The Feature-Assumption Matrix
Organize your thoughts and build better products with this simple table.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop. On my right I have a man that’s hustling on the phone, I think he’s trying to sell properties. He knows what he’s doing: he’s selling a product that he understands and he’s selling it to people he’s met a thousand times before. On my right, there’s this girl who has been talking to her friend about her new mobile app. Let’s call her Vera. I might have been eavesdropping, but from what I understand, Vera’s app helps people do things with people living nearby. The app does this, it does that etc.
I’m sure Vera has identified a problem (e.g. people find it hard to connect with others and coordinate towards an activity) and this app is her solution. Vera’s app has a range of features, everything from the geolocation, to adding activities and being able to send invites… These features sound great, fully formed and holistic enough to deliver a product which, if used, would help solve her initial problem. But, is every feature in this app going to resonate with the user and their habits? On what basis has Vera legitimized the addition of a feature?
The majority of apps out there don’t suffer from the problem that their functionality is broken, because often an app can work very well. But instead of working for the user, most apps work to fulfil the founder’s vision. (FYI, that’s not a good thing…)
Understanding how a user actually behaves, or at least what assumption you’ve made about a user’s behaviour can help align your vision for the product with the requirements of the user. I’d like to share a very simple technique that can help organize your thoughts about your product features and force you to question your intuition about a feature’s viability.
Introducing the Feature-Assumption Matrix!
(it’s actually a table, but matrix sounds cooler).
What is it: A simple 2-column table you should use to interrogate every feature that you’re thinking about including in your product.
But, what is it really:
How to use it: First, most features are combinations of multiple features: Try to unbundle these to their most basic features. Second, input each feature on the left column. Third, ask yourself what assumption you’ve made about your user’s profile or their behaviour when you came up with the feature. In an ideal world, once you have this table completed you would systematically try to validate each assumption. But that’s a story for another day…
Example:
Feature: Search for people based on their height.
Assumption: People are attracted to others partly because of how tall they are relative to themselves.
Try using this table, * ahemm I mean Matrix*, to improve your product. If you like this share it with your friends because their app might work well for them but maybe not for their user.
