MVPs Are Bullshit

MVPs are everywhere nowadays — it’s a pretty simple concept, it means minimum viable product and it was coined/invented by Eric Ries. Eric just got sick of spending all his time building something that no one cared about.

Why MVPs WORKED

Back in the day, this idea of MVP, when it just came out, it was like a cure for cancer. Everyone was using it, building around the idea.

Even me, when I started Helpjuice, it was the way to go. Put up a landing page, make a few screenshots, pitch it as if it exists — and poof, you’ve validated your business idea!

It was a cool idea and people would do it. In fact, it got to the point where entire “industries” where created around this — companies like LaunchRock (software for building “mvp landing pages”) existed because of this idea of everyone doing an MVP. Nowdays, no one uses LaunchRock

Early Adopters Figure Things Out Quickly

People that sign up for these MVPs are early adopters, and early adopters are smart. Nowadays, people know that MVPs and those landing pages are just bullshit. Everyone can make an MVP — and I see too many people making them (too many), they’re just not good.

Why MVPs Don’t Work In 2018

This has happened so many times, that idea of an MVP has just slowly faded away in terms of how impactful it is. You just can’t do MVPs anymore, it’s just pointless — people know you’re bullshitting, and the expectation of quality of apps out there is so high that it doesn’t make sense.

If you’re launching in 2018, it has to be freaking good, it has to be amazing. Otherwise, people won’t even try it. Don’t believe me? Look at Product Hunt 1 year ago, and today (apps today are POLISHED, nothing MVP about them)

Solution?

Don’t build out landing pages promising to deliver something to people. Don’t output an app that’s not very polished. Build simpler/smaller apps, attacking a problem, but make sure it’s polished — and then grow into a bigger app.