Get Rid of Product Debt: Finding Out What You Don’t Need
In a recent blog post, Redpoint Ventures partner Tomasz Tunguz talks about product debt, a silent killer of future innovation in lean product teams.
Product debt encompasses the collections of features that work well, but are used by tiny fractions of the user population. They introduce all kinds of complexity downstream.
A sculpture is complete when there’s nothing more that can be taken away. The same is true with a product, and not just because minimalism is so trendy. We agree. Michael Tippett, our CEO, has written a lot about the strategic value of simplicity in all aspects of startup life.
The problem is that if your product has features that are rarely used, you are burdening most of your users with an unnecessary cognitive cost. Eventually these features will become albatrosses around your team’s collective neck as you try to evolve your product for wider and deeper adoption. So think about treating your product like a sculpture.
Prevention is the Best Medicine
There’s a way to predict product debt and stop it from taking hold: through gathering feedback from your users. You can look at the feature suggestions that come in, casting a wary eye on the features with the fewest votes. Wantoo helps you do this easily:
Alternately, you could explicitly ask your users which features they want removed from the product they’re using, and trim the fat accordingly.
Tunguz writes that every company has to carry a cost for the products and features it builds: what’s the threshold for a feature to be a burden? How many users—and which kinds of users—must adopt a feature for it to have a forever-home on your roadmap? We’re happy to give you tools to help quantify those tough decisions.
About Wantoo
Wantoo is a simple, powerful cloud-based platform that makes it easy to listen, analyze, and act on feedback from your team, your customers, or anyone else. For more information, visit wantoo.io.
