Taking a holistic view of your features

As we continuously work to prioritize our own feature development at Knowtify, I did some random thinking about how we think about, talk about & prioritize feature development.

Typically these conversations about feature development are dominated by product managers/designers/product teams—the ones charged with building products & features. Makes sense.

And it also makes sense that the main criteria from these groups for assessing features is “usage.” Are people using (or will they use) these features or not?

But I also think there are other criteria, beyond just raw usage, that come into play when thinking about features—especially in the context of building the business around those features.

What they say versus what they do

It’s likely that you can fit most of your current features into one of these boxes:

I like this model because it helps us assess the value of features on things other than just usage. This kind of assessment can bring different groups into the product conversation and enable a more honest collaboration between the Product and the Business teams.

A closer look:

Value Proposition Features (top-right)

Top right features are very likely the reasons that you’re in business. These are the features that justify your existence. They are your differentiators. You can very likely look at these features and compose your value proposition statement — “We are an app that enables users to {insert Value Proposition feature}.” They are your bread and butter.

Make sure these features are easy to find and delightful. Make sure they are front & center in your marketing messaging and that they make up the majority (65–90%) of the meat of your sales demo (if you have them).

Your business is dependent on your Value Proposition features.

The Walking Dead Features (bottom-left)

Bottom-left features are your trouble children. No one uses them and no one seems to care about them. Ugh. Before completely killing them, spend a little bit of time reviewing whether or not they have fallen victim to a functional, communication or UX issue (ie — are they not being used or talked about because they are to hard to understand; users don’t know about them; etc).

Assuming there aren’t any of these issues limiting their usage or affinity, then you should seriously consider killing them in your next release. Especially if they carry a bunch of technical debt. Do they often break when developing other parts of the app? Do they complicate QA for each release? Even if they don’t…strongly consider sending them to the big feature graveyard in the sky.

It won’t take you long to be happy you did.

The Workhorse Features (top-left)

Ahhh…your Workhorse features. Got to love them. These are the pedestrian and unremarkable features that just enable your app to function.

A scheduler for an email newsletter apps.

A shutter button for a camera app.

A checkout screen for a mobile payment service.

You may not need to do anything with these features. In fact, it’s very tempting to ignore these features because “users are using them. Why spend more time on them?” That might be absolutely true...

…but there also might be opportunities to create delight here. There might be opportunities to turn a Workhorse feature into a feature that people talk about—maybe even a Value Prop feature?

I think a great example of this is what Stripe did with the updated designs of their payment boxes (their post is definitely worth a read).

In this case, I would argue, the Stripe team took what was clearly a Workhorse feature and made it a Value Prop feature. The payment box was a typical, required feature that was used all the time (you couldn’t process a payment without it). No user was NOT going to use the payment box. So long as it was functional, it was “working ” based on raw usage metrics.

But by pouring some love & energy into this seemingly basic feature, they created an experience that got people talking.

And now, I would argue, that these payment boxes are part of their Value Proposition (a simple and beautiful payment experience for your users) and is helping them to continuously differentiate in their space.

The Wildcard Features (bottom-right)

Bottom-right is where it gets really rough.

This is where your Wildcard features live and this is the box in which the Product and Business teams often clash in epic battle royales.

This is because, many times, Wildcard features are build in response to feedback from users and/or prospects.

Here’s how it goes:

The sales team says to the product team, “We need this feature to close more deals — EVERY prospect is asking for it.”

Or the Customer Success team reports back, “We really need this feature…it would make the users super happy.”

So the Product team builds it. Users are excited. They send kudos to the Product team and may even send a few tweets about it. Maybe it even gets you some press. But, after an initial period of excitement, existing users don’t use the feature. And new users don’t really use it either — certainly without the frequency that would seemingly justify the work that went into it.

And this is very frustrating to the Product team—as it should be. It is frustrating to put time and energy into something that doesn’t get used.

So, they start writing off feedback and ideas that come from the Sales & Cust Success teams. This creates an unhealthy internal competitive environment which is bad for everyone (including users).

But it can be avoided. A new perspective on feature assessment can help promote the honest, collaborative environment that will help you build, not just a great product, but a great business around that product.

The first step is for the Product team to take a more holistic perspective of the features of the product. Because the reality is:

Some features have value to the business even though they aren’t used.

I know, I know. I’ve probably just been added to several product-management blacklists and it’s likely I’ve been locked out of my Gitub account, but that’s ok. Because it’s true.

Yes, some Wildcard features will be worthless and should go away. But many times, these features contribute value to the business in other ways.

Sometimes they will help from a marketing perspective. Sometimes the features you have will contribute to the story of the product/brand.

Many times Wildcard features will contribute to user retention and LTV (more on this later).

And many times they will help to close sales. This is especially true when selling into the enterprise. Many times Wildcard features represent, what Sales calls, “check-the-box” features. For those who haven’t sold into the enterprise, “check-the-box” features are features that buyers need to see in order to make a purchase. The usability of the feature, its design, the way it functions—none of that matters much. The buyer just needs to know it’s there so that he/she can “check-the-box” next to the name of that feature on her comparison form. Some classic examples:

Do you have analytics? Yes…check!

How about A/B testing? Yes…check!

Do your enable task management? Yes…check!

Can I tweet directly from the platform? Yes…check!

And many more. At times, buyers will buy without the check-the-box features (often takes a good salesperson to make this happen), but there are definitely times in which these features are required to get through the purchasing process.

If you’re ever looking to find some examples of “check-the-box” or Wildcard features, a great place to look is on the pricing page of any software tiered pricing plans.

Now…what do you do when you identify your Wildcard features?

First of all, don’t get upset. Take a breath and work through a few things:

• You can do an assessment and try to increase usage—moving them to the Value Prop box. If they are generating a lot of attention, but no one is using them, maybe there is a usability issue. Maybe there is an education issue. Definitely a possibility. Worth looking at. My suggestion is to start this journey by talking to the users who talk about these features and ask them why they aren’t using it…

• It’s unlikely that you will see NO usage on these features. So, if you do have some usage, albeit small, you can dig in and see if there is any interesting cohort or use case which is using the feature with frequency. . If that’s the case, talk to them. Understand their usage and the value it provides to them. It may just be that this feature, while not generating much usage on a global basis, may just be the secret to the expansive growth of your platform. It may represent an opportunity to attack a new market. It may lead to a new product offering. It may just be a big opportunity. It also might not, but it’s worth some exploration…
• You also may just need to kill these features. They may just carry too much debt without bringing enough value. But, in many cases…

• …you should just leave them alone. In many cases they are creating value beyond just usage, so they should just be left alone. If you can explain/quantify that value, then just leave them alone.

Here’s an example from my life as a software user:

We use a relatively new CRM (Propeller CRM) to manage our sales pipeline. A few months ago, they released a new feature that I had asked for — a Zapier hook. I was so happy when they added this because it meant I could connect my CRM to my Knowtify account as well as to a couple of other apps — allowing me to keep my data in synch. Yes…synched data!

They released this feature a couple of months ago now. But despite my pestering and excitement…have I used it, yet? Of course I haven’t. Do I intend to? Sure, but realistically, I probably won’t get to it for months.

My usage of this new feature—very low. Veeeeeery low. Non-existent.

However, between today and the day I actually use the feature, am I going to switch to another CRM who doesn’t have this hook? Or even one that does? No way. This feature is helping to keep me with this CRM….even though I have never used it.

Why is this? I think it’s a couple of things:

First, I asked for this feature and they delivered. I now have affinity for the folks behind the app. I even feel like I owe them one, which would make clicking that “Cancel Subscription” button very difficult. I’d actually feel guilty.

Secondly, while I haven’t actually used this feature (and won’t for a while), the prospects of using this feature in the future is exciting for me. The fact that I HAVE THE OPTION to use this feature if I so choose is very powerful and keeping me subscribing.

I know this is just one little anecdote, but is a good illustration of my point — this feature is generating value for their business regardless of my usage.

Bottom line

I do not mean for this post to advocate for a new paradigm in which Product just builds whatever Sales and Customer Success throws at them. Not at all.

What I’m recommending is that as you assess your features you look beyond just usage and ask, does this feature have value to our business? If so, in what way? And, if so, how much?

Start thinking about (and respecting) overall value to the business and your teams will be forced to work together a successful product. It will help to foster the collaboration that will be essential for success.

Because, ultimately, every business needs a product that can be marketed, sold AND used…