[phlsa]

Like every method that gets condensed to an acronym, MVP has been used to justify lots of bad decisions.

For example, I worked in very engineering-driven environments where “viable” meant nothing more than “it compiles”. Especially when combined with an over-reliance on quantitative metrics (and an under-appreciation of qualitative research) this leads to lots of ideas being killed prematurely. This meme has helped me a lot when communicating in these situations: https://imgur.com/a/pSY7IrF

From that point of view, I can understand the author, but “you should just know what’s going to be successful” isn’t a very useful alternative.

Even with great knowledge of your customers and domain, your first (or second, or third) solution might not be the right fit. Just think of all the personal projects that never end up getting used, even by the author.

In the end, the problem with MVPs and similar methods that get popular is that people think they can replace good judgement with a method. The methods can help, but they won’t do the thinking for you and they won’t make anything risk-free.