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Jon Howell's avatar

Great article! Agree 100% with your definition of the purpose and meaning of an MVP and how to get there.

A couple of things:

1. As you mention, Engineering may exercise unwarranted control through pointing out reasons why they can't implement design X. In my experience, many of these assertions are bullshit, and stem from one or more of laziness, unspoken desire to do design their way, and the knowledge that designers have no way to verify the veracity of their claims. The latter is especially insidious, as it kills us in reviews with senior, E-staff, and C-staff reviews.

Solution? Designers need enough technical knowledge to call BS., and the proper psychological levers to influence them to act on behalf of users and business. I've had success with these:

"Hmm. [Person | Team] working on [X] did this in [Y hours | Y days] when working on [similar product / service].

"This sounds like a worthy challenge! Imagine if you could figure out how to get this done on time, or ahead of schedule. Leadership would love it! I'm sure that would score you some points."

2. Measurement is so important and often overlooked. And when it's used, it's easy to follow the wrong metrics. For example, you mentioned MAU. This can be a terribly misleading, even business-fatal, metric when used incorrectly, and it's very easy to use it incorrectly.

I strongly encourage you to read this article by a brilliant and accomplished ex-colleague. It opened my eyes. A lot to think about. https://review.firstround.com/im-sorry-but-those-are-vanity-metrics

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