Deciding the best and required features are key to any product success. Think outside-in and bring features the way the end-user want!
Adding features to your product need some serious thinking. Developers find it difficult to decide on the required features on their product. Even after the features are decided, they might need to think about which ones are to be built first. Some think that it is always better to add more features while others think that it can harm the quality of the original product.
Choosing the features might decide the fate of your product. With the right features, your product will become more popular and successful. If you add the wrong ones, your product might not make it in the market. Customers’ idea of your product will be tainted by too many features on the product. So, it is always necessary to spend some time contemplating about the right features and how to prioritize them.
There is no single set of rules that can guide the selection of the right features. The same goes for prioritization. But some tips can be kept in mind so that the process will become a little bit easier. Before adding features to your product, try to think of the following;
Evaluate whether the new feature caters to many users
Sometimes, some problems faced by users might seem like something that is faced by a majority of the user base. It may not be necessarily true. It may only affect a few. So before adding any feature think of how many users will be affected by it.
Think of how often will the features be used.
It is always better to spend time and money on features that the users will use more frequently.
Can you familiarize the users with the new features?
It shouldn’t be a hard task to acquaint the users with new features. It should be something that can be easily communicated. Users should get an idea of the feature by a tweet or a blog post. If it is of a higher impact, then some magazines and publications might also want to write about it. So, it is better to have something that can be written about.
Think of the effect of the features on your product
Every feature added to your product should place it a little above the similar products in the market. So, when adding the features think of how it will place your products in the market. All the features added must complement your ultimate aim. Unnecessary features might take the focus away from this aim.
Think of whether it can add more value to your product
When adding a new feature, think of the ones that will have the most positive impact. Think of new features with which users can do more things or make the existing ones more efficient.
Think of whether the new feature might make your product more complex
With the addition of new features, the complexity of the product might increase or decrease. It is always safe to think of the kind of users who can use this feature right away. Some features can only be used by power users because of the added complexity and there are other features that can be used by new users immediately.
Before adding a new feature, think of whether the existing ones can be modified to solve the issue
Customers identify difficulties with your product and sometimes even offer features they require when speaking with you. It's sometimes just a workflow issue, and all you have to do is recommend a slightly modified methodology that solves their problem while still utilising your present feature set. Even if this adds to the complexity of their process, it may be an acceptable trade-off for features that are utilised seldom or by a small percentage of users.
Think of the effort it takes to implement the feature
Some features might take a lot of effort in terms of time and resources for implementation. Some require lesser time and resources. It is better to test with low-resource alternatives to evaluate the efficiency and frequency of usage before implementing the high-resource ones.
Contemplate on the potential of growth that can be attained by the feature
It is always better to think about how the added feature will help the product growth. This might be anything from decreasing friction for consumers who want to switch from a competitor's product to introducing support for a third-party platform like Slack to benefit from their distribution network to just making it easier to refer or ask others to use your product.
This list can be viewed as a continuous process; going through it during decision-making processes will typically help us obtain a better understanding of what to develop and how to prioritize it. It also sometimes varies according to the product, its planned geography, gender, business needs etc.
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