What is Feature Creep and How to Avoid It?
“Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.”
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
We have probably experienced how harmful it can be to have too much of a good thing in our daily lives. When it comes to designing a product, it is not surprising that the same rules apply, which is that adding too many features to the product will cause harm to the product itself.
The detrimental effect of adding too many features to the product (whether it is software or hardware) is also known as “feature creep.” In this writing, we will explain this term in more detail and provide some tips for avoiding feature creep.
What is Feature Creep/Scope Creep?
Feature creep (also known as scope creep) means adding an excessive amount of features to a product and causing the product to be more complicated to use.
The term feature creep has several other names such as concept creep, project creep, project scope creep, featurism, featuritis.
What Causes Feature Creep?
As we have stated, adding an excessive amount of features to a product causes feature creep. However, there are some underlying causes of adding new features.
-When it comes to developing your product, you might assume that adding features makes the product more functional. On the contrary, in most cases the result is exactly the opposite of your expectations. Adding more features diminish the usability of the product and create an unfriendly-user environment.
-When you do not have a precise product strategy, this makes your product vulnerable to spontaneous feature adding and deviation from the primary goal of the project. As a result, the project ends up with feature creep.
-After the project starts, the people whom you cannot say no to, such as managers, stakeholders might ask you to add some features. Because of not being able to say no, you add those features. As you add more, creating a feature creep is inevitable. Therefore, the inability to refuse your managers leads to feature creep.
Why is Feature Creep Bad?
Until now, we hope you have an idea that feature creep is detrimental to the product’s usability because of created complexity. The detrimental effect of scope creep is not limited to this, but also there are several harmful consequences of it:
-Detrimental to project management: Adding excessive features throughout the project development will deviate the project from deadlines and budget plans. Those features backlog on the available tasks while requiring more resources.
-Detrimental to user experience: Complexity generally diminishes functionality. When users face excessive features, they feel easily lost and dissatisfied because of spending too much time figuring out what all of those features are. The reason why users use a product is to find a solution to their problems, not to have more problems.
In addition, the users might churn and choose a less complicated alternative because of facing feature creep in a product. Therefore, feature creep results in a bad user experience.
How to Avoid Feature Creep?
We have tried to explain why scope creep should be avoided so far. Now, it is time to present some guidance for preventing feature creep in the first place:
1)Know Your Users
First and foremost, you should know how your users engage in your product. Their interaction with your product matters a lot for you to understand the functionality of the product.
Also, knowing your users will give an idea about what features should be added and what features should be removed. Therefore, you will be able to make informed decisions about adding or removing features, and this is a necessary process that prevents feature creep.
In order to learn about users’ interaction with the product, it is sensible to use session recording tools and conduct end-user testing.
In addition, feedback from the users is one of the best indicators to understand the features’ usage level. As a result, adding an easy feedback loop to your product will be beneficial for you to receive feedback.
2)Plan, Research, Validate
Before starting a project, it is vital to have a clear and precise plan. This plan guides the team throughout the process, especially when a problem arises. It also prevents your product from feature creep. When the planning is not properly done, the project becomes vulnerable to feature creep. Laying the groundwork is an essential part of the success of the product and the project.
In order to create a plan, it is important to review only the essentials based on the market research, be realistic, especially when it comes to time, and set clear guidelines about validating incoming feature requests.
3)Stick to the original Product Vision
When you have a clear and precise plan for the product, the next step is sticking to it. Without abiding by the plan that is set beforehand, the project deviates from the original product vision.
However, deciding to stick to the original product vision by yourself is not enough. Every person within the business should be on the same page. Therefore, before starting a project, you might make a presentation or set a meeting about the plan and the project’s vision and make sure everyone on the team is on the same page.
4)Learn to Say “No” to Feature Requests
When the project starts, many feature requests are being made. Especially when the request comes from the stakeholders, it becomes challenging to say “no” to them, and consequently, you add the feature and begin to create feature creep. Therefore, you need to say “no” to feature requests and stick to the original plan. Also, saying “no” is not enough, so you need to explain why adding this feature is unreasonable.
Examples of Feature Creep
Here are some featuritis examples that represent how complexity looks like:
The Microsoft Word 2000
It is one of the clearest featuritis examples. The menu bar is full of feature buttons, and this depletes the functionality of the product.
Adobe Photoshop
Although this product presents many possibilities for designers, containing excessive features makes it challenging to use Adobe Photoshop. The users need a tutorial first to utilize the product. Therefore, this might cause many users to search for alternatives when it comes to photoshop.
Excel
Like Adobe Photoshop, Excel requires watching some tutorial videos in advance. The amount of features Excel presents creates complexity for the users. In order to avoid training for using a product, users utilize the alternatives such as Numbers.
🔥 Key Takeaways 🔥
👉Moderation is essential for the features that a product has.
👉Adding excessive features to a product, also known as feature creep, is detrimental to the product because it harms functionality, project management, and user experience.
👉There might be several reasons for adding excessive features, such as delusion that adding more features makes the product better, not having a specific product strategy, or not being able to say “no” to the stakeholders.
👉There are some actions you might take for stopping feature creep:
- Knowing your users
- Planning, researching, validating
- Sticking to the original product vision
- Learning to say “no” to feature requests
