Man Servants

I’m seriously digging the idea of a Concierge MVP – where humans fill the gap in a digital experience. The quick example is the idea that driverless cars are not far off on the horizon, but Uber and Lyft provides the Concierge MVP in the interim; building user habits for automated and tailored transportation.

Two weeks ago I saw another take on this idea with a service that is getting all it's attention for it’s outrageously link-bated content strategy: “Man servant service is not a joke. And it’s nota gigolo service”

The point of ManServant is to provide women with a tailored and customized gent who can show up when needed. I know the point is the 'tailored man' part, but essentially it is an automated assistant service for a spectrum of tasks. At first glance it’s easy to mistaken the fact that it is packaged in this man-servant story that it has very little to do with building a behavior around man-servants or personal assistance of any kind. It does  however create an initial MVP to a set services that women (and consumers in general) don’t currently consider to be automated. As with many use cases, it fits a grey area where other entrepreneurs have not dared to go, or not considered to be viable business models. 

The best part about the idea of Concierge MVP’s for true connected experiences is that they are more about building behavior and understanding new habits, rather then implementing new technology. The idea behind Man Servant is pretty simple, the execution complex, but the way its consumers will utilize the service is likely a bit further away from the obvious hopes of the companies founder. Give someone a killer platform that they didn't know they needed, and they will quickly take the lead in its development path.