The MVP Trap: Building for Validation or for Real Users?
MVP is a concept that came up 15 years ago, at a time when building products was very hard. Hiring engineers was expensive, development cycles stretched from 6 to 12 months, and startups struggled to get anything into users’ hands.
The MVP was a clever hack for that world.
The idea was simple: build the smallest thing that teaches you whether people actually want your product. But in practice, it’s very easy to get this wrong - and when you do, your first impression can haunt you forever.
The world has changed now, and with it, our approach must also evolve.
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Why does the MVP need evolution?
- Goldfish have a longer attention span than today’s users
The attention span of customers is lower than ever before, and the trajectory indicates this won’t change. You won’t get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression, so if a real user tries your product and deems it unworthy, they will not give you a shot again.
Shipping something half-baked is more dangerous than most founders realize. If your UI/UX isn’t polished, even small friction points get amplified in early reviews. Users form opinions fast, and first impressions stick.
And it’s not just aesthetics. Performance glitches, confusing flows, missing features, all of it adds up to the perception that your product is sloppy. Once people think that about your brand, it’s incredibly hard to reverse. Early adopters are critical; losing their trust can stall growth for months.
- Building Today is Easier, So Customers Expect More
Here’s the good news: building a product today is easier than ever. Modern tools, frameworks, and platforms let you roll out a working product in weeks - sometimes even days.
But the bar for what customers find acceptable has gone up.
Sloppy experiences, broken onboarding, or missing flows can kill adoption even if your idea is solid. The real advantage now goes to teams that deliver delight and stickiness from day one. Products that are intuitive, reliable, and genuinely solve a problem win even if they launch later.
If you plan well, you can build and ship high-quality products on time. Speed is still valuable, but it’s not enough on its own. The real differentiator is execution - making sure every critical flow works flawlessly and every early user walks away impressed.
A decade ago, shipping something scrappy was fine. Today, customers have very limited attention spans. They don’t give people a second or third chance. Competition is fiercer, switching costs are lower, and expectations are higher. That means MVPs need to evolve.
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Evolved Approaches to Product Launch
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- Minimum Sellable Product (MSP)
The MVP mindset used to ask: what’s the least you can build to test demand? But today, that bare minimum is not enough anymore. Customers expect a baseline of functionality — integrations, data security, reporting, notifications. Anything less isn’t “viable.”
That’s why the focus shifts to the Minimum Sellable Product (MSP): “It’s not just the least version somebody will use, but something they will pay to use.” The goal is to get to the earliest commercial version of your product. Something you can charge for from day one. Because in today’s competitive landscape, the question isn’t just “Will people try this?”  it’s “Will people pay for this and stay?”
- Prototypes for Early Validation
There’s still huge value in prototypes, but we need to be clear about what they’re for.
Prototypes are about fast, cheap learning. You don’t need to hire an engineering team or raise capital to do this. It’s not the hardest thing to design on Figma or build out a v1 prototype on no-code tools like Lovable. Prototypes let you test the flow, gather reactions, and even pitch early investors.
The key is this: prototypes are not meant to be sold. They are tools for validation. You use them to confirm you’ve understood the customer’s needs, then invest in building the MSP, the product version you can actually put in the hands of paying users.
- Launching With Intent
The reality is that tech has evolved so much that you don’t have to choose between speed and quality anymore. With the kind of frameworks, AI tools, and leaner teams we have now, you can actually move fast and ship something that feels polished from day one.
So the question isn’t about how quickly you can launch, it’s about how intentionally you do it. Take time, effort and energy, understand what customers want, discover good insights, and then build properly. Start small, but do it with 2–3 real customers who are genuinely committed. And make sure the product actually solves their problem.
That way you’re still fast, but you’re also deliberate. You’re using the speed that modern tech gives you, while ensuring early users have an experience that sticks one that drives trust, retention, and word-of-mouth.
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Prototype ≠MVP
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Just to clarify here, there’s a crucial distinction we are making. Validation is still important but when its just validation, its a prototype not really an MVP
A prototype is fast, lightweight, and entirely disposable. You can design one yourself on Figma, whip up a flow in a no-code tool, or use it to pitch investors. It’s about testing assumptions — does this solve a real problem? Do users understand the flow? Does the value proposition resonate? We actively encourage customers to build prototypes even before they come to us… it’s not hard to do that.
An MVP, on the other hand, is a shippable product. By definition, it’s the minimum viable thing you put in the hands of real users. Customers today expect a lot more than a working demo.
That’s why the old MVP logic is broken. What used to be considered “viable” 15 years ago is no longer viable today. The bar has moved.
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Practical Guidelines for Today’s Founders
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- Prototype deeply, test often.
- Secure early customer sign-off before building.
- Focus on the MSP, not the MVP.
- Don’t sacrifice experience for speed.
- Iterate based on real user behavior, not opinions.
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Closing Thoughts
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We cannot ship scrappy versions anymore. The MVP isn’t dead, but the way we approach it must change. Prototype to validate, build an MSP to sell, and launch with intent. Do that, and you avoid the classic traps while setting yourself up to scale.
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