The balance between fast feature delivery and a cluttered product

As a founder & product manager, it’s essential to balance the delivery of new features quickly while ensuring that they don’t clutter the product. My experience with two different products highlights this balance.

With the first product, USDX Wallet App, we had a full-time team working on it, and we quickly developed features. However, we spent $1 million creating a product that no one needed. This experience taught me that delivering features quickly is only half the battle. It’s equally important to ensure that the features are necessary and solve real problems for the users.

With the second product, https://supermama.io/en, the team worked slowly because they were part-time. As a product manager, I had to carefully choose features and communicate with users. This process resulted in a product that generates $200K ARR. This experience taught me that taking the time to understand users’ needs and delivering only necessary features can result in a successful product.

As a product manager, it’s important to find a balance between delivering features quickly and ensuring that they solve real problems for the users. The key is to communicate with users, gather feedback, and carefully select the features that will have the most significant impact. By doing so, we can create a product that is both successful and useful for our users.

In addition to balancing fast feature delivery and ensuring they solve real problems, having a clear product vision is crucial to avoid cluttering the product.

A product vision serves as a guiding light, providing a clear direction for the development of the product. It helps prioritize features, keeping the focus on what truly matters to the users and aligning with the overall business objectives.

Without a well-defined product vision, there’s a risk of adding features that may seem appealing or requested by a few users but don’t contribute to the product’s core value. This can lead to a cluttered and confusing user experience, ultimately alienating the target audience.

By establishing a strong product vision, you can ensure that each feature aligns with the overarching goals and user needs. This allows you to make informed decisions about which features to prioritize and which ones to avoid, preventing unnecessary bloat and maintaining a streamlined product experience.

Remember, a product vision acts as a compass, guiding the team’s efforts and helping them stay on track. It enables you to make strategic choices, delivering the most valuable features while avoiding feature creep that can dilute the product’s essence.

In conclusion, striking a balance between fast feature delivery and avoiding clutter requires not only thoughtful selection of features based on user feedback but also a strong product vision that keeps the product focused, relevant, and aligned with the long-term objectives.