Why Shipping a Minimum Lovable Product > Perfect Code

Perfection is the enemy of good. I know it’s a cliche, but it’s a cliche for a reason — this one is true. For our purposes, if you’re a software startup founder (or the head of engineering in an enterprise software company), you’re probably all-too-familiar with the constant tug-of-war between two competing desires: your developers’ urge to write flawless, bug-free code and the business’s need to ship a product that customers will love — yesterday. It’s a familiar struggle for any software leader… you have to mediate between your technical team and the demands of the market. That’s where the Minimum Lovable Product comes in.

Perfection, while admirable, often isn’t practical. And in many cases, it can be the enemy of progress. The real challenge lies in finding that sweet spot where you’re delivering a product that’s lovable and will delight users… but not so bogged down in the quest for perfection that it never sees the light of day.

The Perils of Perfectionism vs. a Minimum Lovable Product

Let me start by saying this isn’t a flaw, per se. Developers take pride in their craft. They want to write clean, efficient and elegant code. And that’s a good thing! You want developers who tend toward that (because the alternative is sloppy, buggy and unworkable). That’s your developers’ prerogative. But when the pursuit of perfection becomes an obsession, it can lead to delays, missed deadlines, blown budgets and a product that’s perpetually in the “almost ready” phase.

That’s where you come in.

Developers are dedicated to beautiful code. Your imperative is to ship a lovable product that drives bottom line results (it’s part of why we recommend your first in-house hire being a product owner — they can really help strike the right balance here).

That’s serial entrepreneur Brenda Stoner (with an 8-figure-exit on her CV) echoing that exact sentiment (if you want to hear more about the Founder’s Journey, check it out here).

Anyway, this is what that looks like in action — imagine a scenario where your team is working on a new feature. They’ve spotted a minor bug that, while technically an imperfection, isn’t something the end-user would ever notice. It doesn’t impact stability or speed, but is nonetheless imperfect. But instead of pushing the feature live (and debugging it later if it were ever necessary), the team decides to fix the bug. But while they’re at it, they notice a few other areas for improvement. We’re fixing things anyway, might as well make these other areas slightly better too, right?! 

Suddenly, what should have been a quick release turns into a drawn-out process. The result? The feature is delayed, and your users are left waiting for an update that could have really helped them.

Perfectionism can also stifle creativity and innovation. When your team is focused on making everything perfect, they might miss out on opportunities to experiment, iterate, and adapt to user feedback. And in the startup world, the ability to pivot quickly can be the difference between success and failure.

The Power of a Minimum Lovable Product

So, how do you strike the right balance? Shipping a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) is how we think through this (which is very different from an MVP). An MLP is the smallest version of your product that still delivers enough value and delight to your users to keep them engaged (and wanting more). It’s not about cutting corners; it’s about prioritizing what matters most to your users and delivering that as quickly as possible. Then, you collect feedback, iterate and add new features to an already lovable product to make it more lovable still.

When you focus on building an MLP, you’re not abandoning the idea of quality — you’re simply recognizing that perfection isn’t the ultimate goal. Your aim is to create something that users will love, even if it’s not feature-complete or perfectly polished.

Take the example of Instagram. When it first launched, it wasn’t packed with features. It didn’t have direct messaging, video sharing, or even the ability to tag users in photos. But what it did have was a simple, addictive photo-sharing experience that users loved. Instagram’s early success wasn’t because it was perfect; it was because it nailed the core experience that users wanted. The bells and whistles came later. It was better than viable — it was lovable — but it wasn’t “perfect.”

Shipping Lovable, Not Perfect

The key to finding the balance between perfect code and a lovable product lies in understanding your users’ needs and being willing to ship even when everything isn’t perfect. It’s about embracing the idea that a product is never truly finished — it’s a living, breathing thing that evolves over time.

This doesn’t mean you should ship a buggy, half-baked product. It means focusing on the features and experiences that matter most to your users and getting those out the door quickly. It means being willing to iterate based on user feedback, improving the product incrementally rather than waiting for the mythical day when everything is “just right.”

In the end, your users aren’t going to remember whether your code was perfect. They’re going to remember whether your product drove bottom-line results or made their lives easier, more enjoyable, or more productive. 

So, the next time you’re stuck in the perfection versus progress debate, ask yourself: Is it better to ship a lovable product today, or a perfect product months from now? Because in the world of software, tomorrow might be too late.

That’s also why we created an entire process to get you to an MLP with less risk, in less time for less money. We call it the Innovation Lab, and it helps everyone from startup founders to engineering VPs sift through disparate stakeholders and priorities to find a true MLP, map out how to get to it as quickly and efficiently as possible, and leave you with the artifacts you need to kick start building it (even if you don’t use us to do it).

If you could use some help balancing the drive for developer perfection with the business need to launch an MLP, give us a call — we’d love to help.