens next?

Here are a few shifts in focus as you move beyond your MVP:

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ➡️ Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)

Limited budget ➡️ Dedicated funding

Needs & pain points ➡️ Wants with emotional appeal

Core features ➡️ Nice-to-have features

Reduced friction ➡️ User experience & product design

Early adopters ➡️ Broader appeal

Customer feedback ➡️ Product enhancements

Validation ➡️ Unique selling proposition

Attractive pricing ➡️ Optimal pricing

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What other areas would you focus on as you move beyond an MVP? Let me know below.

Imagine building a product for a year.

Then customers don’t buy it when it launches.

Why?

The product doesn’t meet the customer’s needs or solve their problem.

Despite the time, resources, effort spent…

How do product managers avoid this?

By creating a minimum viable product (MVP).

An MVP has just enough features to be usable by customers who provide feedback for future product development.

It helps establish product-market fit quickly.

Here are some benefits of an MVP:

✅️ Maximizes validated learning about the customer’s needs

✅️ Minimizes the time, resources and effort expended

Example: The customer needs a solution to go hiking every weekend.

Start small with a viable solution.

Minimal features, yet it solves the customer’s needs.

Sandals can be an MVP.

Then the next release can be hiking sandals, followed by hiking shoes, then hiking boots.

With each prototype delivered in each stage, product managers learn which features the customer finds valuable.

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How have you used an MVP and what did you learn? Let me know in the comments.