Minimum lovable product (MLP) is an evolution of MVP that emphasizes shipping something users love at launch, not just the bare minimum that works. It favors a polished, emotionally resonant, focused product even at the cost of breadth, arguing that in crowded markets a working-but-uninspiring MVP produces no traction even when the underlying value proposition is sound. The term was popularized in the late 2010s by Henrik Kniberg (Spotify, "The Skateboard, not the Wheel" analogy) and Jiaona Zhang (writing in product-leadership communities like Reforge and Lenny's Newsletter).
The MLP critique of classical MVP runs like this: Eric Ries's MVP was designed for the lean-startup era of 2010-ish, when product expectations ...