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Are MVPs dead? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by anthonyriera@alien.top to c/sideproject@indiehackers.space

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I can't help myself to think that nowadays, products UX/UI level is so high, that even for B2B products, people have expectations.

I would certainly not use a product that looks and feels crappy even if it solves my needs.

I could possibly don't see how it solves my needs if it does it in a crappy way too.

What are your thoughts?

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[–] Replicantboy@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (5 children)

MVPs are not that you provide crappy UI/UX. It is about filtering all unnecessary features and giving only the core one. So you are focusing specifically on the 1-2 features your service can't live without and make it work well.

[–] anthonyriera@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Totally agree! MVP should be about one thing, but one feature can be a massive undertaking itself.

[–] hiddencamel@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

MVP is a moving target. What was an acceptable MVP in the past may not be anymore, especially if you are trying to compete with an existing product. People often focus on the Minimum part, and forget the Viable bit.

[–] tncx@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The "one thing" can be a $5M thing (to build) for some products/industries, and a $1000 thing for others. Numbers are totally arbitrary here - the point is that the MVP does just the essential for that pain point.

How much did the Chat GPT MVP cost?

How much did the Gumroad MVP cost?

Etc...

[–] OutsideProcedure3935@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

yea to add to these, i've had a multiple profitable online businesses.

MVPs are very much alive and kickin.

more popular than ever.

but you probably can't tell the difference between MVP and launched product.

Everything has gotten so accessible people will build full fledged brands and launch them, just no infrastructure or minimal infrastructure on the backend.

for something as simple as a teeth whiteneing product like trysnow.com or a business service like explodingideas.co there's tons of examples of companies that started with mvp.

for saas too.

i mean look at theranos, elizabeth didn't even have an MVP and did a deal with walgreens.

that gives you everything you need to know tbh.

[–] mazendar@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

But good looking UI is not an essential feature. It just makes things easier on the eyes.

That notwithstanding, it seems that no one will give a chance to an MVP that excludes this non-essential feature of good looking UI.

So this applies to UI. UX is only slightly different. A user can still test and benefit from your product even if it is a little unintuitive or unfriendly, but that is unnecessary friction.

So in the end, my recent experience tells me to keep UX simple and easy to use and the UI beautiful before pitching an MVP to anyone.

[–] KidChampion@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Trying to barely crest the threshold crappiness where you can get away with it, and still solve your user's problem.

[–] easen0v@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Very well said! No MVP will have a bad UI/UX/Branding if the company can afford it.

[–] Snoo_42276@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I think you’re describing an mlp