MVPs : Doomed at inception

Tata Nano was an M*V*P

4 years ago, its last unit rolled out of Sanand and it marked the end of nightmares for a billionaire. While dying, it destroyed a lot of things.

• It destroyed Singur, the original site of its manufacture, in Bengal.. The aborted industrial site has rendered it unfit for cultivation for years.
• It destroyed Late Cyrus Mistry, the deceased Tata Chairperson whose decision to kill it for being business wise unviable hurt the emotions of Tata Patriarch. He decided to fire him from chairpersonship of Tata sons.
• It destroyed the Rs 600 crore soft-loan which Guj govt gave to Tatas at very interesting terms : See the numbers of loan terms a. Interest rate of 0.1 % per annum ( PLR is 14.95% p.a) //150x cheaper loan b. First emi gets due 15 years after the first car rolls out from the plant i.e 19yrs after disbursement ( For a common citizen it gets due in the month of loan disbursement)
• It destroyed Buddha deb Bhattacharya and commies in West Bengal. They never recovered. 20+ years of commie rule was over for ever. The destruction was so big, that now they are #3 in opposition. Tata saw ultra low cost car market as huge TAM(TAM= Total addressable market ). 1 billion people wanting $1,250 for a car looked like a $1.25 trillion market. waiting for them with almost zero SAM( Serviced Actual Market). It created hype- hoopla- huge PR but got them no sales number worth remembering.. 4 yrs ago, the production stopped.Every one knew the brand.. Engineering talent was stretched to be a papad in realising this fallacious MVP dream.. When everything failed, Tata also created separate #CHEAP showrooms so that poor Indians do not feel intimidated to get into the showroom. Nothing, literally nothing could save it.. The MVP premise was doomed at inception.Why are MVPs impossible and absurd ?When your thoughts are on minium viable, you focus at whats the minimum effort / energy and money you can spend to get the product out to market. Generally, in this process, you end up creating a half assed products . In MVP there is little or no focus on what consumers would love .

• In the hero image of this article, the wheel, 2 connected wheels, a box with wheels and a box with wheels and steering are all part of MVP thinking and thats why the product rarely finds buyers. It so damages the reputation of maker that consumers are not excited about what you are launching.. Where as in the second cycle, you move from a skateboard to a segway to a bicycle to a motor cycle to a car.. Each stage is a Minimum Lovable Product(MLP) The consumer loves each evolutionary stage.. There is deep consideration for emotion of the buyer. Buyers when purchasing, look at whether they would have pride, joy, sense of accomplishment when acquiring a product. These emotions are seldom a line item on MVP product backlog.. So, while the project manager/ engineering team delivers on schedule, the scope is completed, the QC passes the product as meeting the spec, marketing team does the thunderous launch, the end outcome is FAILURE.. So how should product managers think ? Think MLP ( Minimum Lovable Product), the one which buyers would fall in love with.. It needs to be step up on existing offering and give joy example Maruti 800 in 80s .. It was huge jump over boxy Ambassador/ Fiat in design and was easy on pocket.. This was Ambassador

This was Maruti 800 ans

Closer to current date: Pulse, a masala(spice) filled candy from DS group was designed as an MLP and raced to 500 Crore of revenue in year 1 itself and dominates the candy segment in India now growing at an average of 20%+ every year

So, next time some one talks M*V *P, you know what to do ? Make her read this or make her talk to me :D Get the customer a PULSE not a NANO