15-out-of-10 Lovable Product
Design the unconstrained ideal in one place, then scale only what proves valuable.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
Brian Chesky's 15-out-of-10 method starts by designing an ideal customer experience without allowing current budget, staffing, or geographic scale to lower the ambition. Instead of immediately constructing a compromised MVP for every market, the team chooses one location or bounded context where it can assemble the complete lovable version. That pilot may include high-touch or unscalable elements such as the best seating, coffee, or service. Once customers experience the whole product, the team can see which elements matter, which fail, and what can be reproduced. Scaling comes after learning from the integrated ideal, not by incrementally testing disconnected amenities inside a mediocre baseline. The method preserves aspiration while keeping the first implementation operationally bounded.
Origin
Saxena learned the method from Brian Chesky at Airbnb. He explains it through a hypothetical Airbnb lounge for guests who arrive hours before check-in.
Core principles
- 01Resource constraints should shape scale, not the initial quality bar.
- 02A complete lovable experience reveals interactions that isolated feature tests miss.
- 03One exceptional implementation is enough to learn before global expansion.
- 04Scale the pieces that prove their value after the ideal is experienced.
How to run it
- 1
Define the ideal end state
Describe what a 15-out-of-10 experience would feel like for the customer. Ignore current resource and scale constraints during this first pass.
Pro tip Describe the full customer journey, not a list of features.
Watch out Starting from the budget quietly turns the current constraint into the product vision.
- 2
Bound the pilot
Choose one location, customer group, or operating context where the complete experience can be built. Reduce breadth instead of reducing quality.
Pro tip Pick a setting where the team can observe customers closely.
- 3
Build the lovable whole
Assemble all elements needed for the ideal experience, including manual or unscalable work. Let customers experience the pieces together.
Pro tip Use real specialists or service in the pilot when automation would prematurely narrow the concept.
Watch out Do not confuse an expensive pilot with a commitment to reproduce every element everywhere.
- 4
Observe the integrated experience
Learn which elements create delight, which merely add cost, and how the pieces interact. Evaluate the experience as a whole before decomposing it.
Watch out Isolated feature metrics can miss the value created by the complete journey.
- 5
Scale what worked
Translate the valuable elements into repeatable operations, software, partnerships, or simpler substitutes. Expand only after the pilot reveals what deserves to survive.
Pro tip Preserve the customer outcome even when the scaled delivery mechanism changes.
In the wild
For guests arriving long before check-in, Saxena contrasts a minimal lounge tested amenity by amenity with Chesky's approach. Pick one location, provide excellent seating, air conditioning, internet, and a real barista, then let guests experience the complete lounge before deciding what can scale across countries.
→ The team learns from a genuinely lovable service while limiting the unscalable investment to one location.
Common mistakes
Starting with the seven-out-of-ten version
Designing from current constraints prevents the team from discovering the customer experience it should ultimately preserve.
Trying to scale the first version
The framework reduces breadth to protect quality. Requiring global scalability immediately recreates the same constrained design problem.
Scaling every pilot element
The pilot is a learning instrument. Only the elements that create meaningful value should survive into the scaled system.
Is it for you?
Best for
Teams designing a new service or experience that can be piloted deeply in one bounded setting.
Not ideal for
Commodity features, urgent compliance work, or products whose first implementation cannot be contained safely.
From the episode
Sanchan Saxena (VP of Product at Coinbase) on the inside story of how Airbnb made it through Covid; what he’s learned from Brian Chesky, Brian Armstrong, and Kevin Systrom; much more