The Minimum Lovable Product Era

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) concept has been degraded into shipping bare-minimum functional products, which made sense when dev costs were high. Now that AI has collapsed software development costs and commoditized basic functionality, the new baseline should be MLP: Minimum Lovable Product. An MLP is the earliest version that creates genuine emotional connection with users through personality, delight moments, and human touches. Lovability is argued to be the last defensible moat since AI can replicate features but not the emotional relationship users build with a product. Practical advice includes starting with a specific customer segment, building 'lovemarks' into the roadmap as deliberate priorities, using AI to accelerate lovable interactions, and always asking 'is this lovable?' before shipping.