Do You Believe in "Maximum Viable Products"? 🦄
Does a maximum viable product exist? 🤔
Logic suggests that if you start with a minimum, you’ll eventually end up with a maximum.
Some entrepreneurs think that a MaxVP is real, while others just use “mature product” instead of this term.
In any event, regardless of what it’s called, products do often face a brick wall somewhere down the line. As such, this could be the case when all the planned features from the product development roadmap are brought to life, the customers are happy, the product is profitable, and seems as though nothing else can be squeezed in.
In essence, the right thing to do is NOT to squeeze anything else on top of your well-performing product just for the sake of it. If additional features or some random tiny upgrade won’t bring a significant return, then maybe they aren’t worth your investment.
What DO you do, then? We’ve shared our thoughts in this piece → https://www.upsilonit.com/blog/what-is-a-maximum-viable-product
I don't like fussing over semantics but "viable" by definition points to a "minimum." That is, something is either viable or it's not.
The underlying logic of a minimum viable product is that until you launch to the public, the viability (i.e. the quality of the product i.e. the market "fit" of the product) is purely theoretical. It is literally impossible to know how viable it is until other humans get their hands on it. Therefore, any push toward "maximizing" is really just a push toward feeling more subjectively confident about your theory.
You stole the words from my mouth.
The whole point of MVP is trying to solve a specific problem as quickly as possible and see if your customers approve.
According to the article, MaxVP is a "complete version of a product that has exceptionally delivered features that let it meet all customer needs and make it successful."
Seems like the opposite to me.
After building and bootstrapping different products and companies I could tell ya, it's not a good idea to follow the MVP or MVPmax stream.
One of my strategies was always do build BVPs instead, because the best MVP has no value if no one is willing to pay for.