How can you balance new features with bug fixes in product development?

The balance between bug fixes and new features can shift over time based on your product's maturity and customer needs. Flexibility and adaptability are key in product development. I always follow 12 steps: 1. Prioritising critical bugs. 2. Maintaining a bug backlog. 3. Dedicating time for maintenance. 4. Evaluating feature impact. 5. Managing resources wisely. 6. Iterative bug fixes. 7. Valuing user feedback. 8. Data-informed decisions. 9. Effective communication. 10. Strategic release planning. 11. Robust testing. 12. Quick feedback loops.

Balancing new features and bug fixes requires a deep understanding of both your customers and their problems. Recognizing that your user base is diverse is key. Different users will have varying priorities; a severe bug for one might be minor for another, and a new feature could delight some and not matter to others. It’s crucial to connect with all of your customers, internal and external, grasping their unique needs and how these intersect with your product’s performance. This insight allows to strategically prioritize, aligning bug fixes and new feature development with your overall business goals and user satisfaction, ensuring stability while driving innovation.

Balancing new features with bug fixes as a product manager means ensuring you're not just adding cool new stuff to your product but also fixing any problems that impact users. Imagine you're baking a cake: you don't just focus on adding more layers or fancy decorations, you also make sure the cake is cooked just right and fix any mistakes you spot along the way. Similarly, as a product manager, you need to ensure that your product remains stable and reliable by addressing any issues (bugs) that might affect how it works for users, while also adding new features to keep it fresh and competitive. It's about finding the right mix of improving what's already there and adding exciting new stuff to make your product even better.

Depends upon criticality of the bugs. If lot of P0s are getting logged, then fundamental issues exist in product execution (missed use cases, gaps in development) which needs priority resolution. Otherwise a P0 once a while or couple of P1s, P2s can easily be absorbed in a sprint without impacting key deliverables.

For a PM, one of the greatest skills is Prioritization and plays an important role here. Product Backlog is an ever evolving document but it is very crucial to understand what is the need of the hour. Allocating a specific portion of your Sprint for bug fixes is the best way to avoid pile ups. It can go hand in hand with new feature development and it should be. In certain cases where the bugs are related to your MVP feature, it is necessary to fix that first rather taking a new task in hand. PMs should understand this hard truth that solving a problem is more important than building a feature.

The notion that defining a product vision and strategy is a 'next step' after understanding customer needs is fundamentally flawed. In reality, the product vision and strategy should be the bedrock upon which every decision is made from day one. It's baffling to think that a team would start product development without a clear vision or strategy in place. This isn't a 'next step'; it's the blueprint that should have been laid down before a single line of code was written. It's crucial that everyone on the team understands and aligns with the vision and strategy. This isn't a one-time communication but a continuous conversation, ensuring that every feature is moving toward the long-term goal.

When building a product, it is important to start with a clear vision of what you want to achieve. This will help you understand why you are investing resources in the product. After that, you need to focus on strategy. You should research the market and compare your idea with other offers available to make sure it is distinguishable. Include a feasibility and viability study in product strategy planning. Once you have a clear vision and strategy, you can refine them by analyzing customer needs. Finally, instead of committing to a fixed roadmap, communicate your vision and the direction you are going in. It is important to agree on a worldview with your stakeholders and customers and get their feedback on board.

Envision your product as a storybook. The vision is the end of the story where everyone lives happily ever after. The strategy is the path your characters take to reach that happy ending, overcoming obstacles along the way.

I want to build on what Cameo shared. To understand what to prioritize, you need to consider your strategy stack. At the top is the Organization: Mission (informing the North Star), Vision, Strategy and Goals. The Organization's approach informs the Product: Vision, Strategy, Roadmap, and Goals. When deciding what customer needs to prioritize, first consider do they align with the Organization's strategy. Then, if yes, ensure the customer needs also align with the Product's portion of the strategy stack.

Your product should solve customer problem(s) and create impact. Identify what impact you want to create and create a backlog aligning with the impact

Effective prioritization of features and bug fixes, considering their impact and revenue potential, is important in establishing and sustaining a successful product. Also, as a product owner/manager, one should always have data ready to justify the backlog and prioritisation to stakeholders so that everyone is aligned with the product vision and goal. This prioritisation is very crucial as it empowers the customer-facing teams including sales, presales and/or delivery orgs in performing their tasks with ease.

Also separate bug fixing from technical debt in the backlog and pay attention to working off the technical debt consistently before it becomes a roadblock to growth. Technical debt being the design or implementation decisions you made in the past, which while bug free are not the right thing for the longer term roadmap or growth. A large tech debt can become the reason you have increasing bugs as you try to shoe horn new features into an old infrastructure. Product managers and C level leaders may need education around the need to spend sprint cycles on reducing the debt rather than fixing bugs or adding features.

If you prioritize your backlog well, you will have bugs and product improvements scored in the same system. That means that you will always do what brings the most value, period. Bugs are usually underrated, as fixing them brings little value, but at the same time, this value is almost guaranteed. Any new feature or update will always be risky and you need not forget this. However, if you keep bugs pilling, the negative, compound effect on your product will be devastating. In this case, you can try the bucket approach, where any sprint has a certain capacity dedicated to different types of initiatives (new, updates, bugs, tech improvements, etc.).

Both bug fixes and feature enhancements all roll up into one list of “problems” to solve. Treat them as such. Your team will still need to sequence them as you do with any roadmap item. Bugs tend to get prioritized earlier since they are pains customers face *today*. This requires a strong understanding of your user problems and pains, the scope of the problem to solve, and the sense of urgency based on your product strategy. That will aid in triaging the items you collected as bugs or enhancements. For instance, understanding what is the issue at hand, how widespread the issue is, and why is it more important than X or Y among many other backlog strategies.

Before I started prioritizing the backlog, I would want to understand why so many bugs are ending up in production. With modern dev practices like CI/CD, the goal is to catch and fix issues early in the cycle, which should lead to less bugs. If bugs are regularly deployed to production, it is a symptom of deeper issues within the development process that need addressing, and fast. Now, onto prioritization. Approaches like MoSCoW, RICE, or Kano model are popular, but it is foolhardy to use frameworks when assumptions haven't been tested with users, and most items in the backlog are just unvalidated assumptions. Each backlog item should be scrutinized based on evidence, not just on theoretical impact or effort estimates.

This is "the" most essential part of agile development involves meticulous planning and grooming of tasks undertaken in development sprints, a responsibility that falls squarely on the shoulders of product managers. A product manager should have user data and insights to justify the need and priority of a feature or a bug to be taken in the upcoming sprint. For example, critical bugs affecting core functionality should take precedence over minor issues or non-essential features. It is also very important to have sprint retrospectives and sprint reports published at the end of each sprint to keep everyone apprised of the deliverables and spills. This also helps product managers and scrum owners to plan upcoming sprints in a better way.

From my experience, it is crucial to allocate a portion of the team's capacity for addressing critical production bugs during sprint planning. The team should reach a consensus on this allocation, taking into account various factors, such as new feature releases during the sprint. This approach guarantees that the team can continue to deliver regular features while also resolving critical production issues. Furthermore, it's important to note that resolving these bugs might occasionally take longer than anticipated, which may require some collaboration between the product manager, and the development team to adjust the priorities of the tasks assigned to the sprint.

You don’t have to use sprints to build software or deliver value. The sprint model, a part of Scrum, is only one methodologies. There are others like Kanban or Continuous Deployment that focus on fluid, ongoing delivery of value, aligning more with a customer-centric approach. If you opt for the sprint model, it's crucial to incorporate continuous discovery and QA processes into your planning. If your team is struggling to deliver quality, plan time to address technical debt. Technical debt, if left unchecked, can snowball into a monumental challenge that hinders quality and slows you down. Plan sprints that specifically target reducing technical debt, this will make future development easier and enhance overall product quality.

Balancing new features and bug fixes in product development is a nuanced task that requires careful alignment with stakeholders. One effective approach is to assign customer experience metrics to bugs, such as 'Feature Adoption Rate' or 'User Churn Rate,' to quantify their impact on the user experience. This provides a data-driven way to prioritize bugs alongside new features, facilitating more objective discussions with stakeholders. By linking bugs to specific customer experience outcomes, it becomes easier to align the development team and stakeholders on the importance of addressing quality issues, thereby ensuring a balanced focus and effective resource allocation.

Even though sprints may not always be required to develop products, it is the most popular approach in modern product development practices. Even though it is essential for the product team to plan sprints well to ensure product development proceeds smoothly, there might be a case to have some spare capacity set aside to address unforeseen bug fixes. This is essentially an outcome of the maturity of the product. Mature products are unlikely to encounter unforeseen bugs or glitches. However, for an evolving product with new features being churned out regularly, keeping aside some spare capacity during the sprint might ensure deliverables are ready as per the plan.

All of this is great, but won't necessarily help you balance features with bug fixes. Monitoring and measuring results are crucial, but you have to go beyond the performance metrics and delve deeper into understanding the issues that might be causing bugs or hindering feature adoption in the first place. A more holistic approach involves continuous discovery intertwined with these monitoring practices. It's about not just tracking the Net Promoter Score or Feature Adoption Rate, but understanding the 'why' behind the numbers. Engage with your customers, gather feedback, and understand their pain points. This will provide a richer context that can guide your decision-making process in addressing bugs versus adding new features.

Regularly assess the effectiveness of your approach by tracking KPIs related to product quality, user satisfaction, and development velocity. Use feedback from users, support teams, and other stakeholders to refine your prioritization and planning processes. It is crucial to adjust your strategy based on lessons learned and changing business priorities.

Most common issue in real life product development cycle and challenge become more tricky as in many instances product team/customer start adding enhancement request also as bugs/defects. In my experience working mostly on product and the tool/approach worked for me to address this situation is- 1. Clear product backlog in consultation with client product team 2. Clear technical debt backlog in consultation with client architects/technology team 3. Agreed defect backlog at the start of release. 4. X number of scope deviation on defects for example in 3 months release cycle, 10 defects top be fixed which will be picked in agile manner during development cycle. 5. Clearly articulated change management process 6. Clear communication

- Implement tracking mechanisms to measure the impact of released features and resolved bugs on user satisfaction and product performance. - Use data analytics to assess the effectiveness of your prioritization and sprint planning, identifying areas for improvement. - Regularly review key performance indicators (KPIs) and user feedback post-release, using insights to inform future development priorities and strategies.

When managing bugs, it's crucial to recognize that some directly impact key performance indicators (KPIs) like customer satisfaction and signups. These metrics reflect the real-world consequences of bug-related issues and should remain top of mind. Yet, it's important to remember that simply measuring the time it takes to resolve bugs or the sheer quantity of them doesn't provide the complete narrative. The qualitative impact on user experience and overall business outcomes often matters more than raw bug counts or turnaround times, emphasizing the need for a holistic perspective in bug management.

Balancing new features with bug fixes in product development requires careful prioritization. I focus on addressing critical bugs and usability issues first to maintain product quality, then allocate remaining resources to develop new features that align with our long-term vision, ensuring a balance between enhancing existing functionality and innovating for the future. Regular communication with the development team and user feedback helps inform these decisions.

Adapting and iterating begins with a constant feedback loop from users and a thorough evaluation of key metrics, such as those provided by the TARS framework. Once you have this feedback and data in hand, it's essential to adjust your product plans (even product roadmap). One valuable practice is conducting regular product reviews within a Product Trio (product manager, designer, and engineer). During these reviews, we assess our progress, review user feedback, and discuss how well the product aligns with our strategic goals. It's an opportunity to refine our plan and make necessary course corrections.

Within in a sprint, it is important to always be willing to adapt your plan and prioritize addressing critical customer and support-reported bugs that arise above new feature work. This is because when it comes down to brass tacks, the most important thing is maintaining customer satisfaction with the current product as-is, which is aided by a swift response to rectifying issues in existing features. Such an approach shows them that you care about their regular feedback and truly listen to the voice of the customer, which ultimately aids in retention and reputation.

In product development, adaptation and iteration are key to balancing new features and bug fixes. Here's the approach: Prioritize: Use data and user feedback to prioritize bugs based on impact. Critical fixes shouldn't block high-value features, but minor issues might wait for the next iteration. Embrace small, frequent updates: This allows for bug fixes to be addressed alongside new features, ensuring a stable product with fresh functionality. Learn from each cycle: Analyze post-release data to understand the impact of both features and fixes. This guides future prioritization and ensures a focus on continuous improvement.

Think of Backlog versus new features similar to what happens to sustain in an airplane where oxygen levels come down. The instruction that you get is- please wear your face mask before you help others. Fix just as many critical bugs that let you/your team survive and assess if you can help prioritise new features with remaining resources, if you are left with any.

By allocating a portion of bugs in every sprint along with new features. As product manager, one would need to make sure that every sprint should have a reserved quota for prioritized bugs to balance with new features.

Stay flexible and agile, ready to bust a move and adjust plans based on the ever-changing vibes from your customers, the market, and the business scene.

During your recent visit to Disney World, you may have encountered a few attractions that were temporarily out of service. However, delightful new attraction has just been unveiled! How does that make you feel? Enterprise grade products require zero tolerance to bugs. Make sure to have a clear SLA mechanism to solving these bugs, depending on their impact, severity and effort. It will make you slower - but it will increase customers and internal stakeholders trust in your product and overall satisfaction.

It doesn’t matter how well you balance new features vs bugs. You will be overwhelmed if you don’t build quality into your process at every stage from definition to delivery. Automation is also key to ensuring cost of quality and transaction costs are kept low which in turn promote faster flow of value. Of course bugs can never be eliminated fully, hence a certain percentage of capacity should be reserved for addressing critical bugs as well as applying root cause analysis to address systemic problems.