What is Better: MVP or MLP?
By: The Room
Tags: Startup, MVP, Startupsinsider, Apps, Investment

What is Better: MVP or MLP?

When it’s time to work on the idea most startups prefer MVP, but if it is always a better way to start? The Room Follow Jan 27 · 3 min read

We usually hear, that launching an MVP is a perfect way to present an application to the market. However, things don’t always work that way. Sometimes, the idea can’t be shown within a minimal amount of screens. And in other situations, it is even better to start with the proof of concept. Defining what is the best option for you can be complicated, so let’s take a closer look at MLP and MVP and choose the best one for us.

MVP

Minimum Valuable Product — that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

MVP designed in TheRoom

The main goal of the MVP is to get feedback and understand, what people like. MVP is a good way to test your users and try to understand them better. For example, in many cases, companies launch several MVPs for the same product to test which one will become most popular.

One of the main pros of the MVP concept is that it usually requires fewer investments in UI/UX design and development on the initial stages of work. However, it will definitely require some investments after the launch to add more and more functionality.

Moreover, MVP means to make improvements all the time: test — improve — test — improve. Not all MVPs can win users attention. So, finally, it will look at the numbers in one year since the start of work on MVP, they may be even more than a full concept would require.

MLP

Minimum Loveable Product — this is the type of concept, that makes users love your idea.

MLP designed in TheRoom

MLP usually costs more, as it is almost a full concept from the very beginning. It has not just minimal functions, but all the cool features, engagement and gamification that are enough to make users love your product, not just use it!

The main advantage of MLP is that it usually causes a true revolution on the market. It is a fully made project, that already knows what users like. How? UX Researches allows analyzing user pains deep enough to launch an effective MLP from the very beginning.

Despite the fact, MLP will require you to invest more from the start, it also will take more time to develop and launch. However, chances to win the audience are twice higher as well as the chances to attract more investors to the startup.

What to choose?

The main difference between MVP and MLP is that the first one is an evolution when product usually moves from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and all fixes are made in layers, like a layered cake. At the same time, the second concept tells us more about the revolution, when we launch a great thing and getting ready to catch won hearts of users.

However, you still need to be attentive: MLP is good only when we’re ready to work on the UX Research and study users, market and best practices. You can’t speed up with MLP, while MVP is a quick way to get the test done and show people what they want in terms of exactly your product.

To sum up, you’re the one who should make a decision, but from UI/UX design perspective, good MVP anyway requires user study and detailed work on the UX/UI design. You may accidentally find yourself not that far from MLP but will waste more time on analyzing users feedback and working on issues. At the same time, the first experience with an interface is critically important. And what do we want? Yes, we all want to fall in love with an app form the first glance!