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How do you build a bare minimum feature?

shavinpeiries.com

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Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#11

Post by mehphp »

wohlgejm wrote: post #7
rozenmd wrote: post #3

My tactic for getting past this (at least as a solo founder) has been to: 1. Talk to customers enough that you know what they actually want to achieve, and how specific additional features in your product will get them there 2. Ship the absolute minimal possible deliverable feature (a log of which I keep here: https://twitter.com/RozenMD/status/1364881512500404224?s=20 ), and mercilessly remove unused functionality a…

I'm curious how you handle close to unused functionality? I find this problem acute in B2B software where only one customer adopts the feature, but it happens to be a very important one.

Personally, I feature flag them and hide it for all other customers. If the feature requires extra cost to keep going then I let the customer know the situation and charge them to keep it going.

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#12

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Jugurtha wrote: post #6

> So far your instinct as product designer/manager/engineer might be to take what customers say they want at face value. That would be the worst way to go about building anything. Taking solutions from customers as opposed to problems to identify jobs-to-be-done and reasons for non consumption isn't something someone who knows how to build products does. The question then becomes how does someone who generally knows…

I tell this anecdote: ask a farmer from 1900, what he wanted, he'd say "A horse that pulls more weight and eats less oats!"

He'd never have said "I need a tractor"

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#13

Post by latchkey »

rozenmd wrote: post #3

My tactic for getting past this (at least as a solo founder) has been to: 1. Talk to customers enough that you know what they actually want to achieve, and how specific additional features in your product will get them there 2. Ship the absolute minimal possible deliverable feature (a log of which I keep here: https://twitter.com/RozenMD/status/1364881512500404224?s=20 ), and mercilessly remove unused functionality a…

Another 'tool' I've used in the past:

We had customers that wanted 'permissions' for their "sub" accounts so they could have fine grained access to features. They would threaten to not use our system until this was implemented.

Implementing this feature was a lower priority and more difficult to implement for us then other revenue generating features (also a good way to prioritize things).

The interesting bit is they still used our system, despite the missing feature. I think because we focused on things that generated revenue. We kept good conversations with our customers and let them know when we thought we would add it. We kept delaying it and it took us 6+ months. In the meantime, we increased our (and their) revenues the whole time.

Once we finally rolled out the feature, existing users didn't really care and new customers just had the feature. This strategy worked really well a number of times.

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#14

Post by tata71 »

latchkey wrote: post #13
rozenmd wrote: post #3

My tactic for getting past this (at least as a solo founder) has been to: 1. Talk to customers enough that you know what they actually want to achieve, and how specific additional features in your product will get them there 2. Ship the absolute minimal possible deliverable feature (a log of which I keep here: https://twitter.com/RozenMD/status/1364881512500404224?s=20 ), and mercilessly remove unused functionality a…

Another 'tool' I've used in the past: We had customers that wanted 'permissions' for their "sub" accounts so they could have fine grained access to features. They would threaten to not use our system until this was implemented. Implementing this feature was a lower priority and more difficult to implement for us then other revenue generating features (also a good way to prioritize things). The interesting bit is they…

How do you avoid promising or implying shit you don't intend to deliver?

I'm going through this right now — people trying to use super-fine permissions (dozens of points!).

Besides role-based groupings, there's no chance this fixes more issues than it causes in my case (less technical managers and workers using an SaaS).

Any ideas and insight appreciated!

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#15

Post by rozenmd »

tata71 wrote: post #14
latchkey wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another 'tool' I've used in the past: We had customers that wanted 'permissions' for their "sub" accounts so they could have fine grained access to features. They would threaten to not use our system until this was implemented. Implementing this feature was a lower priority and more difficult to implement for us then other revenue generating features (also a good way to prioritize things). The interesting bit is they…

How do you avoid promising or implying shit you don't intend to deliver? I'm going through this right now — people trying to use super-fine permissions (dozens of points!). Besides role-based groupings, there's no chance this fixes more issues than it causes in my case (less technical managers and workers using an SaaS). Any ideas and insight appreciated!

A lot of companies just say "We've added it to the backlog, thanks!" - I'd recommend avoiding this.

An honest "we don't plan on taking the product in this direction for some time" will do wonders (at least for customers worth keeping IMO).

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#16

Post by latchkey »

tata71 wrote: post #14
latchkey wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another 'tool' I've used in the past: We had customers that wanted 'permissions' for their "sub" accounts so they could have fine grained access to features. They would threaten to not use our system until this was implemented. Implementing this feature was a lower priority and more difficult to implement for us then other revenue generating features (also a good way to prioritize things). The interesting bit is they…

How do you avoid promising or implying shit you don't intend to deliver? I'm going through this right now — people trying to use super-fine permissions (dozens of points!). Besides role-based groupings, there's no chance this fixes more issues than it causes in my case (less technical managers and workers using an SaaS). Any ideas and insight appreciated!

By consistently delivering on everything else that they are asking for and most importantly... helping increase their revenues (or whatever other metric you use with your customers for their success).

Not delivering sometimes has a reverse psychological effect that you can use to your advantage... it keeps them wanting more.

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#17

Post by tata71 »

latchkey wrote: post #16
tata71 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you avoid promising or implying shit you don't intend to deliver? I'm going through this right now — people trying to use super-fine permissions (dozens of points!). Besides role-based groupings, there's no chance this fixes more issues than it causes in my case (less technical managers and workers using an SaaS). Any ideas and insight appreciated!

By consistently delivering on everything else that they are asking for and most importantly... helping increase their revenues (or whatever other metric you use with your customers for their success). Not delivering sometimes has a reverse psychological effect that you can use to your advantage... it keeps them wanting more.

This is the 1000x startup toxicity attitude people talk about, right?

Surely there's better, more comfortable long term gain to be had being good customer service human beings, to some extent(?)

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#18

Post by tata71 »

rozenmd wrote: post #15
tata71 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you avoid promising or implying shit you don't intend to deliver? I'm going through this right now — people trying to use super-fine permissions (dozens of points!). Besides role-based groupings, there's no chance this fixes more issues than it causes in my case (less technical managers and workers using an SaaS). Any ideas and insight appreciated!

A lot of companies just say "We've added it to the backlog, thanks!" - I'd recommend avoiding this. An honest "we don't plan on taking the product in this direction for some time" will do wonders (at least for customers worth keeping IMO).

I've been saying things like: "we'd like to hear more about how you'd use this, to help us build future versions".

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#19

Post by latchkey »

tata71 wrote: post #17
latchkey wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By consistently delivering on everything else that they are asking for and most importantly... helping increase their revenues (or whatever other metric you use with your customers for their success). Not delivering sometimes has a reverse psychological effect that you can use to your advantage... it keeps them wanting more.

This is the 1000x startup toxicity attitude people talk about, right? Surely there's better, more comfortable long term gain to be had being good customer service human beings, to some extent(?)

Toxic? Far from it... we onboarded about 800 customers, they loved us and we grossed $80m in our first year.

Re: How do you build a bare minimum feature?

#20

Post by latchkey »

tata71 wrote: post #18
rozenmd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of companies just say "We've added it to the backlog, thanks!" - I'd recommend avoiding this. An honest "we don't plan on taking the product in this direction for some time" will do wonders (at least for customers worth keeping IMO).

I've been saying things like: "we'd like to hear more about how you'd use this, to help us build future versions".

Any smart customer would know that is code for "We've added it to the backlog, thanks!" and won't ever see that feature.
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