Buitoni: how MVP thinking built a seven-year product

The challenge: build for longevity, not just for launch

The brief wasn't just to launch a pizza. It was to launch one that would still be on shelves five years later. That meant finding the functional and emotional “jobs” no existing product fully met, and designing around those only. No feature creep, no internal wish list.

My approach: deep immersion, then a minimal viable launch

1. Immerse properly. I analysed 10+ pizzas across five European markets, not as taste tests but as a structured look at why people choose, enjoy and buy again. It revealed the core tension between convenience and authenticity, and the crust characteristic that drives satisfaction most.
2. Keep only what matters. The MVP rule: identify the 2–3 features that deliver most of the value, work on those only, and iterate on real feedback.
3. Align on one prototype. I worked with R&D and Marketing on a single prototype that met the “good enough to test” bar, secured cross-functional buy-in, and we launched with a focused feature set.

“An MVP is not a shortcut to a mediocre product. It's a discipline. It forces the hardest question in innovation: what is the one thing this product must do? Everything else is noise.”Amandine Devergies