As you know, I’m a sucker for a good metaphor be they coconuts or hosting. I’ve got a great new one for you: Baby Elephants! Fantastic, right?
Well, yes, it’s promising. Baby elephants – What’s not to like. But what are they a metaphor for, pray tell?
Judith Andresen introduced baby elephants as a metaphor for MVPs at Agile on the Beach 2016. One immediate benefit is that it short circuits endless, mostly fruitless discussions along the lines of “What exactly is an Minimum Viable Product?” “We need an Minimum Marketable Feature instead!” “No a Minimum Loveable Feature is the way to go!” “No, it has to be a …”
Instead of arguing about different concepts, baby elephants give people concrete images to work with:
- “I think we’re building a teenager elephant here, not a baby anymore.”
- “We’ve got too many baby elephants in the stable already. Let’s get those out before acquiring a new one.”
- “What are young mammoth trees (which the elephant is supposed to move) in our context?”
Judith’s fable includes much more, e.g. the context in which a baby elephant is an excellent MVP. Read the whole fable about nature-oriented forest management with baby elephants here.