20 :: MVPs vs. MRPs

CINO In The Making is a weekly newsletter about innovation, growth, and leadership, where I share my journey and the toolkit I'm building to (hopefully) become a Chief Innovation Officer. ⚡

🚪TL;DR:

Amongst the 30,000+ decisions we all make daily, innovators face a determinant few. One of which is: when to prioritize for speed, experimentation and ideation vs. for customer satisfaction, loyalty and brand equity. This is where MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) and MRPs (Maximum Reliable Products) come into play. I’m not even sure if the term Maximum Reliable Product is coined but I’ve heard a corporate innovation expert referring to it as a relevant trend in the space at South Summit last year and really liked it as a concept. It has become part of my innovation glossary since. MVPs, on the other side, are a classic. Which one suits CINOs best? Spoiler alert: it depends.

🧠 What is it?

An MVP is essentially a stripped-down version of your product, focusing on the core features that address a specific need. Think of it as a first draft - light on features, but heavy on validation. Your launchpad. The goal is to get it into the hands of users early and see if they find it valuable with minimum effort and development time. Remember problem-solution and product-market fit? The best tool to achieve those. MRPs, on the other hand, are the polished, feature-rich version of what (ideally) once was an MVP. They've been rigorously tested and refined to provide the ultimate user experience. Like the final manuscript after rounds of editing and revisions.

Disclaimer: There are many other variations of the MxP triangle. MLP for Minimum Lovable Product, MTP for Minimal Testable Product, or even another MRP for Minimum Remarkable Product, but they all somehow oscillate between the two same concepts.

📦 Why is it relevant?

While MVPs are instrumental for rapid innovation and learning, MRPs are essential for delivering fully developed, reliable products that meet customer expectations in established markets. So there is no right option for CINOs to champion across the board. If the strategy is to release multiple ventures to the market as quickly as possible to gather intelligence with the early results (aka validation) without sinking major resources into the innovation, then MVPs are the way to go. If, on the other side, the strategy is to deliver exceptional quality to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty, particularly when solving for really painful needs, MVPs might be risky and MRPs the best approach. Typically the first is more common when venturing independently (i.e. acting as a startup) and the second when you go to market with an existing product (i.e. partnering with a startup). The key is really understanding the appropriate time and use case for each situation.

🧶 Where to learn more about it:

One more reference to Eric Ries in the CINO In The Making because the Lean Startup book is, in general, one of the best sources to learn in-depth about MVPs. This article and video are a good summary to start with. I also like the simplicity of this ProductPlan article. There is not much about MRP as a concept, but this piece on Maximum Viable Products explains quite well the theory behind it and how to move from one stage to the other.

See you next Tuesday! 👋