Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)
The smallest product version that creates genuine customer delight and emotional connection.
Also known as: MLP, Minimum lovable version
Category: Concepts
Tags: businesses, products, strategies, user-experience
Explanation
A Minimum Lovable Product goes beyond the MVP concept by focusing not just on functionality, but on creating an emotional connection with users. While an MVP aims to test hypotheses with minimal effort, an MLP ensures the product is something users will actually love and recommend to others. The key insight is that merely adequate products struggle to gain traction—users need a reason to care. An MLP still starts small but prioritizes quality, design, and user experience in its core features. This approach reduces the risk of testing with a product so bare-bones that it fails to represent the eventual vision, potentially generating misleading negative feedback.
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