Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)

Build products people love, not just products that work

Anton Osika
Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people

Minimum Lovable Product (MLP)

"The best word for a great product is that it's lovable. A lot of jargon that I like to use to emphasize what we should be striving for is building a minimum lovable product and then building a lovable product and then building an absolutely lovable product." - Anton Osika

What It Is

The Minimum Lovable Product is a reframing of the traditional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept. Rather than asking "what's the minimum we can ship that works," MLP asks "what's the minimum we can ship that users will love."

The framework acknowledges a progression of product quality:

  1. Minimum Lovable Product - The smallest thing users will genuinely love
  2. Lovable Product - A fully realized product experience
  3. Absolutely Lovable Product - Exceptional quality that creates deep user devotion

This progression moves away from "viable" (implying bare minimum functionality) toward "lovable" (implying emotional connection and delight). It's not about cutting features—it's about ensuring every feature you ship creates genuine user love.

How It Works

The MLP framework shifts focus from feature completeness to emotional response:

Traditional MVP Thinking:

  • What's the minimum feature set to test the market?
  • What can we cut to ship faster?
  • Does it technically work?

MLP Thinking:

  • What's the minimum we can ship that creates delight?
  • What must we include for users to love this?
  • Does it feel magical?

The progression works as milestones:

  • MLP: Launch with something users genuinely love, even if limited in scope
  • LP: Expand the product while maintaining love across all features
  • ALP: Achieve excellence that creates word-of-mouth and devotion

How to Apply It

  1. Define what "love" means for your users - Identify the emotional response you're targeting. What would make users say "I love this" rather than "this works"?

  2. Scope ruthlessly around love, not features - Cut features that don't contribute to the lovable experience. Add polish to features that do.

  3. Test for emotional response - Instead of asking "does this work?", ask "does this delight?" Measure NPS, track word-of-mouth, listen for emotional language in feedback.

  4. Progress through the levels - Start with MLP, then expand scope while maintaining quality. Never ship something that isn't lovable just to ship more features.

  5. Name it explicitly - Use the MLP terminology with your team to shift mindset from "viable" to "lovable" in every conversation.

When to Use It

  • New product launches - When defining what to build first
  • Feature prioritization - When deciding what to include vs. cut
  • Quality discussions - When debating polish vs. speed
  • Team alignment - When communicating product values and standards
  • Post-MVP evolution - When planning how to grow beyond initial launch

Source

  • Guest: Anton Osika
  • Episode: "Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people"
  • Key Discussion: (00:00:31) - Anton explains the MLP concept and why he named his company Lovable
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Additional Source

  • Guest: Elena Verna
  • Episode: "10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)"
  • Key Discussion: (00:43:59) - Elena describes how "viability is left back in 2010s" and MLP is now the standard
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Related Frameworks

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