The Galaxy Z Flip Is Proof We Crave Old Ideas in Slightly New Packaging

How ‘good enough’ became the mantra of tech design

Simon Pitt
OneZero

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Image courtesy of the author

EEvery successful product begins with an idea. A way to share photos online. A portable music player. A modular phone. Next comes an MVP — a minimum viable product — or perhaps an MMP — a minimum marketable product. At this point, if the idea is good, it will become a real product. We’re at the beginning of a journey. Oh, the places we’ll go. The possibilities, the excitement.

Right now, we have a clear road map. We made the minimum viable product so we could get something built quickly, and it’s obvious what to do next — make the product less minimum. People want to do things with the product that it can’t yet do, so it’s obvious what the improvements are; we just need to find the time and money for them. The screen could be a higher resolution; the processor could be faster; if it’s an app, it could allow commenting on pictures; and so on. Each time there’s a new release, everyone is excited as the new features bring new opportunities. The users can do more stuff that they want to do.

Attendees at the chair conference. Chair 2.0 will contain cushions! And we’re rolling out chairs with even more legs for extra stability. Photo: Product School/Unsplash

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Simon Pitt
OneZero

Media techie, software person, and web-stuff doer. Head of Corporate Digital at BBC, but views my own. More at pittster.co.uk