Let’s be honest for a second. We’ve all downloaded an app, used it for exactly thirty seconds, and then deleted it because it felt… well, “meh.” It worked, sure. It solved the problem it said it would. But it had no soul. It was clunky, the buttons were in weird places, and it felt like it was built by a robot for a robot. That is the risk of stopping at ‘functional’, you miss the magic of a Minimum Lovable Product that actually wins people over.
In the startup world, we’ve been told for years to “fail fast” and build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP); And that advice still holds. MVPs are invaluable for proving utility and usability; they help you validate that a real problem exists and that people are willing to engage with a solution. But an MVP is designed to answer if something should exist, not how it should live in the market. Once that signal is clear, the next challenge isn’t viability – it’s traction, trust, and adoption.
That’s where a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) comes in. An MLP builds directly on the insights earned from the MVP, refining the experience, reducing friction, and delivering something cohesive enough to confidently go to market. Not as a replacement for the MVP mindset, but as its natural evolution – turning early validation into a product people actually want to keep using.
The minimum lovable product definition is pretty straightforward: it’s the most basic version of a product that users don’t just use; they actually love using.
While an MVP focuses on utility (Can it do the job?), an MLP focuses on delight (Does it feel good to use?). Think of it as the version of your product that hits that sweet spot between “I need this” and “I love this.” It’s not about adding a million features; it’s about making the three features you do have so smooth, beautiful, and intuitive that people can’t help but tell their friends about it.
Nobody goes to a dinner party and talks about a “viable” calculator app. They talk about the app that made their life easier and looked gorgeous doing it. Love leads to word-of-mouth marketing, which is the cheapest growth hack on the planet.
When users love a product, they want it to succeed. They’ll give you better, more thoughtful feedback because they’re invested in your journey.
There are probably ten other apps doing what you do. Being the “lovable” one is often your only real competitive advantage.
Feature | Minimum Viable Product (MVP) | Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) |
Core Focus | Functionality & Validation | Delight & Emotional Connection |
Goal | “Does it work?” | “Do they love it?” |
Design | Basic / Wireframe level | High-end UI/UX |
User Reaction | “This is useful.” | “This is amazing!” |
Imagine you’re running late, you’re exhausted, and you just need caffeine. However, you grab a cup of plain, lukewarm black coffee from a gas station.
Yes. It’s still just a cup of coffee. It doesn’t have gold flakes or a three-course meal attached to it.
Absolutely. You’ll probably come back tomorrow. You might even tell a coworker about “that great little spot on the corner.”
Both solve the problem of “I am tired,” but only one creates a customer for life.
That extra “spark” or emotional hook that turns a boring task into something users genuinely enjoy.
Don’t just look at what features your competitors are missing. Thus, look at how they make people feel. Are their users frustrated by the complexity? Are they bored? Your MLP should aim to solve that emotional pain point.
You don’t need a million-dollar design budget. Spend 80% of your design effort on the 20% of screens your users see the most. Make your home screen and your core action screen absolutely stunning.
At the end of the day, building a product is hard work. Why spend months of your life building something that people only “tolerate”?
The development from MVP to MLP is a shift in mindset. It’s about moving from “What can we build?” to “Who are we building for?” When you lead with love, growth, retention, and success tend to follow naturally.
