When product designers end up being power users.

feature creep kills your product.

When you design your app and test it internally for weeks or even months, you have already become a power user. By the time you push version 1.0 into the market, you are sitting hands full with version 2.0. Every engineer and team members gives you cheers for the new features you are shaping. They see the value and sit down to build them.

You are thinking as a power user.

Every one of you in your startup are power users of your product. But not the ones who installed your app a day ago or even a week since launch. They are still not hooked onto the core proposition you are selling. They may drop out any time, and if you dilute this even further with a feature heavy version 2.0, you lose them. Don’t think as a power user, think about the new user. Sell him your core proposition. Get him onboard. That is what your focus should be once you have a version 1.0

Version 2.0 should be leaner.

Version 1.0 is essentially your beta. And as it goes to your users, you realise you have added a bunch of useless hooks.

Your 2.0 should remove them and make the app leaner. Go back to your analytics and kill features which made it hard for new users to onboard, make it easier for everybody to get your plot. Give them a chance to love your product, and catch up with you and your vision.

When to push features.

Once your app is in the market, features are no more decided by the product designer, he merely selects them from user feedback. He only has to make choice of what goes in. When you have the first bunch of loyal users, they become your evangelists, they will help other users on board. It is then when you can start thinking of diversifying your product, because there are a bunch of thousands of people who can teach the noobie how to use your product.

Learn from the first iPhone, it did not have multi tasking, not even Multi Media messaging. They kept it lean and focused on making the core product perfect.