You mention “the best products create word of mouth”
True, but ‘word of mouth’ isn’t a sustainable growth strategy.
There are only five growth strategies that exist, and your product probably only fits one. Press isn’t a growth strategy, and neither is word of mouth.
Most breakout products did not start as a “Minimum Memorable Product.” Notion, Figma, Slack, Superhuman, all started rough and they they became sticky through years of learning and building with their early users.
Demanding "memorable from day one" sets a perfectionist trap. You end up overbuilding in isolation, crafting “brilliant” features for customers who never asked for them.
If you ship late, you risk shipping wrong. MVPs de-risk that.
You mention “the best products create word of mouth”
True, but ‘word of mouth’ isn’t a sustainable growth strategy.
There are only five growth strategies that exist, and your product probably only fits one. Press isn’t a growth strategy, and neither is word of mouth.
The five growth strategies are:
1. high-touch sales
2. paid advertising
3. intrinsic virality
4. intrinsic influencer incentives (Twitch)
5. platform hacks
— Emmet Shear
Agreed. I never said growth strategies should not be used. My point was one should never rely on paid growth for a pre-pmf product.
Most breakout products did not start as a “Minimum Memorable Product.” Notion, Figma, Slack, Superhuman, all started rough and they they became sticky through years of learning and building with their early users.
Demanding "memorable from day one" sets a perfectionist trap. You end up overbuilding in isolation, crafting “brilliant” features for customers who never asked for them.
If you ship late, you risk shipping wrong. MVPs de-risk that.
Agree to this. MVP is V0.1 and MMP is (maybe) V 2.0 or V3.0.
Idea is to learn so much between MVP and MMP about the you are uniquely positioned to solve customer problem.