Plain and simple features are very addictive. Once you’ve experienced the rush of a successful implementation you are eagerly planning for your next hit, a bit similar to your caffeine addiction. The mind is scouring all possibilities and if you are being honest it was doing this a long time ago. But what is it about features that causes this rapturous rush? Why do we long for more when we know the path we are following is taking us further away from the problem we are trying to solve? In my opinion the answer is greed and I’m going to explain why you should come clean.
“One more feature couldn’t hurt, it’s what the ‘minority’ requested right?”
You or your customers experience a problem and you fashion a solution. A simple recipe for success if it’s a tier one problem. The rule of modern business is to fail fast and you’ve created your solution in the leanest way possible, bravo! You’re feeling good, scratch that, you’re feeling great. It’s like you’ve just reached the moon before Neil touched down. But once the rush wears off you’re left in a state of depression, you’re searching for what comes next. The mind begins to wander and you’ve already started scheming the future; the future’s bright and boy the future is features. Man o’ man how sweet would it be to get that rush again. One more feature couldn’t hurt, it’s what the ‘minority’ requested right? You begin to plan and action your product road map and before you know it you’re experiencing excessive bloat; BMW’s iDrive ring a bell?
Now everyone experiences a little bloat, I mean it’s what Christmas is for, but product bloat is a whole other kettle of fish. For starters, excuse the pun, you’re alienating your customers. They are finding it harder and harder to use your product as they are overwhelmed by the features they can choose from, a consequence linked to the paradox of choice. This isn’t cool! Every customer interaction is a moment of truth and the cold hard truth right now is that you’ve created a product that resonates directly with no one. Simplicity is the key and you’ve chosen the wrong lock.
It doesn’t stop at customer alienation either as you’ve now got internal issues to contend with. You’ve hired aggressively and extensively to cover the development and maintenance of these features but you’re still left short when it comes to being able to adequately support all. Your code base is becoming a mess as rash decisions solve short term not long term problems. You’ve got competing priorities coming out of your ears and you’re juggling multiple releases in tandem. Suddenly you’ve got a pounding headache from all the choices you’re having to make and ultimately in the end you’re making none, Karhoo springs to mind.
“… and you’ve officially lost the plot”
You take the only way out you know, you choose one last feature. You’ve said this before but this time it’s different, or so you say. You know you need to stop but your greed needs to be satisfied. Besides it’s a killer feature which Joe and Tom came up with during last weeks hackathon so you know you’re onto a winner. You reach the release and pop, the bubble finally bursts. You’ve lost your customers, you’ve lost your investment, you’ve lost the support of your employees and you’ve officially lost the plot.
Morale of the story… don’t be a feature addict! Focus on what you do best to make sure you provide moments of delight for your customers rather than alienate them. Refine, refactor and regroup. Chances are if you were doing well before you were probably doing something right. I’m not saying new features are bad as they will be required for investment and to reach your vision but before you start your next feature ask yourself, why are we building this?
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