The MVP Myth That’s Breaking Product Teams with Chuck Moxley and Nick Paladino
Shipping product features fast feels like winning—until you realize you've deployed seven half-baked features that users tolerate instead of one they actually love. The MVP methodology promised speed and learning, but somewhere along the way it became an excuse for shipping incomplete products and calling it "strategy."
Join hosts Chuck Moxley and Nick Paladino as they tackle one of product development's most polarizing debates: the Minimum Viable Product. Drawing insights from companies like Duolingo and referencing their previous conversation with Nakul Goyal from Carfax, Nick and Chuck explore whether MVPs encourage smart learning or just create a culture of half-finished products.
They dissect the difference between "low minimum" and "high minimum" approaches, expose how "finding the green" leads to cherry-picked data, and reveal why product bloat happens when teams prove individual features valuable without measuring what they displaced. Most importantly, they argue that the real problem isn't MVPs themselves—it's whether your culture is built around making customers happy or making the wrong people happy.
Key Actionable Takeaways:
- Redefine "minimum" based on customer value, not developer speed - The developer defines what's technically achievable fastest, but minimum should prioritize what creates viable user value, not just "does it work"
- Use production data to guide iteration, not cherry-pick success metrics - Avoid "finding the green" by searching for any positive indicator; instead, let real user data guide your vision and be willing to kill 6 out of 7 tested features
- Measure diminished value when adding new features - Product bloat occurs when you validate each new feature individually without assessing how it reduces the value of existing features it displaces or pushes down the page
Catch Nick & Chuck's conversation with Nakul Goyal from Carfax!
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Download the Five Step Site Speed Target Playbook: http://bluetriangle.com/playbook
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