{"id":1333,"date":"2021-09-09T06:49:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T06:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itamargilad.com\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2021-09-09T07:25:48","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T07:25:48","slug":"must-have-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itamargilad.com\/must-have-features\/","title":{"rendered":"Enough With Must-Have Features"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here\u2019s a sentence that always fills me with dread: \u201cWe plan to adopt this new approach, just as soon as we launch these must-have features.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 The must-have feature list (AKA catch-up <\/em>features) has become my nemesis\u2014it\u2019s forever standing in the way of progress. Usually it’s a laundry list of things copied from leading competitors, from user requests, and from customer RFPs. The things that everyone<\/em> is doing, and that the company believes without which you\u2019re not a true player. You cannot sell a car unless it has lights, a steering wheel, and safety belts, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three main problems with this line of thinking: first these so-called \u201cmust-have\u201d features suck up a lot of time and resources, and the list is ever-growing. Second, even if you do launch them, you end up with just another me-too product. Third, most of these uninspired features are not must-haves at all; in fact you\u2019ll do yourself a great service if you won\u2019t develop and launch them.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years products tend to accumulate features, but there\u2019s a usage power-law: a handful of features are used a lot, while most get very little usage if any. I can tell you from experience managing products like Gmail, that many features are nothing more than a liability\u2014they deliver very little value, and they incur a constant cost of maintenance and support. They\u2019re also very hard to deprecate because some small minority of users love them. From the outside it\u2019s hard to tell the good features from the mehs. People demand particular features, just because they can\u2019t imagine an alternative. Company RFPs come full of required features copied from an existing solution, simply because the buyer doesn\u2019t want to leave anyone unhappy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bigger problem is that the \u201cmust-have feature\u201d mindset sends you on a race to the bottom\u2014build essentially the same product everyone has (maybe with one unique feature), and try to make it a bit cheaper, or try to market\/sell it better. For many business-oriented executives this feels like a completely viable strategy. Inventing new <\/em>things sounds risky. Having to say no to a customer asking for some arcane feature, an absolute disaster. The Sales-driven company is therefore less innovative\u2014it cannot imagine anything except for what\u2019s already out there. The real Henry Ford misattributed quote could have been: \u201cIf I asked my Sales team what they wanted, they would say a faster horse\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truly innovative companies are happy to challenge the status-quo and sacrifice old features in favor of\u00a0 new ones. Tesla\u2019s cars failed to deliver on a core \u201cmust-have\u201d: easy refueling; instead they gave the drivers \u201ccharge anxiety\u201d. The first iPhone was missing some \u201dexpected\u201d smartphone features of the time\u2014it came with no keyboard or stylus, and the battery couldn\u2019t last more than a day. Google Docs shunned hundreds of legacy Office features and offered a barebones Web application. After you finish reading this article you\u2019re probably going to use Slack, Trello, or Asana. Products that lack many classic \u201centerprise-grade\u201d features and yet are extremely popular in companies of all sizes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Check out my workshops<\/a>\u00a0to learn hands-on how to implement this and other high-impact product management concepts in your company or team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The products that people and companies truly love have a clear notion of target market, mission, and value-to-customer. They\u2019re not trying to be all things to all people. They\u2019re not aspiring to be a cheaper version of something else.  They aim to address the needs of their target market extremely well in whatever way possible. The product teams behind these products listen attentively to user\/customer requests, and analyze competitor products, but the questions are always what\u2019s the underlying need, how important it is, and how can we best address it. Sometimes the answer is to copy a feature (perfectly fine if you did the homework and proved that this is the right solution), sometimes creating your own version of it, and sometimes ignoring the feature\/request altogether because you\u2019ve found a better way to address the need, or because you have higher-value ideas to work on.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s perhaps my biggest grievance with the \u201cMust-have\u201d approach. By assuming that something is a must-have you\u2019re likely practicing bad product management. Very few things are truly \u201cmust-have\u201d. It\u2019s all shades of grey. Ideas have to be compared to other ideas, on the basis of desired outcomes<\/a>.  \u201cAll competitors have it\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s a top customer request\u201d are signals, but you have to collect other forms of evidence<\/a> to be convinced. Ideas have to be tested<\/a> repeatedly and iterated-on to get to something truly useful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you\u2019re not aiming to create highly-differentiated products like Tesla or Google, you have to push back against dogma and conventional thinking. There are no easy shortcuts, no \u201cno-brainer\u201d features. Every idea can fail. Our job is to stay skeptical, prioritize, test,\u00a0 and make decisions based on evidence. I can tell you that doing these things consistently will bring a just end to the concept of must-have features.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sign up to\u00a0my newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to get articles like this (plus eBooks, templates and other resources) in your inbox.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo credit: Tara Winstead<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a sentence that always fills me with dread: \u201cWe plan to adopt this new approach, just as soon as we launch these must-have features.\u201d\u00a0 The must-have feature list (AKA catch-up features) has become my nemesis\u2014it\u2019s forever standing in the way of progress. Usually it’s a laundry list of things copied from leading competitors, from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnough With Must-Have Features - Itamar Gilad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The must-have feature list is forever standing in the way of progress. 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