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> the minimum viable product preached by Lean Startup has limited practical use. Customers aren’t interested in funding your “learning.” They want reliable software that delivers value consistently. You must build the minimum desirable product, and if you don’t have a good understanding of what’s desirable before you start, then, don’t.

Oh, how I wish I could tell myself this five years ago. Maybe it's the industry I do most of my development for, but users I interact with very rarely want to hear "that will be in 2.0!" The ones that even let you finish the sentence before hanging up/walking out usually respond with "That's great. Let me know when it's done, then we can talk about signing up."

MVP and incremental development is great when you're a VC-funded startup in Mountain View, but when you're a real business you either have a working product that people want, or you don't.



What is it about the word "viable" that seems to make everyone read right past it?


Unfortunately MVP has been bastardized from "the smallest thing people will pay for" to "the smallest individual piece of the application."




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