What Do You Lose When You Iterate?

Polish to perfection or launch an MVP then iterate?

A question we struggle with as product managers time and time again. We have a great idea for a product or a feature, we want to launch it ASAP.

But developing the whole feature at one go takes developer effort, art effort and UI effort. This can be fairly easily estimated. And often, it becomes very difficult to assess with fair accuracy the potential benefits of the feature. As a result, any cost-benefit analysis is effectively redundant.

So what does today’s data-driven product manager do?

1. He/She decides to start with a bare-bones version of the feature
2. He/She then does an internal test within the organization
3. An A/B test of the bare-bones feature is released to the random sample of the consumer base
4. Feedback is assessed based on the metrics that are considered key to measuring success of the feature (new user acquisition, user engagement, conversions, revenue etc.)
5. If results are favourable, a full-fledged version of the app is built and it’s launched.

When a team decides to build a “barebones” version of a product — what is the first thing to go? Its often the “gloss” — all the UI and UX elements that aren’t absolutely essential to test core functionality.

So you ditch the shine and gloss, the UX is average but, hey, you’ve got a working feature out and you’ll be getting feedback quickly , you’ll make a great decision and move on!

What’s missing here? FIRST IMPRESSIONS! What are the apps you decide to sign-up for after install? What are the games that you keep playing after install?

For me — its the one with shine, the one with a classy look and feel.

If a product looks cheap — like it was made in a hurry — I’m inclined to reject positive references and not use the app.

Hence, the product manager analysing the feature might mistake the noise = “I don’t like how your product looks” for feedback = “ I don’t like the functionality of your product”

My unanswered question now is — are we losing out on critical feedback about a product because we compromise on the look and feel?

This question doesn’t end here — definitely not. There are so many things we miss out on MVP beyond just UI/UX. There are key features that are a standard for a product, there are additional elements that might be worth including to distinguish a product from a competitor .. the list goes on.

Should we create a polished product before launch to provide our users a complete experience and then collect feedback? Is the MVP actually sabotaging us?

You can follow me on Twitter at @akshitag.