Running Lean, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13. Don’t Be a Feature Pusher

In a great market, a market with lots of real potential customers, the market pulls the product out of the startup.

—Marc Andreessen, “The Pmarca Guide to Startups”

Features Must Be Pulled, Not Pushed

Earlier, I advocated implementing a Continuous Deployment system. While Continuous Deployment helps you streamline your product development process for speed, you have to be wary of simply cranking out more features faster.

When you launch your product, lots of things can and will go wrong. Sure enough, feature requests will also start pouring in. The common tendency is to build more, but that is seldom the answer.

Here’s why:

More features dilute your unique value proposition (UVP).

You have taken great effort to keep your minimum value proposition (MVP) as small and focused as possible. Don’t dilute your UVP with unnecessary distractions.

Simple products are simple to understand.

Don’t give up on your MVP too early.

Building great software is hard. While you have painstakingly tested problems worth solving, you have only tested a semblance of the solution. Give your MVP a chance. First troubleshoot and resolve issues with existing features before chasing new features.

Put down the compiler until you learn why they’re not buying.

—Jason Cohen, A Smart Bear blog

Features always have hidden costs.

More features mean more tests, more screenshots, more videos, more coordination, more complexity, and more distractions.

Start With No.

—37signals, Getting Real

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