What is mlp in project management?

Often, the expenses on development and maintenance of the business are higher than the potential of the product — and that’s, unfortunately, completely normal. Luckily, there’s a way to prevent unnecessary expenses and detect the lack of market interest in time, which is a minimal viable product (MVP).

An MVP, an acronym from a Minimal Viable Product refers to a simplified version of the product. Its functionality and interface are enough to fulfill the main need and capture audience interests. Additional features like customization, personalization, small extra benefits are not included in MVP.

MVP is a stripped-down version of a product with functional features and interface, enough to test the idea. Even in the worst-case scenario, the business will have enough funds and will be able to explore the pivoting options.

The purpose of a minimal viable product is to provide users with a way to explore the product and understand its main intent. An MVP should be appealing to the audience, which means having a well-tested look and feel. However, the functionality and interface are still quite simple.

The Minimal Viable Product is the shortest possible way from idea to business. Instead of planning to enter the market for years trying to create the perfect product, it’s better to run MVP, as Airbnb, Dropbox, and even Instagram did in their time.

One of the key reasons to use MVP is to test your ideas in the real market. By launching a minimal viable product, you save your money and time. Since the early days of the product’s life, you’ll know if users need it and how to improve it.

Let’s see what else you can do using an MVP:

An MVP will show you if your idea works. It is a good way to justify market demand for a product and then get support from investors or partners.

Keep in mind, before you create a product, you need to find out who needs it, what challenges it must meet, and how it will help you earn money. An MVP using will provide you with the answers to these questions.

The practice of building a minimum viable product is a long-standing one on the tech market. From recent unicorns to decade-long established companies, businesses were building an MVP to test their ideas. Let’s take a look at minimal viable products, developed by popular companies.

Facebook started out as a directory of Harvard students, where users could manage their networks, profiles, and communicate with classmates. The name of the product shows its origins — at Harvard, student directory books were called facebooks. The site was introduced to a limited target audience – Harvard students. After the website became successful, Zuckerberg started offering memberships in other Ivy League universities, including Yale, Stanford, and others.

Up till 2005, Thefacebook was a network for students, but it expanded beyond Ivy League, and even beyond the U.S. Thefacebook was eventually renamed to Facebook and released as a public network.

Twitter’s MVP, released under the name of Twttr, was beta-tested to a limited number of users before a public release. The tool technically became public in 2006 but got successful after the Southwest interactive conference a year after. Suddenly, the number of tweets increased by 3 times. Since that event, the platform gained popularity.

The MVP version allowed the team to run beta-testing, check the demand for the concept, and improve the product. That way, when a tool was presented at the conference, it was fully ready for widespread adoption.

Amazon, as an MVP, was limited to a single book category. Although the team had ambitions to build an online store that could sell anything, they consciously limited themselves to a simple field. Selling books allowed them to test the concept of a low-stake industry, with products that can be easily stored, shipped, and bought.

A purchase of a book doesn’t require much decision making. The item is cheap, easy to transport and market. This served perfectly for the end goal – to check if customers trust online shops and verify the processes.

Now Uber is known as one of the most functional and best designed mobile apps out there. Obviously, this wasn’t the case right away. Initially, Uber allowed users to book rides via SMS. Then, an app appeared, but its interface was far from what we know today. Another difference was the target audience. Now, Uber is an international service, but back then, it was just a small San-Francisco based startup.

Successful companies like Facebook, Uber, Twitter, and others needed an MVP to test the validity of their concept. For all of them, it was a chance to test a target audience and determine what functionality is truly essential for capturing users’ interests.

The technology of the MVP itself was simple. The most important components of MVP development success were careful research, a well-thought-out concept, and a well-defined target audience.

Doing market research for an MVP entails evaluating the potential number of users, locations, and niches that a service could cover. A business owner should determine how many people can benefit from the value of MVP.

A business owner can analyze the market and location by its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Reach out to people in your social circle and run a short survey on their opinion on the concept. You can ask questions like “Did you face the following problems?”, “How much would you be willing to invest to solve the issue?”, etc.

Analyzing competitors, market trends, growth, prediction, financial dynamics. A business owner should check the viability of the market. It’s important to be aware of key players, their market shares and positioning, know legislations and regulations, and forecasts for the future.

Market research allows business owners to get context for their development and business growth.

An MVP should clearly demonstrate the essential value of the product. This version of the software reflects the main functionality and interface. So, before even moving to MVP development, you need to examine the core value, provided by the tool:

Before you start MVP development, you need to acquire a clear vision of the product. It has to be a concise, feasible concept, limited by constraints of time, location, and budget.

Long before entering the development stage, you need to understand exactly how users will act on the platform. This is where UX design and its main artifacts come in.

These artifacts will help you understand the interface of your interaction and see it with your visitors’ eyes. These visuals determine the direction in which you’ll build the functionality of an MVP.

Once you have a vision for your product’s interface and style, you need to consider precise actions that users will be able to perform. This is what functional and non-functional requirements are for.

Establishing necessary features and requirements for those allows business owners to understand the purpose of the product. You’ll know exactly what value you provide to customers.

Minimal viable product isn’t the end of the journey — far from it. There are other stages of product development and improvement, in particular, an MLP.

MLP is a minimum loveable product. It’s a level above MVP — the product has to be no longer just viable, but also loveable. This means, the functionality has to do more than solve problems — it also has to offer great user experience and impress users on an emotional level.

In short, a minimum loveable product is the stage after a viable one. This is the main difference, but it’s not the only one. Here are some other important aspects that’ll help you differentiate between the two.

Once the team is done with a minimum viable product, they can switch their focus on improving user experience, adding personalization, unique benefits, and increasing customer loyalty.

Building an MLP provides more engagement with users, along with some other benefits:

An MLP is a great transition point from a functional, but not yet fully attractive MVP to a pleasant and highly usable ready product. You aren’t pressuring your team into delivering an “ultimate” product version, but standards are already elevated.

As a design agency, we meet both clients who want to build an MVP and those who are determined to develop an MLP. Here is our short guide to minimal viable and lovable products.

MVP — the minimum viable product is a product with a minimum set of basic features that is used to collect feedback for further iterations.

MLP — the minimum loveable product that has not only basic functionality, but also the potential to make users fall in love with it.

Let’s take a look at the MVP and MLP from the point of coffee: favorite example. There are hundreds of coffee shops in any city. Even in your area, there would be more than one. But which one do you choose when you want some coffee?

The answer depends on many factors: the quality of beans, the skills of the barista, pretty cups, comfy chairs, or the availability of a lactose-free option. These are just a few factors that create a user experience in the coffee buying process.

Each coffee shop offers you a caffeine drink to give you an energy boost. Still, there are certain things that make the process of coffee drinking more pleasurable.

Coffee shops try to create the best conditions to get loyal customers. Depending on your priorities, you will choose a favorite coffee shop (or few) and stick to your choice.

Adding hot water to a spoon of instant coffee is probably the easiest way of making coffee. Using minimum time and resources is the hallmark of the MVP. A hot drink with caffeine in a paper cup in our case can be called “minimum viable coffee”.

On the contrary, preparing a cup of fine espresso requires more time (grinding beans, loading the machine, cleaning it) and resources (professional coffee machine, fancy-looking cup). The product is still minimal (no cream, spices, ice cream), but loveable at the same time. Drinking this type of coffee brings pleasure and makes us come back to the coffee shop serving it again and again.

But what if you are running out of the house at 9 AM for a meeting after having missed the alarm? Which option would you pick? A cozy coffee shop with a barista grinding fresh beans for you, or a cup of instant coffee that you can grab to drink in a car? In such a case, you are likely to go for that very basic coffee.

The latter example shows us that MLP is not always the perfect option. Depending on conditions, MVP might be the best choice.

As a team of professional designers, we want to make thought-out products that people love. However, our clients might be in a condition where they don’t want/ can not invest enough money and time to build a loveable product.

Each product is special and we practice individual approaches. However, if to get a general idea of when to go for MVP and when go for MLP, you can base on the following principles:

We have a whole article on how to build a minimum viable product, but to save your time, here is a short list of things you have to focus on:

If you are curious about what you can get at the end, check out our article about MVP with examples.

Many product managers aim to build a minimal loveable product right away. This is a good objective, but it has some requirements to succeed. Here are some important pieces of advice on developing an MLP:

The concept of MVP was introduced in 2001 by Frank Robinson. MLP appeared in the vocabulary of product managers, startupers, and designers in 2013 thanks to Henrik Kniberg. This means that for 12 years people were focused on creating a viable product, until suddenly it was not enough anymore.

What happened during this time? The number of digital products grew exponentially, the competition rose. Developers and design teams make way more effort to create a popular app.

Rising standards in the industry raised user expectations. They are not satisfied with just anything that does the job: now customers are spoiled with sleek interfaces, smart copy, intuitive structure, pretty visuals, lively animation — all this and many other things that create a great user experience..

Nowadays, when apps’ copy talks to us as old friends, while marketing and advertising are doing their best to build a sentimental relationship with a product, being “just a product” is not enough. Only brands that win the love of people get loyal clients, and companies that don’t invest enough in design will soon be replaced by those who manage to create that loveable product

This story explains why people talk about MLP where they previously used to talk about MVP. Many think that loveable is the new viable, and it makes sense.

Along with MVP and MLP, you often see other abbreviations, like MMP and MSP. These stand for minimum marketable product and minimum sellable product (and are the same thing).

MMP is possible after the product has already been through testing and has proven its viability. Making a sellable product is the ultimate goal of all product managers.

And then comes the MCR — a minimum credible release, an MBP — a maximally buyable product… What’s next? Minimum Profitable Product? Minimum cult product? Jokes aside, let’s wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Why do we need so many ways to differentiate between different minimal products? Do you really need to start with MVP and go all the way to MLP at the initial stages of the development?

With the help of MLP (minimum lovable product), you can find a way to satisfy your early customers.

In this article, we will briefly discuss the concept of MLP and discover how you can develop one.

Defining the MVP (minimum viable product) concept will help understand what an MLP means. The MVP is a product with minimum features that assists to collect validated data about the users with the least effort.

Notably, many companies such as eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and many others started their way into the market with the launch of a minimum viable product.

Dropbox is a bright example of a company that built a minimum viable product with fewer efforts. They created a product explainer video as their MVP to verify the idea at an early stage.

At Codica, we have vast expertise in minimum viable product development.

For example, recently we created an MVP for an activity booking marketplace. Thus, our client could test the idea with minimal costs.

A minimum lovable product is an approach that is based on MVP ideas but seeks to win the empathy of the target audience as a priority. The MLP definition was offered by Brian Haaff in 2013.

The main difference between MVP and MLP is that the minimum lovable product has the minimum points required to like the product rather than bearing it.

MVPs and minimum lovable products are very similar by their nature, but they have diverse functions and are used for different business aims.

A minimum marketable product (MMP) is a version of the MVP or MLP product that you want to launch to the market.

In brief, MVP focuses on testing the idea, MMP — at selling the product, MLP — at gaining customers’ empathy.

It’s essential to have a clear view of your project’s functionality at the time of its development.

You should concentrate on one or two points.

Everyone likes receiving extra pleasant things when they don’t wait for it.

The author of the book “Hooked” offers the following steps you can form customer habits through:

It’s challenging to create an MLP that everyone will like. So, don’t strive to attract everyone.

To get a delightful MLP, your team needs to admit the common aim. So, your strategy has to be understandable for all its members.

It’s essential to gather feedback about your minimum lovable product. Thus, you will receive a base to reveal what you need to modify in your solution.

You should remember that an MLP is an intermediate in your “MVP-MLP-MMP” route, but not the endpoint.

To successfully launch your product, you need to use the MLP approach to figure out what your customers truly need and like.

It’s also essential to focus on the business purposes of your web product and the minimal set of features, to begin with.

A Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) is an initial offering that users love from the start. It represents the minimum that is required for customers to adore a product, rather than merely tolerating it.

The MLP serves as a counterpoint to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Just like it sounds, an MVP is the minimum required for an initial offering to be viable in the market. Many companies create an MVP as a way to quickly launch a product with basic functionality. However, delivering the bare minimum can leave customers frustrated, driving them to seek alternative solutions.

Many have written about the idea of creating a lovable product. Aha! co-founder and CEO Brian de Haaff first introduced the concept of the MLP in 2013, then expanded on it in his bestselling 2016 book, Lovability. He argued that pursuing an MLP is fundamental to cultivating customer happiness, which leads to long-term business growth.

Customers today have many options. Their relationship with technology, in particular, is highly transactional. If a customer's experience with your product leaves them feeling unsatisfied, unheard, or unappreciated, they will quickly move on to find something better.

This is why you need to distinguish yourself — from the very first interaction a customer has with your company to the product experience itself. An MLP can be a way to differentiate your product in a crowded marketplace.

To build an MLP, you must deeply consider what customers care about, the problems they have, and how to make their lives better. Consider the customer experience as a whole and strive for love at every stage. As a result, customers will not only purchase your product or service — but they will also want to see your company thrive.

Starting with an MLP mindset also informs how you continue to build upon your initial product offering. As you iterate, you are always thinking about how to delight your customers rather than doing the bare minimum.

MLP thinking builds upon the concept of the MVP, which aims to create the most basic version of a product with just enough features to be usable. As noted above, the goal of an MLP is to think about the Complete Product Experience (CPE) and strive to achieve lovability as your product matures. The goal of an MVP is to get an offering to market quickly and cheaply so the team can establish business viability, learn about the target market, and then improve the product over time. Here is an overview of the differences between the MLP and MVP:

It has the bare minimum number of features to solve their problem, and is most commonly used as a testing tool only. ❤️ MLP: Minimum Lovable Product – similar to an MVP, but with more thought and care taken in design and UI. It aims to solve the problem but also delight.