Why teams keep adding bloat to their MVPs

Don't make your MVP an all-you-can-eat.

The idea of the MVP, the Minimum Viable Product, was meant to simplify product development.

Build less, learn more.

But somewhere along the way, we turned it into something else.

Now, MVPs often look like half-built products: login flows, design systems, onboarding journeys, dashboards.

They’re heavy, expensive, and slow to validate.

So why does this keep happening?

1. Fear of being judged

Teams don’t want to look unpolished. They want something they can be proud to show stakeholders, not something that feels unfinished. Thing is, that pride often comes at the cost of learning.

People get MVPs wrong: MVPs aren’t for showing off. They’re for finding out.

If you’re not a little embarrassed by your first version, it’s probably not minimal enough (this is key).

2. Misaligned expectations

Executives or clients often equate MVP with first release. That mindset pressures teams to pack in every feature that might be needed at launch.

But MVP isn't the same as launch-ready product.

It’s a learning vehicle. Its job is to de-risk decisions, not deliver a polished experience.

Your MVP should answer one clear question:

“What’s the smallest thing we can build to learn the most right now?”

Everything else belongs in the backlog - for later.

3. The illusion of progress

Adding features feels like progress. It fills backlogs, gives everyone something to do, and makes teams feel productive. But what it really does is slow down learning. The point of an MVP isn’t to get something finished. It’s to get something proven.

Think of your MVP as part of an effort/impact matrix:

• If it takes a lot of effort and you’re unsure of impact, don’t build it.
• If it’s low effort and high potential impact, build it now and test it fast.

You’re not shipping features, you’re testing hypotheses.

So, how do you stop the bloat?

A few principles to reframe how your team approaches MVPs:

1. Define what you need to learn. Start with a learning question, not a feature list.
2. Set a strict timebox. Deadlines create focus. A two-week MVP forces clarity on what’s essential.
3. Prototype before you build. Figma, Lovable, or even a clickable deck - you’ll learn faster and cheaper.
4. Validate ruthlessly. Use data, not opinion. If it doesn’t move a metric or shift behaviour, it’s not valuable.
5. Treat the backlog as evidence-driven. Each experiment should either promote, modify, or remove something from the backlog.

MVPs aren’t just about smaller products. They're truly about having smarter experiments. Their success isn’t measured by how much they include, but how fast they teach you something useful.

Because in product, the teams that learn fastest win.

And as Australian startup founder Steve Chapman says:

"speed wins wars."